American Star was published by Simon & Schuster in 1993, a standalone novel rather than part of the Santangelo or Hollywood series, and it represents Collins’s most sustained attempt to write a serious rags-to-riches narrative in the American tradition.
Nick Angelo grows up in abusive poverty, escapes through physical beauty and raw charisma, and eventually becomes one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. But Collins is not interested in a simple success story: Nick’s rise is accompanied by moral compromise, by the exploitation of women who love him, and by the gradual erosion of the qualities that made him attractive in the first place. Fame does not save Nick; it finishes what poverty began.
The novel is structured as dual narrative — alternating between Nick’s story and that of Lauren Roberts, the woman he loved and abandoned in his youth, whose parallel life provides both contrast and eventual convergence. Collins uses this structure to explore how the same events look different from different perspectives, and how the damage men inflict on women reverberates across decades.
American Star debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list, confirming Collins’s position as one of the most commercially successful novelists of her era.
Collecting American Star
First edition (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1993): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $10–$25
- Without jacket: $3–$8