Tony's Wife

September 15, 2018
When Chi Chi Donatelli gave famous crooner Saverio Armandonada a manicure on a 1930s New Jersey beach, little did she know that the swanky singer would change her life.After his childhood sweetheart married another man, Saverio left the security of his job on the factory line in Detroit, earning his father's disapproval but opening wide the door to success as a big-band singer. Along his way to stardom, Saverio changed his name to Tony Arma and discovered a talent for romancing--but never marrying--the ladies. But once he meets Chi Chi, his bachelor days are numbered. From a large, boisterous Italian family, Chi Chi is eager to have a life like Tony's, with the freedom to sing and travel the country. She wants no part of marriage with its shackles. Soon Chi Chi and Tony are touring together, eventually developing a profitable shtick, with Chi Chi writing bestselling songs and Tony serenading them to dreamy audiences. It's only a matter of time before Tony proposes. After all, unlike his other girls, Chi Chi offers Tony not only beauty and charm, but also the stability of a home. The lovers' work in the entertainment industry gives way to a marriage blessed with babies yet held apart by war. Once reunited, Chi Chi's independence and Tony's philandering further fracture their marriage. But as Tony's path wends from woman to woman, Chi Chi forges a new life on her own terms. A mistress of the sweeping family saga, bestselling author Trigiani (Kiss Carlo, 2017, etc.) sets Chi Chi and Tony's lifelong love affair against the grand stage of World War II through the postwar boom years and the women's liberation movement, tracing a society catching up with Chi Chi's determination to control her own financial and personal freedom.A heartfelt tale of love too stubborn to surrender to human frailties.

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November 1, 2018
In 1932 Detroit, 16-year-old Saverio Armandonada tells his old man that factory life isn't enough and that he wants to pursue a career in music. Six years later, he's at Sea Isle City on the Jersey Shore when he meets Chi Chi Donatelli, an ambitious songwriter with a loud, supportive family. They drift in and out of each other's lives for years until Chi Chi auditions to be the "girl singer" for the Paul Godfrey Orchestra, alongside Tony Arma, aka Saverio. Tony continues to admire her spunk and her smarts?she renegotiated her family's mortgage after her father died, for one?but he has a little bit of a showgirl problem. Though they eventually marry, this is not a conventional love story. Instead, it's the tale of a Jersey Girl who rails against a society that expects her to be dependent on a man and the one man she loves but cannot depend on. Like Trigiani's (Kiss Carlo, 2017) best work, Tony's Wife is an immersive experience, with well-rounded, warm characters, pre-WWII fashion, Jersey accents, and homemade pasta. Moving and delightful.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

November 15, 2018

Saverio Armandonada (later Tony Arma) and Chi Chi Donatelli meet in the 1930s, when they're both two young musicians on fire to change the world through music, and maybe give their own dreams a boost in the process. Trigiani (All the Stars in the Heavens) follows the idealistic pair through several decades of change in the American music scene. "Tony's wife" is a bit of a misnomer, as the strength of the book is Chi Chi's story, but Trigiani is the master of writing complex Italian families, full of characters who love and live with passionate (and sometimes fractured) hearts. Coming of age in the press of the Great Depression and the fires of World War II, Tony hangs on to past hurts, while Chi Chi thrives through life-changing events. Their disparate personalities mean they view the world through different prisms. VERDICT Trigiani delivers another solid historical saga, and her readers will be pleased. As in Laurie Lico Albanese's Stolen Beauty, Jane MacKenzie's Tapestry of War, and titles by Sarah Jio, readers will follow characters around the world and through the years with interest. [See Prepub Alert, 5/21/18.]--Christine Barth, Scott Cty. Lib. Syst., IA

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