All the Stars in the Heavens
In 1935, Loretta Young and Clark Gable meet on the set of The Call of the Wild, being filmed on location on snowy Mount Baker in Washington. Loretta is young, but successful, with 50 film credits to her name and her share of leading men. She has no intention of falling for this one. But she doesn’t anticipate how Gable fills the set, touching everyone with his energy and charisma. Despite her Catholic upbringing, and her better judgment, she falls for the married Gable.
Alongside the story of Loretta Young and Clark Gable’s troubled relationship is that of fictional Sister Alda Ducci, forced to leave her convent to work as Loretta’s secretary. Hollywood is a world away from the convent and Alda fights to maintain her honest values in this city of carefully managed lies. But she’s as stubborn as her employer and, whether faced with love or loss or potential scandal, she finds her way in Hollywood.
Adriana Trigiani pulls us firmly into Golden Age Hollywood. She shows the glitter on the screen, but also the exhaustion, the fragility, the truths behind the scripted lives. She has the challenge of writing well-known characters (in addition to Young and Gable, we spend time with notables such as David Niven, Spencer Tracy, and Hattie McDaniel) that are true to history, but also true to readers’ perceptions. Did she succeed? This reader certainly turned the pages. Those who enjoy classic films and Hollywood history will find much to relish here.
