Stars: 5
Review by: jamBob
This may be
the first book I gave a 5 to in years, if ever and it's not for literary
achievement as it is for emotional prowess. Trigiani makes you feel like
you lived the lives of the characters she
writes about. This book is based on fact, the lives of Loretta Young
(The Bishop's Wife) and Clark Gable during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
When movies were made in black and white and actors were concerned abut
the script being a good one, not merely a money
maker. Loretta and Clark starred in a then blockbuster called The Call
of the Wild in 1935 long before his days as Rhett in Gone With the Wind.
Loretta falls for him at 22 and conceives his child while he was still
married. Because of the standards of the day,
this event would have ruined their careers, so Loretta keeps the baby
shrouded in secrecy to protect them both.
I did some fact checking and
yes Loretta did have Clark's baby, but when she was 80 before her death,
she reveals it as a date rape event rather than
a romance as portrayed in this novel. Trigiani interweaves Loretta's
story with the big names of the day including Spencer Tracy, David Niven
and many others. Trigiani is a master story teller for descendants of
Italians in this country so she has an immigrant
named Alda fill that role in this book as Loretta's secretary. I could
not put this book down and found myself living a lifetime that predates
my own through her story telling. Trigiani has a simple formula for all her
books like Lucia Lucia, Big Stone Gap and The Shoemakers Wife....no matter who you are, you go through life loving,
being loved, needing and being needed with the highs , lows and
heartbreaks that are a commonality to all of us. No matter our stature
in life, a Hollywood star or an immigrant worker, this
is the DNA that make us human and gives the "story" to our life.
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