The Queen of Tuesday: A Lucille Ball Story

By Darin Strauss

Book Overview

From the award-winning, bestselling author of Chang & Eng and Half a Life, a new novel about Lucille Ball, a thrilling love story starring Hollywood's first true media mogul.

"A gorgeous, Technicolor take on America in the middle of the twentieth century."--Colson Whitehead, 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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812992768
• ISBN13: 9780812992762
• Release Date: August 2020
• Publisher: Random House
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Terrible!

I hate starting a book without finishing it,but this one was painful. I really tried to push through,I made it midway,and then I just couldn’t! The book is written in present tense but the story is a sort of memoir that jumps around all over the place. I knew that it was a sort of historical fiction prior to purchasing,but this was just awful! It definitely did not embody the true character of Lucille Ball.