Reviews

All the Stars in the Heavens by Adriana Trigiani

gr8reader's review against another edition

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5.0

Adriana Trigiani never disappoints!!! Reading this brought me back to when I first discovered AT when I read "Big Stone Gap" for I was laughing out loud, or I found myself thinking how perfect and true a particular sentence was - how meaningful (and I wished it wasn't Shabbos so I could write it down to remember it), I was heartsick at times and tearful sometimes but smiling though a good part of the book. AT is master - she is able to sweep you away wherever the story goes - in this case it was back to the early days of Hollywood - black and white films, grand epics, the glorious times and the realities 'behind the scenes' in the lives of the stars. I learned about the lives of the stars featured in the story, but I never felt as thought it was a biography - it was a wonderfully written story that swept me off my feet and took me on a glorious ride!

lghisolf's review against another edition

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3.0

Not as good as her usual...

aussiebookwitch's review against another edition

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relaxing slow-paced
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Vivid storytelling but began to lose steam toward the end, especially if you're a movie buff who knows how things turn out

bookwormerica's review against another edition

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4.0

Wow. I love me some clark gable. I enjoyed his work of fiction and nonfiction. The daughter Judy bothered me at the end tho. Good Lord lady

hhuckestein's review against another edition

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2.0

This novel primarily focused on the relationship between Clark Gable and Loretta Young, co-starring in The Call of the Wild. As a fan of the golden age of Hollywood, the underdeveloped characters and jumpy timeline left me disappointed. The lengthy, dragged out account of the affair between Gable and Young left me bored and wanting more. What I did like? The inclusion of secondary characters, including Spencer Tracy, Jean Harlow, Hattie McDonald, to name a few, showing brief glimpses during various points of their careers. The story is told from various points of view, which can lead the read confused on what happened and where exactly they are at in the story. It'd be hard for me to ever pick this up again or recommend.

flyoverfarm4's review against another edition

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4.0

I found myself doing Google searches to learn more about the lives of the characters in this book. A quick read and very interesting for those who want to learn more about the Golden Age of Hollywood.

anderson65's review against another edition

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2.0

Novelized biography of Loretta Young.

dannb's review against another edition

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3.0

Meh... way to many words. Trite. Superficial. Would have been a much stronger story is Alda was the central character.

joliebeth23's review against another edition

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5.0

As with most of Trigiani's books, I couldn't put this one down. I'm a sucker for old Hollywood stories, and this one kept me turning the pages.

cheryl1213's review against another edition

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3.0

Stars is set in the grand age of Hollywood, a world somewhat apart from the struggles most of the country felt in the 1930s and dominated by the studio system. There are two protagonists (is that a contradiction? if so, there are two main characters...). One is Loretta Young, based on the real-life young actress known in large measure for her "romantic" entanglements (I'll get to the motivation behind those quotes). The second is the fictional Alda, a woman who finds herself rejected from a convent after expressing too much of a connection to a young woman giving birth and putting her child up for adoption. Alda is sent to serve as a secretary to Loretta and becomes more of an additional sister.

There are a lot of women in this book, including Loretta's mother and three sisters (there are two absent fathers in the mix). Some of them blend a bit, but generally they are the support system that allows Loretta to shine as a young starlet. Then there are the men, namely Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable who fall for Loretta. Her relationships with these two (married) men account for a large portion of the story and stand in contrast to Alda's own love story. Throughout the book, the characters are all affected by the odd world of the studio system and its strict moral code which is certainly more show than substance and much more of a concern for women than men.

First, the matter of history -- Reading other reviews and taking a brief look at the real Loretta, I leaned that in her later years she said that she had been raped by Gable. In the book, this relationship is a story of star-crossed lovers. Part of me wants to ignore the facts (well, the facts according to Young) and just settle in to the fiction, but it does haunt the novel and I can't discuss the book without reference to the disparity even if I'm not wholly sure what I think about the matter. It does provide an interesting context that further emphasizes the powerlessness of women and the impact of the cult of celebrity then and now. Even though it would never have been discussed in the day, it is also very clearly not the story presented in the novel. The tie between fiction and reality is always complex, but much moreso in a novel built on real characters.

Moving on -- I liked the world of women in this book much more when it was apart from the world of romance. I loved seeing Young's family interrelate and the warmth between Loretta and Alda is the highlight of the novel. I really cared much less for the stories tied to Tracy and Gable. In truth, I'm not a big fan of the romance genre. I didn't care for my first into to Trigiana (Big Stone Gap, not that it is purely a romance story) but absolutely loved my second, The Shoemaker's Wife, falling for the rich world much more than the underlying love story even then. I could never see Loretta's attachment to either of the men. I did enjoy Alda's love story much more, but that also didn't really ring real. I wish the men and the romances were more secondary to the plot, I'd have liked that book much more. Loretta, the fictional one at least, was so strong and came from a family of strong women. Like her mother, she took control of her life and her economic destiny, exercising an independence unusual in her time. She got so lost, however, when it came to the heart.

Still, I did enjoy my visit to the golden age. Three and a half stars, a rating that falls pretty average for me and means I did enjoy the book but don't feel the need to tell others about it or have any impulse to revisit anytime soon. I was more than ready for the book to be done, but I also never felt weary of the tale. This review is based on an advance reader's copy provided by the publisher but contains my unbiased opinion of the work.