- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Robson Books Ltd; New edition edition (July 14 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1861056249
- ISBN-13: 978-1861056245
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 399 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
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 na‹ve 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 pass‚ feel. Derivative of just about everything-Moll Flanders, The Godfather, Funny Girl, Valley of the Dolls-it even has Bugs Bunny gangsters ("Yeah, boss, yeah, good idea"). For readers who make it to the closing curtain of this sprawling camp extravaganza, the ultimate message-while years and fashions may be different, "nothing changes"-will come as no surprise.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Millie McClancey, a feisty, redheaded maid in an English manor house during World War I, knows that her future will be onstage after seeing her first revue in the gritty music halls of London. With the support of young master Toby, who encouraged her budding skills as a singer, Millie makes a name for herself in small London clubs, and soon becomes the quintessential flapper, the fantasy of every male, the idol of every female. But Toby is the only man she loves. When he promises to marry her, she sleeps with him and becomes pregnant--only to learn that he wants nothing to do with her. Millie's daughter, Vickie, becomes the second generation to make it big, lighting up the 1940s silver screen. Both women are seen as fast and loose, but their exploits usher in a new age of female independence, and the third generation--Vickie's daughter, Lulu, rising to fame during the drug-crazed 1980s--is no exception. Collins' depiction of the mood of each era is on point, and she embroiders the starlets' cliched stories with intriguing characters and revenge-seeking enemies. A delicious romp sure to charm fans of easy and even sleazy reading. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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The highly polished brass doorknocker was molded in the shape of a lion's head. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Lack of Star Quality,
By A Customer
This review is from: Star Quality (Mass Market Paperback)
I read this book hoping that it would be a wonderful generational saga like Barbara Taylor Bradford's books or Judith Krantz or even her sister's books, full of juicy details of the roaring twenties, theatre and Hollywood in it's heyday. What I got instead was the literary equivalent of gruel.How is it possible for Joan Collins, a British subject, not to know that the daughter of a Duke, is styled a Lady not an Honorable? Or that Bugsy Siegal didn't start building his hotel in Vegas till the late forties? This book was full of cliche's, thin characterization, and bad dialogue. The purported villainess of the piece spends most of the book unseen, only to pop up occasionally like the proverbial bad penny. If this book had come over the transom without a famous name attached, it would not even have published. Ms. Collins would do well to stick to what she knows.
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Beach Book,
By Herbert Boomhower (Chesapeake, VA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Star Quality (Mass Market Paperback)
OK, so, as one reviewer said, this is a no-brainer book and we need that sometimes.Predictable...yes, but this book has enough twists and turns and even an occasional surprise to actually make you want to continue to the next chapter to see "What happens next?" As I titled it, "A Beach Book," a book to enjoy along with the sand and surf.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable popular genre romp,
By
This review is from: Star Quality: A Novel (Hardcover)
A number of the reviews below have been very critical of this novel and of Joan Collins's writing abilities. First things first: JC can write very well and very wittily - read her entertaining, thrice-yearly diary pieces in UK magazine "The Spectatator" and her wonderfully enjoyable second volume of autobiography "Second Act" if you need proof of that. Secondly, let's just keep in mind that "Star Quality" is not meant to be anything more than it is: popular fiction. We all need "no-brainer" books sometimes. Yes, the story is fairly predictable (although I would never have predicted the lesbian angle - credit where it's due people!), and, yes, the whole thing does read a little like a treatment for a glossy miniseries, and, yes, there are a few gaping holes (I would have thought specific details given early in the book about a birth certificate could have prevented a later development involving incest, for example), but all the same the book is diverting, enjoyable fun and I think that is all it is was meant to be.
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