Tag Archives: All The Stars in Heaven

Friday Book Whimsy: Kiss Carlo

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Novels by author Adriana Trigiani are always eagerly anticipated by this reader. I’ve been reading this prolific novelist’s works since the very beginning, with her Big Stone Gap novels. I loved the four Big Stone Gap novels because they had two things going for them  — they took place in Appalachia and they are about an Italian family.

I’m not Italian, but I think I was in a previous life.

Having said all of the above, I have been very disappointed in her last few novels. The Valentine series wore thin, with The Supreme Macaroni Company falling flat on its face. I found All of the Stars in Heaven to have an interesting premise, but was somewhat disappointed at the writing.

Still, as soon as Kiss Carlo was released, I read the book. With great gladness, I liked everything about it. Everything perhaps, except for the title, which never quite made sense to me. Nevertheless, I loved this book.

The story takes place following World War II, when south Philadelphia – along with the rest of the United States – was booming. The men were back from fighting, the GI bill and VA loans were making education and home ownership possible. Nicky Castone is sharing in the glory.

Nicky was left an orphan by the death of his mother and father when he was just a young boy. He was taken in and lovingly cared for by his aunt and uncle, who own a thriving cab/telegraph company in south Philly. Nicky drives one of the cabs, but secretly dreams of being an actor. He volunteers his time as a reader at a dying Shakespearean theater nearby. The theater is run by the beautiful and spirited Calla Borelli.

Nicky soon finds that these dreams are important enough that he moves away from the nest to New York City to become and actor in the early days of television. Will Nicky find his dream? Will the dream change him?

The novel is an amusing romp, and despite the fact that there are a lot of quotes from Shakespeare and some of the story lines parallel Shakespeare’s plays, the book is just plain fun. (Not that Shakespeare isn’t, mind you!) The dialogue is quick and clever and reminded of me of being around Italians during our visit to Europe in 2008. The conversations strike me as realistic and honest.

I recommend the novel.

Here is a link to the book.

Friday Book Whimsy: The Hollywood Daughter

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Author Kate Alcott tells a beautiful story of mother and daughter relationships set against the glamour of 1950s Hollywood and the darkness of the McCarthy years in this interesting and intelligent novel, The Hollywood Daughter.

I’m kind of an easy date when it comes to stories about Hollywood, much as I try to act like a grown-up reader. Last year I read All the Stars in the Heavens by Adriana Trigiani, which is a novel about the love affairs between Loretta Young and Clark Gable. I ate it up like an ice cream cone on a hot day. So when I came across The Hollywood Daughter, it was a given that I would read this novel that ties closely to Hollywood legend Ingrid Bergman’s controversial relationship with Roberto Rossellini. Controversial at the time, that is. Nowadays it would be quite a ho-hum relationship.

Jessica Malloy is a young girl at the beginning of the novel, the daughter of a Hollywood publicist for actress Ingrid Bergman. Jessica’s mother is distant and apparently clinically depressed, since she spends much of the novel in bed. In the absence of her mother, Jessica feels a connection to Bergman, who appears to have it all going for her. The connection isn’t just something Jessica dreams of; in fact, because she goes to a fancy-dancy school in Beverly Hills and Bergman’s daughter is on the carpool list, and because Jessica’s father is Bergman’s publicist, Jessica actually gets to know the actress.

Years go by and Bergman disappoints her devoted fans by falling in love with Rossellini, getting pregnant with his child, divorcing her husband and moving to Italy. At the same time, Senator McCarthy’s hearings begin and everyone is looking at everyone else, wondering just who are the bad guys. The atmosphere directly impacts Jessica’s father and their family dynamics.

It was fun to get some historical perspective of the times through the eyes of Jessica, from a small girl up until young adulthood. The background about Bergman was interesting, especially given just how the times compare to today’s Hollywood goings-on.

The Hollywood Daughter was a fun read and an interesting historical perspective.

Here is a link to the book.

Friday Book Whimsy: All the Stars in Heaven

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searchI think it’s fun to imagine the way Hollywood was in its glory days of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s – the days of rolled hair and perfectly drawn bowed lips lush with red lipstick. The days when stars were loyal to their movie studios and cognizant of being role models to their fans.  When movies almost always had happy endings.

That’s what I liked best about All the Stars in Heaven by Adriana Trigiani. Her novel painted a picture of Hollywood as it once was, which is very different from the way Hollywood is today.

Trigiani’s books sort of run the gamut. Her Stone Gap novels take place in the mountains of Virginia. Some of her books take place mostly in Italy. She writes of family and food and romance. She has written books aimed at teens. She has written nonfiction books about eating and cooking with her large Italian family.

But as far as I know All the Stars in Heaven is the first time she’s tackled a novel about real-life people.

All the Stars in Heaven tells the story of Loretta Young and her relationship with Clark Gable. It is fact that Young had an affair with Gable while they were filming The Call of the Wild in 1935. It is also fact that Young had a child from this relationship. Since studios would have nothing to do with stars who committed adultery (or at least stars whose fan’s found out about the adultery), Young had to keep the baby a secret. She had the baby quietly, placed her in an orphanage until the baby was a year-and-a-half, and then brought the baby home, telling the world that she was adopted.

All the Stars in Heaven follows her story quite accurately, if Wikipedia is to be believed (though apparently in real life Young later said she had been date-raped by Gable and the novel makes no mention of that allegation). What the novel DOES make mention of are wonderful stories about some of the movie stars of old. It’s kind of like reading a movie magazine that was published in 1950.

urlI knew very little about Loretta Young, though I remember her from her television show that ran in the late 1950s and early 1960s. And I remember that she was lovely. Spectacularly beautiful, in fact.  I didn’t know, for example, that she was a devout Roman Catholic her entire life. And if the novel accurately portrays Young, she also had a long-time friendship with Spencer Tracy.

See what I mean? Lots of juicy move star facts. Myrna Loy. David Niven. Carole Lombard.

Trigiani presents a fictional character – Young’s longtime secretary and friend Alda – who, in my opinion, really adds nothing to the story. I don’t quite understand why the author felt the need for this character.

All things considered, I enjoyed the book very much. It is perhaps not the best thing Trigiani has written, but it was sort of like standing in line at the grocery store and quietly paging through OK Magazine.

It was a fun read.

Here is a link to the book.

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