Lucky
By Jackie Collins
Lucky is a story of unbridled passion, sex in a mafiadom, subtlety,
suspense and crime as authored by no other than the irrepressible Jackie
Collins in 1985. When you close your eyes and dwell on life of violence, cocaine, sex, crime and other vices, you’ll agree with me that this novel is a page-turner.
The story dwells on the secret lives of the rich, their offsprings and the celebrities and hard-boiled characters in the United States of America still reeling under the quick grip of vices from the diminishing mafia world. It was in this novel of rich art which is unputdownable until the last page that the phrase like father, like daughter was first used. Everything must be done to win even if it warrants
killing and stealing a national security uniform to execute an illegal job of saving a life dear to the protagonist in the novel.
Just like the title of the novel says, Lucky Santangelo is the only daughter of one of the world’s richest and the most powerful men Gino Santangelo.
When Gino Lucky’s father ran foul of the constitution of the USA with his sleazy mafia deals and had to leave the USA for Italy where his forebears had come from, Lucky came down to accepting the responsibilities of running his vast fortune in the hospitality industry.
But before Gino left, he lost his gay son in another vendetta shooting in a hotel after meeting with him to take up his responsibility of running his investments and businesses as his first born and son. Mr. Gino had earlier lost his wife to this kind of vendetta killing spree from the hands of his enemies who battled with him for supremacy. As soon as he left on exile, Lucky took over his businesses fighting everybody using everything at her disposal to achieve success and the upper hand.
She fought on every front and won the heart of the fabulously rich Greek man Dimitri Stanislopoulos and ended up becoming the mother of his only son and later, inheriting his wealth when he died as a result of the heartaches he suffered over the loss of his actress mistress in an air mishap aboard his Lear jet while on a shopping spree for their wedding.
At every setting, order of expectations in the mind of a reader keeps changing in this suspense-filled great work of art.
Lucky’s biggest challenge in the novel then became Santino Bonnatti, the son of her godfather whom she shot dead for authorizing the killing of her brother and told the court she did so in self-defence while he was bent on raping her. Lucky was blackmailing everybody with every tool at her disposal to get her way in life as it has to do with being the owner of her own hotel. This she achieved by using pregnancy over Dimitri who promised and fulfilled her ambition and dream of being a hotel owner
In the end, Lucky got married to Lennie Golden – a stand-up comedian whom she had rebuffed his overtures in the early plots of the novel.
This is a must-read.