STAR QUALITY
Joan Collins, . . Hyperion, $23.95 (368pp) ISBN 978-1-4013-0000-5
Like mother, like daughter, like granddaughter—the notion of history repeating itself functions as both plot frame and theme in Collins's latest novel, a multigenerational saga that spans a century of family triumphs and tragedies set against the backdrop of the ever-changing entertainment industry. Millie McClancey is just a naïve Irish lass when, having been compromised by a roguish nobleman, she takes to England's music hall stages, wowing London and New York. In the 1940s, Millie's illegitimate and far more sophisticated daughter, Vickie, becomes a Hollywood sensation. And Vickie's wild child, Lulu, becomes a supermodel in the '80s before turning to the soaps. Through it all, most of their misfortunes may be attributed to Patsy, an enemy Millie made in her youth, and Patsy's grudge-carrying descendants. Like overteased hairstyles and television programs about oil barons, this benign offering has a passé feel. Derivative of just about everything—
Reviewed on: 09/09/2002
Genre: Fiction
Hardcover - 508 pages - 978-0-7540-1911-4
Hardcover - 509 pages - 978-0-7862-4694-6
Hardcover - 508 pages - 978-0-7540-9274-2
Mass Market Paperbound - 368 pages - 978-0-7868-9048-4
Mass Market Paperbound - 368 pages - 978-0-7868-9064-4