All the Stars in the Heavens

Summary (from the publisher): Adriana Trigiani, the New York Times bestselling author of the blockbuster epic The Shoemaker’s Wife, returns with her biggest and boldest novel yet—a hypnotic tale, based on a true story—that dazzles with the signature elements of her previous work—family ties, artistry, romance, adventure—and introduces an unforgettable new heroine: Loretta Young, an ambitious starlet struggling to survive in Hollywood’s dream factory

In this spectacular saga as radiant, thrilling, and beguiling as Hollywood itself, Adriana Trigiani takes us back to Tinsel Town’s golden age—an era as brutal as it was resplendent—and into the complex and glamorous world of a young actress hungry for fame and success. With meticulous, beautiful detail, Trigiani paints a rich, historical landscape of 1930s Los Angeles, where European and American artisans flocked to pursue the ultimate dream: to tell stories on the silver screen.

The movie business is booming in 1935 when twenty-one-year-old Loretta Young meets thirty-four-year-old Clark Gable on the set of The Call of the Wild. Though he’s already married, Gable falls for the stunning and vivacious young actress instantly.

Far from the glittering lights of Hollywood, Sister Alda Ducci has been forced to leave her convent and begin a new journey that leads her to Loretta. Becoming Miss Young’s assistant, the innocent and pious young Alda must navigate the wild terrain of Hollywood with fierce determination and a moral code that derives from her Italian roots. Over the course of decades, she and Loretta encounter scandal and adventure, choose love and passion, and forge an enduring bond of love and loyalty that will be put to the test when they eventually face the greatest obstacle of their lives.

Anchored by Trigiani’s masterful storytelling that takes you on a worldwide ride of adventure from Hollywood to the shores of southern Italy, this mesmerizing epic is, at its heart, a luminous tale of the most cherished ties that bind. Brimming with larger-than-life characters both real and fictional—including stars Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, David Niven, Hattie McDaniel and more—it is it is the unforgettable story of one of cinema’s greatest love affairs during the golden age of American movie making.

 

Review: I received an advance reader's edition of this novel from HarperCollins.

 

This novel tells the fictional account of the relationship between actors Loretta Young and Clark Gable on the set of The Call of the Wild in 1935. Told largely through the perspective of Loretta and her secretary Alda, this novel portrays the world of Hollywood in its early years and imagines the behind the scenes romances that fans could only read about in tabloids.

 

I love the glamorous setting of this novel in the early years of Hollywood. Trigiani has revived almost forgotten scandals and stars in this novel and recalls the early years of movies in America. Additionally, the inclusion and focus on the character of Alda was an excellent addition to this story. Alda was a fascinating character since she had originally planned to become a nun and had worked delivering unmarried women's babies in the convent before leaving to work for Loretta Young. Her friendship and loyalty to Loretta added greatly to the story.  

 

The most recent novel I read by Trigiani was The Supreme Macaroni Company and I was left wary of reading another of her novels. While I did find this novel to be more entertaining, it suffers from some of the same issues I had with her earlier novel, namely poor characterization and stilted plot development. This novel frequently jumps through time to cover the actors' whole lives and thus resorts to summaries of events and feelings rather than having the characters actually experience events. To me, the true drama of this novel is the dilemma over hiding Loretta's pregnancy from the press. I would have enjoyed a novel that focused on that and then jumped forward in time in the epilogue to reveal the ending of the Clark Gable and Loretta Young story. Yet in an effort to condense the full saga into one novel, the author has had to rely on summarized accounts of the relationships between characters, whole marriages and children, and background information that would have been more effective coming directly from the characters themselves or through the reader witnessing the events as they unfolded. In short, there was too much telling and not even showing.

 

Additionally, a major theme of this novel is male infidelity and the assumption among the characters that men are incapable of being loyal to their wives and families. This is seen throughout and even baldly stated by Loretta when she asks, "Is there a man in this world who could be faithful?" (349). In fact, there doesn't seem to be a single male character in the book who is faithful to his wife. I realize that this sadly seems to be a reality of celebrity life, but as a reader it was difficult to buy that Clark truly loved Loretta when he was constantly looking for his next woman, oblivious to his daughter, and constantly remarrying throughout the book. Alda's marriage is little better, since their relationship was rocky and full of arguments from the start. When her husband misses her, he reflects on what she has brought to his life: "Alda provided a closet full of pressed clothes, a cup of black coffee in bed every morning, a hot meal on the table every night, and someone to talk to about his frustrations at work" (280). Any paid servant could do the same. In other words, there was no genuine sign of true love and romance in this novel for me despite the author frequently reminding me of how true their love was.

 

Furthermore, it was doubly hard to buy into the "true love" between Loretta and Clark, knowing that in real life, Loretta accused Clark Gable of raping her. Obviously this is a fictionalized portrayal of events, but it was hard to dismiss the actual events' influence on my perception of their relationship. Obviously this is unproven and it would greatly degrade Clark Gable's name to even fictionalize him as a rapist. Yet if it is true, I can't imagine that Loretta Young would appreciate seeing her rapist portrayed as her one great love.

 

Stars: 2.5