Infamous [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Joan Collins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1996

Multi-talented superstar Joan Collins returns with her most stunning novel yet--a portrait of one Hollywood icon's triumph over forces threatening both her personal and professional life. Katherine Bennet is the star of the most popular prime-time soap on television, and she has just fallen for the man of her dreams--or so she believes.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

She's back. In the recent court battle between Collins and Random House, the jury found that Collins had turned in a "complete" manuscript and so could keep her $1.2 million advance. The jury didn't have to decide if the novel was "acceptable," the more stringent criterion most authors contractually face. Dutton, however, has decided that Collins's newest novel, for which it contracted in the spring of 1995, is not only complete but acceptable-but for what? Perhaps for hitting bestsellers lists, by surfing the publicity wave lifted by the trial; certainly not for claiming literary merit. The book, based at least in part on Collins's own life, is a howler. The heroine is Katherine Bennet, star of the prime-time soap The Skeffingtons; the time frame is the late 1980s. Katherine has a host of problems. She must cope with a rummy ex-husband and a rebellious son who's a bit of a jailbird. Though beloved by a nice-guy scriptwriter, she falls hard for a cad of a Frenchman who chases other women, including her on-screen rival, once an abused child. Lurid back-stories pass for plot, and the prose is equally beyond the fringe: "She had curly carrot hair that reminded Barney of the strawberry milkshakes he sorely missed"; "A man with a face like a hungry dog, and a thick ginger toupee, like a dead cat, perched on his head." Collins was dynamite playing villainess Alexis Carrington on Dynasty, but in her latest stab at playing a writer, she flubs nearly every line. Major ad/ promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Collins, wearing her novelist's hat, here writes about what she knows best: trashy prime-time dramas, egotistical stars, and the fawning masses.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 514 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Pr; Lrg edition (June 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786206926
• ISBN-13: 978-0786206926
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,008,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An instant classic, March 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Infamous (Paperback)

I am not a fan of romance novels, and I cannot read anything by Joan's sister Jackie. Joan Collins though taught me what great writing is all about. To live, to love, to eat gourmet food all while living a life of fame and secrecy...it blew me away. The words flowed like honey from the page and took my breath away. I could only hope to approach Joan's writing style with my own meager attempts at prose. All this, and the woman acts too! Joan Collins is a spectacular writer and one of the best we have writing today. Joan is so great, she confounds the experts. She is YEARS ahead of her time, which is why she had that trouble in court. They didn't get her and she didn't yeild...a true artist and a great inspiration to all writers.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a classic work, July 6, 1999

By A Customer

Margret Meed of "Gone with the Wind" fame, watch out...you have met your match and her name is COllins. This woman has come a long way from staring in an episode of "Star Trek", but she draws on her youth and experience to outshine her famous sister in prose. The real talent in the family all belongs to Joan, the other is but a shadow of the former's talent. Joan paints charaters the way Van Gogh painted portraits. Her colors blend to form a lush landscape inhabited by facinating charcters in spellbinding outfits. If Romanace has a name, she has known it. Collin's isn't afraid to tackle the deep questions of life's meaning: love, death, betrayal, and money. If I could live out the drama penned by this talent, I could die a happy person. All we lack if the film of this masterpeice for life to be complete!!! Maybe she will star in it too!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars simply the best, February 21, 2000

By 

Anne O. (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Infamous (Paperback)

a wonderful book from a woman who has learned from her years what life and love can be. I can think of no greater author this century than Joan for capturing life in a phrase, a smile in a word, or an experience in a sentence. Joan has written the way women long to live, full of passion and verve, always looking for the miracle man to sweep us away. Don't bother with Goethe for classic literature. He couldn't hold a candle to her. Joan captures the psyche of women like Freud never could. A must read for all.