Jackie Collins’ book dynasty
The ‘Duchess of Dirty Books’ returns with ‘Married Lovers’ — critics be damned
Power. Lust. Beauty. Murder. Take those four words and add or subtract others such as “blackmail,” “desire,” “divorce,” “sex” and “intrigue,” and you would pretty much have a Jackie Collins novel. In fact, you would probably have around all 26 of them.
From “Lovers & Players,” “The Stud” and “The World is Full of Married Men,” to her latest, “Married Lovers,” Collins has perfected a distinct formula that has kept her audience hooked throughout her 40-year career (not one of her books has ever been out of print). So who cares if the critics hate her? Collins doesn’t.
“My biggest critics are people who have never read me. They think it’s all sex and raunch,” Collins intones in a breathy British accent from her home in (where else?) Beverly Hills, 90210.
“I’m not a literary writer,” she continues, without a hint of irony. “I’m a street writer. I’m a story teller. If it was 100 years ago, I would be sitting around a campfire, saying ‘Hi. I’m Jackie, and I have a story to tell you.’”
But this campfire would have to be for adults only. “Married Lovers,” (St. Martins, $27) is the story of the beautiful Cameron Paradise — Collins has no ugly or fat heroines. As she says simply, “I’m surrounded by beautiful people and I write what I know.” Paradise is a personal trainer with a dubious past who meets up with Ryan Lambert, a handsome independent movie producer. They fall in mutual lust. The problem: Lambert’s wife, the privileged Mandy, and her blockbuster producing father, Hamilton J. Heckerling. Throughout the book, a litany of other juicy, Jackielicious roadblocks pop up, but we can’t give away all the scandal-ocity. What would be the fun?
And Jackie Collins is indeed having fun. “Everything I write is based on the truth. But I have to tone it down. God, if I told the real stories!” she exclaims. “It’s all so bizarre. Really, people who read all of these gossip rags are only getting the tip of the story.”