Infamous

by Joan Collins

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 who has made "The Skeffingtons" the most watched TV soap opera in America. She has money, fame, power, but her private life is in tatters. Newly divorced, with a son threatening to go off the rails, Katherine promises herself and her public that she will never marry again. But she underestimates the sheer isolation of being as famous as she is - a woman sought out by the wrong people for the wrong reasons and avoided by all the right people. Such isolation makes a woman vulnerable - especially to the wrong man. Joan Collins evokes the glamorous decade in which she emerged as a world superstar in "Dynasty". This novel is an engrossing and utterly realistic portrait of what it is like to be a woman with everything the world can offer - except the one thing she wants above someone who truly loves the real Katherine Bennet.From Library wearing her novelist's hat, here writes about what she knows trashy prime-time dramas, egotistical stars, and the fawning masses.From Kirkus —a perfectly publishable Hollywood glamour-soap...Teasing readers with the possibility of a roman à clef, Collins makes her heroine a TV superstar, one Katherine Bennet of The Skeffingtons, a successful prime-time soap about a "dysfunctional family" of southern California winemakers. Called Kitty by her friends and the "Georgia poison peach" by an adoring public, Katherine is the actress all America loves to loathe. But in Collins's version (reversing the actual casting on her own real-life, long-running show, Dynasty), Kitty is an American, though the parts of the other two major Skeffs are played by an older man with ego and toupee problems, and a blond costar (who isn't, naturally, Linda Evans), a nasty, silicone-enhanced former child star who's carrying on a secret mud-slinging publicity campaign against Kitty. Slogging through 14-hour days on the set, eating endless meals of tunafish and rice cakes to stay thin, Kitty negotiates her trials and tribulations with the help of her cellular phone and a huge personal agent, manager, publicist, secretary, maid, maid's husband, etc. Nightly, meanwhile, she bemoans the fact that, though famous, she's also loveless. So Katherine is easy pickings for the sexy sociopath she chooses to marry. How she eludes this homicidal husband (while wearing an 18th-century costume) as he pursues her through the predawn streets of Venice is a camp climax worthy of the Collins oeuvre, onscreen and off.....some interesting background on what happens behind the scenes of a TV series.Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection!

Genres: Chick Lit

265 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE is a Golden Globe Award-winning English actress and bestselling author.

Reviews

[Sara Latini]

I’ve never read anything so trashy in my whole life. 5 stars!!!!

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. Sad to say...but I don't really remember much about the book already. I rated it the same day that I finished it, but didn't document my review of it here at that time. Oh well.... I do remember though that I did find the author's writing style pretty good...actually better than I anticipated.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining!

[Summer Zee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Carol Gibbons · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really impressed with the book. Story line was okay. It was easy to read. No big surprises with this one.

[Merkhema Mc-farlane · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring and pointless

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. Finished in two days!!

[Courtney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as I thought it would be. The big reveal of Jean-Claude's past and its implications in his relationship with Katherine didn't come until the last forty pages or so, leaving the ending feeling rushed and incomplete.

Joan Collins is fond of using television show sets as the background of her novels and this one is no different. "The Skeffingtons" seems to be a reference to Dynasty and the Carringtons, and a barely disguised one at that.

Joan Collins is also fond of the put upon heroine trope. Katherine is no different, having to deal with envious co-stars, a loser ex-husband, and a difficult teenage child.

Then Katherine meets Jean-Claude, who sweeps her off her feet with tons of flash and charm. Of course, he turns out to be a total psycho, which is another trope that Ms. Collins is fond of.

All in all, this is an okay book. It won't win any awards for originality, and the writing isn't the greatest, but it is an enjoyable enough read.

[Abby Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

quick re-read of a trashy book - hollywood star with real life problems overcomes abusive husband and wins emmy! yay!

[Missy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was entertaining. It's a pretty light read.

Sent to a bookcrosser

[Nan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this book was terrible. I turn to Joan for a light fun read and this was not it. I found it to be boring and unimaginative. Very disappointing.