Lucille Ball, Hollywood’s first true media mogul, stars in this “bold” (The Boston Globe), “boisterous novel” (The New Yorker) with a thrilling love story at its heart—from the award-winning, bestselling author of Chang & Eng and Half a LifeA WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • “A gorgeous, Technicolor take on America in the middle of the twentieth century.”—Colson Whitehead, Pulitzer … the twentieth century.”—Colson Whitehead, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Nickel Boys
This indelible romance begins with a daring conceit—that the author’s grandfather may have had an affair with Lucille Ball. Strauss offers a fresh view of a celebrity America loved more than any other.
Lucille Ball—the most powerful woman in the history of Hollywood—was part of America’s first high-profile interracial marriage. She owned more movie sets than did any movie studio. She more or less single-handedly created the modern TV business. And yet Lucille’s off-camera life was in disarray. While acting out a happy marriage for millions, she suffered in private. Her partner couldn’t stay faithful. She struggled to balance her fame with the demands of being a mother, a creative genius, an entrepreneur, and, most of all, a symbol.
The Queen of Tuesday—Strauss’s follow-up to Half a Life, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award—mixes fact and fiction, memoir and novel, to imagine the provocative story of a woman we thought we knew.
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I love this cover! It is one of my favorite’s this year!
Darin Strauss has written a novel that not only brought me back to my childhood years, but resurrected Lucille Ball into the 21st-century because I saw this story in vivid colors! It was truly riveting!
“The Queen of Tuesday” reminded me of how I felt watching the “I love Lucy” show. Thoroughly engrossing! Never mind the entertainment!
Darin’s vision and delivery is Exemplary! I am in awe of his writing style! I was enamored with his mix of fiction and memoir! He has left me wanting to know more!
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.
5 Stars.
I’m addicted again, I now own I Love Lucy Tee-Shirts, A Mug and a Bobble-Head! All because of this book! This is how much I loved it!
Interesting. The one thing I forgot when reading The Queen of Tuesday by Darin Strauss is… it is fiction. Don’t you forget that.
Lucille Ball was the most accomplished and progressive woman in her time. With Desi Arnez, they were innovative in television and owned more movie sets than any movie production company. The “I Love Lucy” show is still in syndication almost 70 years later! I love Lucy!
This book is a little sad. Don’t get me wrong. It is a fun read but, there are so many lives that weren’t lived to their full potential because of misguided dreams. Maybe that was the author’s point. His grandfather lived his life wishing for a relationship with Lucy. His wife wanted the husband she married. Lucy wanted a man that was faithful. Desi wanted it all. I don’t think anyone in this book got what they wanted including the Arnez kids.
Darrin Strauss did a lot of research for this book and I enjoyed that he brought his research to the story. Thank you Mr. Strauss for the memories of nights watching “I Love Lucy” with my family in front of the television. I’m digging my “I Love Lucy” shirt out of my drawer! It needs to see the light of day again.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher for a fair and honest review.
Book Review: The Queen of Tuesday~ a Lucille Ball Story by author, Darin Strauss
ARC/eGalley
We all love Lucy~ A comedian, a mother, a wife…. A Star!
With her more than dramatic home life, and her tenacity within the male-driven industry of movies and television during the 1950’s, Lucille Ball made her mark as one of the most beloved women of her time. But behind the scenes, a struggle in holding her life together leads her on an alleged, uncharted journey, the very same path her beloved Desi has walked for far too long. As Lucy continues to feel her value within her marriage decreasing, based on her own husband’s inability to see her worth, she dabbles in the flirtatious that inevitably leads her to an uncertain, dangerous place.
Author Darin Strauss has taken the liberty in creating a novel based on his own family history with a cross-genre of part fiction, part memoir, which blends mystery, stardom, and the supposed but unsubstantiated affair between the author’s grandfather, Isidore Strauss, and none other than Ms. Lucille Ball-Arnaz. Isidore was her beautiful little secret, but was he truly? Did this affair actually happen?
I personally found this narrative based largely on the imaginative~ the “what ifs” rather than the “what was” and found it to be boldly descriptive as to its sexual elements throughout the storyline, as well as conceptually confusing at times.
Although written with distinct purpose, this particular combination of fact and fiction, for me, didn’t add-to, but diminished what I believe this novel was intended to be, and described as~ “A Thrilling Love Story.”
I do thank Town Crier Book Publicity along with Random House Publishing for the opportunity to read and review The Queen of Tuesday~ a Lucille Ball Story.
3 Stars
#DarinStrauss
#thequeenoftuesday
#RandomHouse
Wild Sage Book Blog
The Queens of Tuesday by Darin Strauss is an interesting book that is part historical fiction part family memoir.
The author states in his “Instead of Afterword” that Lucille Ball as a character was part of the inspiration of the novel, but that it was also written with the thoughts of his own torrid and dramatic family history as well. To me, he uses the plot and concept of “there is more then meets the eye” and what you see is merely “the tip of the iceberg” concept in regards to his family’s history and uses Lucille as his character face and muse.
It is an interesting and bold concept, and for that I give him props, as well as the time frame of the 1950s (of which I am a huge fan of anything 1950-1960s). However, the blending of the two concepts sometimes can be confusing, and for some readers who may not read the afterword, or understand the author’s thought process, it could disappoint them to see that a lot of what he depicts is not in fact anything of the great actress that we know so well.
I am a huge fan of Ms. Lucille Ball, and I had hoped to read a book about her, however this was not that kind of book. As someone else mentioned, if you remove the concept of her from this book and just imagine it as another women and family in this time frame and situation, you do have yourself a more interesting book. I just wish that Ms. Ball would have not been used in this fictional novel.
3/5 stars
Thank you NetGalley and Random House for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.