All the Stars in the Heavens

Blair Brown's acting talents are brought center stage in her performance of this fictionalized account of the relationship between Loretta Young and Clark Gable, which began during the filming of CALL OF THE WILD in 1935. Woven throughout Young's story is that of Alda Ducci, an imagined personal secretary for the actress. Underlying Brown's animated narration is a subtle emotional tension, and the layered performance highlights the laughter and tears, loves and disappointments in Loretta's and Alda's lives. Many famous people appear in the audiobook, and Brown wisely refrains from impersonations, although each character is given a distinct voice, including a believable accent when appropriate. Listeners will be as caught up in Loretta's lively family and star-crossed romances as they are in Alda's more down-to-earth perspective. C.B.L. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

September 14, 2015
Trigiani’s newest fictionalizes Loretta Young’s life, both through her eyes and those of an invented personal secretary, whose closeness with the actress ties the narrative threads together. The author’s (The Shoemaker’s Wife) impeccable research and lush writing style recreates a plausible day-to-day look into the actress’s life as a staunch Catholic living and working in Hollywood, beginning in the days of the Hays Code of 1930, which imposed strict moral rules on film content. The focus is on Young’s close relationship with her mother and sisters, her affair with Spencer Tracy, her close friendship with David Niven, and most of all, her rumored romance with the married Clark Gable while shooting The Call of the Wild on location, as well as the extraordinary measures she went through to hide the subsequent pregnancy at a time when adultery and a child out of wedlock destroyed careers. Trigiani mines her own Italian roots with the character Alda Ducci, a young woman with her own secrets, who, as Loretta’s secretary and friend, navigates the trials of love and fame with her. Eminently readable and richly imagined, Trigiani’s latest will thrill her fans and surely collect new ones.

October 1, 2015

The year is 1933 and the career of movie star Loretta Young is booming nearly as much as the film industry that created her. She is one of the anointed, an A-list leading lady who is regularly cast opposite Hollywood heartthrobs such as Cary Grant and Franchot Tone. Armed with devout Catholicism and a morals clause, the actress fends off serious involvement with these irresistible--and often married--leading men, a resolve that lasts until she meets 34-year-old Clark Gable on the set of The Call of the Wild. The married Gable falls hard for the 21-year-old actress and she with him, igniting a silver screen mythos that survives to this day. VERDICT In this historical novel, best-selling author and filmmaker Trigiani re-creates the golden age of Hollywood with the same rich, sumptuous detail that distinguished The Shoemaker's Wife. Her ability to breathe life into the luminous cast of characters, which includes Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, David Niven, and Carole Lombard, will captivate readers, then have them scouring Netflix for film classics of the 1930s. A tinsel-trimmed treat for movie buffs and Trigiani fans alike. [See Prepub Alert, 4/13/15.]--Jeanne Bogino, New Lebanon Lib., NY

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2015

This latest from Trigiani draws on the real-life affair of Loretta Young and Clark Gable, who met while filming The Call of the Wild and launched a passionate affair despite his marriage and a telling age difference--she was a green 21, just learning how to make her way through the thickets of the movie business, while he was already an assured star of 34. Meanwhile, a young woman named Alda who has been forced to leave the convent becomes Young's personal assistant and struggles to hold fast to the strong moral code imparted to her by her Italian family. With a 200,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2017

Costars Loretta Young and Clark Gable sustained a flirtation on the set of the 1935 film Call of the Wild. Young was almost two decades Gable's junior--and unattached, while Gable was married. Their onscreen chemistry didn't translate to offscreen happiness, and an unplanned pregnancy threatened the stars' careers. With the help of Alda, a former nun, who is now Young's private secretary, Young conceals her pregnancy and her child and ultimately succeeds in the studio system. VERDICT This vivid evocation of Old Hollywood captures the silver screen's golden age. For more about Gable's forbidden love affairs, check out Kate Alcott's A Touch of Stardust. (LJ 10/1/15)

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2015
A novice nun suddenly finds herself dismissed from her convent and swept up into the heady world of Hollywood's golden age. Alda Ducci did nothing to merit exile from St. Elizabeth's Infant Hospital, a haven for unwed mothers. Indeed, Alda has worked very hard these past six years: six years of helping unwed mothers give up their babies. Six years since she fled Italy with heartaches and secrets of her own. But her mother superior is convinced that Alda can never let go of her dreams to help these poor women, so she sends her out into the world to become a private secretary to actress Loretta Young. The shift from poverty to luxury jars Alda, as well as the reader, although she endeavors to see the spiritual mission beneath the glamour. Loretta welcomes Alda into her family and her home, which she shares with her three sisters and her mother, Gladys, a talented interior designer and shrewd businesswoman. Within days, Alda has become indispensable to Loretta, and the two women bond to form an indomitable team, although Loretta steals nearly every scene. Dashing men, starry-eyed ingenues, jealous spouses-all the players are well-cast as Alda helps Loretta negotiate the studio system, the Hays Code, and thwarted romances. Loretta works hard, not simply studying her lines, but often rewriting them into a code her dyslexia understands. Yet she can't help but fall in love with her every leading man. Drawn to Spencer Tracy, Loretta must lean heavily upon her Catholic faith-and friend David Niven's humor-to avoid temptation. Clark Gable proves even more difficult to resist. Trigiani (The Supreme Macaroni Company, 2013, etc.), a filmmaker as well as a bestselling novelist, spins a tale of star-crossed lovers, yet the rather flat prose dims the glow of the silver screen. A heartwarming tale of women's lives behind the movies.

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September 1, 2015
After completing her Valentine trilogy, Trigiani (The Supreme Macaroni Company, 2013) sets her sights on Hollywood's Golden Age, which was fueled by the star system and close monitoring of actors' public and private lives by the dictatorial studios. While love affairs between cast members were often faked as publicity stunts, the one that blossomed between rising leading man Clark Gable and dewy-eyed ingenue Loretta Young was no illusion. The pregnancy that resulted, however, needed to be treated as one, for Gable was married, and Young's career would have been destroyed. With the help of her trusted secretary, Alda, and her close-knit family, Young plotted an elaborate ruse to keep her daughter's paternity a secret, all the while hoping that Gable would get a divorce and make their family whole. Based on the true story of one of Hollywood's most enigmatic love affairs, Trigiani's mesmerizing account of Young's tenacity and grace teems with backstage lore and gossip, making it a must-read for fans of Hollywood's classic movies and the legends of the silver screen.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)