“First lust, then love.”
September 20, 2015 11:17 AM Subscribe
Jackie Collins, Novelist Who Wrote of Hollywood’s Glamorous Side, Dies at 77 [New York Times]
Jackie Collins, the best-selling British-born author known for her vibrant novels about the extravagance and glamour of life in Hollywood, died on Saturday in Los Angeles. She was 77. The cause was breast cancer, her family said in a statement.
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posted by foodbedgospel at 11:42 AM on September 20, 2015
posted by foodbedgospel at 11:42 AM on September 20, 2015
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posted by Michele in California at 11:55 AM on September 20, 2015
posted by Michele in California at 11:55 AM on September 20, 2015
I read a Jackie Collins novel once, because I was in small-town Japan and it was the only thing I could find in English.
I remember nothing about it, but damn, it was engrossing.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:05 PM on September 20, 2015 [4 favorites]
I remember nothing about it, but damn, it was engrossing.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:05 PM on September 20, 2015 [4 favorites]
I was sort of charmed by the list of titles in this sentence: In 2001, for instance, she published “Hollywood Wives: The New Generation,” which followed “Hollywood Wives,” “Hollywood Husbands,” “Hollywood Kids” and “Hollywood Divorces.”
On some level, I suppose it was the death of literature, but I appreciate her willingness to follow a theme as far as it led.
(Also, is it wrong of me that I kind of want to see MetaFilter Spouses, MetaFilter Spouses: User Numbers above 50000, and MetaFilter Mods?)
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posted by GenjiandProust at 12:11 PM on September 20, 2015 [5 favorites]
On some level, I suppose it was the death of literature, but I appreciate her willingness to follow a theme as far as it led.
(Also, is it wrong of me that I kind of want to see MetaFilter Spouses, MetaFilter Spouses: User Numbers above 50000, and MetaFilter Mods?)
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posted by GenjiandProust at 12:11 PM on September 20, 2015 [5 favorites]
Awww. I was one of those precocious young readers who had read every book in the house multiple times and usually devoured the stack of library books faster than an adult could find time to take us back. One at a time, I would illicitly nick the verboten Collins and a plethora of interchangeable Harlequin romance books from Grandma's nightstand, stay up all night reading them in my closet, and in the morning sneak them back.
I may not remember details or plots, but those illicit reads started clueing me in to the new squirmy feelings in my pink bits and formed the basis of my love for dirty language and trashy airport novels.
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posted by romakimmy at 12:14 PM on September 20, 2015 [10 favorites]
I may not remember details or plots, but those illicit reads started clueing me in to the new squirmy feelings in my pink bits and formed the basis of my love for dirty language and trashy airport novels.
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posted by romakimmy at 12:14 PM on September 20, 2015 [10 favorites]
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(Also: MetaFilter Disabled Accounts.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:14 PM on September 20, 2015 [6 favorites]
(Also: MetaFilter Disabled Accounts.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:14 PM on September 20, 2015 [6 favorites]
Romance fans and writers... what did she change in the genre? Anywhere worth starting in her oeurve?
posted by gregglind at 12:18 PM on September 20, 2015
posted by gregglind at 12:18 PM on September 20, 2015
Hollywood Wives, chapter one:
"Elaine Conti awoke in her luxurious bed in her luxurious Beverly Hills mansion, pressed a button to open the electrically-controlled drapes, and was confronted by the sight of a young man clad in a white T-shirt and dirty jeans pissing a perfect arc into her mosaic-tiled swimming pool."
Now that's how you start a novel.
posted by roger ackroyd at 12:20 PM on September 20, 2015 [23 favorites]
"Elaine Conti awoke in her luxurious bed in her luxurious Beverly Hills mansion, pressed a button to open the electrically-controlled drapes, and was confronted by the sight of a young man clad in a white T-shirt and dirty jeans pissing a perfect arc into her mosaic-tiled swimming pool."
Now that's how you start a novel.
posted by roger ackroyd at 12:20 PM on September 20, 2015 [23 favorites]
I think the only Jackie Collins book I've ever read is Rock Star, which I read the summer I was 15. I was stuck in a town where I couldn't get a library card, and the person I was staying with only had Jackie Collins and Danielle Steele books. I remember it being seriously smutty, and now I want to go back and reread it to find out whether it really was pornographic or whether I was just a prudish teenager.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:34 PM on September 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:34 PM on September 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
💋
posted by clavdivs at 12:53 PM on September 20, 2015 [13 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 12:53 PM on September 20, 2015 [13 favorites]
For a precocious pre-teen reader Jackie Collins' books were right up there with the V.C. Andrews' Flowers in the Attic series, and Jean M. Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear series. My 11 & 12 year old self thanks her for all the good times.
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posted by Cuke at 1:31 PM on September 20, 2015 [10 favorites]
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posted by Cuke at 1:31 PM on September 20, 2015 [10 favorites]
My aunt would send my mom trashy romance novels, and they'd sit in the basement unread. Until they appeared under my bed and were then read by adolescent me. I still remember sentences from *The Stud*. No doubt it'd seem tame if I read it today. But it was pretty great then.
posted by persona au gratin at 1:33 PM on September 20, 2015
posted by persona au gratin at 1:33 PM on September 20, 2015
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posted by cotton dress sock at 1:58 PM on September 20, 2015
posted by cotton dress sock at 1:58 PM on September 20, 2015
I remember her genra described as "shopping and fucking" novels.
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posted by Bee'sWing at 2:14 PM on September 20, 2015
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posted by Bee'sWing at 2:14 PM on September 20, 2015
Up until Collins came around, smutty novels weren't really all that...discussed in polite company . Gael Greene's "Blue Skies, No Candy," for instance, was mainstream, but a little embarrassing. Collins wrapped all that up in a Hollywood package that somehow made it more like celebrity voyeurism than something personal, if that makes sense. This is, of course, more my own interpretation of reading all this stuff in the 80s.
posted by xingcat at 2:47 PM on September 20, 2015
posted by xingcat at 2:47 PM on September 20, 2015
Her shtick was whether any of her characters were based on real people. That was all the media cared about when her career went orbital in the 80s. Just another relic from an age where being a self absorbed narcissist was considered cool and confident, just like Gecko, Ferris, and Trump. Whew, sure am glad we're past that now!
posted by Beholder at 2:49 PM on September 20, 2015
posted by Beholder at 2:49 PM on September 20, 2015
and the person I was staying with only had Jackie Collins and Danielle Steele books.
Shit. Now I can't remember whether the book I read was actually by Jackie Collins, or whether it was Danielle Steele. It was about rich, attractive people having lots of sex, if that helps.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:07 PM on September 20, 2015
Shit. Now I can't remember whether the book I read was actually by Jackie Collins, or whether it was Danielle Steele. It was about rich, attractive people having lots of sex, if that helps.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:07 PM on September 20, 2015
Collins, definitely Collins. Steele is horrible with sexy times. Collins' novels seemed to revel in the jiggly and treated it equally with the wealth signifiers and actions. Steele would create dramatic ponderous frames for her romances e.g., character swept up in some historical tide like the Russian revolution. I found Steele's stuff a weird form of Cliff Notes to to greater novels. Collins liked it simple, gaudy and oh so, sweaty.
posted by jadepearl at 9:20 PM on September 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by jadepearl at 9:20 PM on September 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
* (for Hollywood)
Anyone know how Judith Krantz is doing? I'm worried.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:59 PM on September 20, 2015
Anyone know how Judith Krantz is doing? I'm worried.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:59 PM on September 20, 2015
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posted by Fizz at 11:21 AM on September 20, 2015