A novel about drama and passion in the blurry world of Hollywood, Strangers in the Night by historical fiction writer Heather Webb is not only very well documented, but equally empathic. Being famous comes with a course, of not being able to enjoy privacy of any kind, a curse affecting your loved ones as well.
Built around the passionate in- and off- relationship between Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner, the story rebuilts empathically in the literary realm known episodes of the love story, while keeping enough space for the imagined moments. Thus, the perfect fine balance between fiction and historical facts. For a work of historical fiction, this balance is very important, as the reader may expect not a full historical records of facts - that can be found anyway in a history book -
Gardner and Sinatra were married for around 6 years. It was Gardner´s third and last marriage, out of her many loves. For Sinatra, she was his second, out of four marriages. Personally, I was not familiar their love story and with many episodes of it as well, but the book made me curious to find out more. What was really important for me was to read a creative novel about their love and from this point of view, definitely, it answered my literary curiosity. Most importantly, it helped me to have a different perspective of love and relationships under the limelights of Hollywood.
A recommended read to anyone keen to have a look over the American showbiz through the equally captivating story of Sinatra and Gartner.
Rating: 4 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own
Thanks for the blog tour support x
ReplyDelete