Historical fiction that reads a bit like memoir. I grew up watching re runs of both I Love Lucy and the Lucy Show. I remember being surprised when I would see her in an old movie, but she had a long, smart career, partner choices aside.

I Love Lucy come to life in this! I don't know much about Lucille Ball, but it was nice to imagine that this was being told through her eyes. I love historical fiction about a real person, especially one with such a rich backstory, and I think this was well done. It kept me interested throughout, which has been hard for me lately.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

While I love Lucy, I did not love this book. Bases on the author's family lore, the writing is disjointed and the characters are under-developed. Fans of Lucille Ball will be disappointed in her portrayal and those looking for old Hollywood history will not find much to draw them in.

For those of you who don't know anything about icon, Lucille Ball, you should.
She became one of the most, if not the most, powerful woman in Hollywood as she created the way comedic TV was filmed--in front of a live audience and three camera angles all while juggling motherhood and a husband who couldn't stay faithful.
Despite her amazing talent, intelligence, and creativity, there were many times her behind the scenes world stayed out of balance with Ms. Ball always attempting to keep things in order.
Darin Strauss mixes fact with fiction as it starts with the idea that his grandfather may have had an affair with Lucille and moves the story from there.
Just like her multiple TV camera angles, this brings the reader another possibility of how her life would have been without the world watching.
Strauss still emphasizes Lucille Ball's ingenuity and amazing success, but gives us all another version of the star's life if things had been slightly different.
For anyone who loves Lucy, this is an amazing read.

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!

I made it 100 pages and had to put it down (which is a rarity for me, AND...I love Lucille Ball, and was so looking forward to this one).
A) choppy writing (and the author is a writing teacher at NYU)
B) “white privilege” has now entered the writing sphere. Nope. You lost me there. After the choppy writing.
C) Under-developed characters
D) did I mention it’s choppy writing?
E) perhaps I should rate this 1 star? I really wanted to love it bc I love Historical Fiction and I love Dese and Lucille!!

A fictional what if about Lucille ball sounded interesting and it doesn't disappoint though I wish it had gone into a little more detail.

Thanks, I assigned an interview with the author with a freelance writer and ran the story in 11 newspapers and websites in the Southern California News Group including the Orange County Register and Los Angeles Daily News. I include 2 of the 11 links below.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the ebook. This is an author I’ve admired from his very first novel. In this one he’s pulled off one of the oddest performances I’ve read in some time. He’s taken his real life grandfather, Isadore, and the very real Lucille Ball and changed a chance meeting between the two and imagined a great, and doomed, love affair between the two that holds importance all their lives and helps to explain who both people end up becoming. This is not a cardboard biography of both, but a very lived in and emotional look at these two very different souls. It’s a bold challenge to take this story on and very exciting that the author has pulled it off with such humor, love and thoughtfulness.

i really loved that there is a book series with Lucille Ball as a main character, this had the charm that Lucy had and I really enjoyed reading this.

This was difficult to finish, and I would have quit reading, if it had not been a netgalley title. I tell my patrons to stop reading after chapter 3 or 4 when they are not engaged with some facet of the book. (ie characters, setting, plot...) People shouldn't have to feel guilty about putting down a book that is tedious, or doesn't resonate with them.

©2020 All Rights Reserved Lynne Perednia

The Queen of Tuesday: A Lucille Ball Story
By Darin Strass
Literary Fiction
Random House

What if? That's the story of life.

What if I had done this? What if he had done that? What if someone knew this about her? What if no one knew? What if no one cared?

What if a man entering middle age, who wanted to be a writer but went into the family real estate business, had kissed Lucille Ball at a Coney Island party one evening? What if that led to another encounter? What if these things showed that man how his own life had become a series of What if? scenarios in which everything seems hollow, even though that man realizes his good fortune?

That's the story of Isidore Strauss. In Darin Strauss's new novel, The Queen of Tuesday, a character who may or may not be the author's grandfather may or may not have kissed the famous star before she became Lucy and everyone fell in love with her. If it happened, what might have happened next? What turns did his life take?

And what if Isidore, now an old man, had told his grandson about what may have happened? And that there is a chance that he may have written something that may yet be seen in the world? The novel goes meta with this part of the narrative, as the author breaks the fourth wall.

The other side of "What if?" in this novel is "Hold on". That's the nickname Lucille gives Isidore at that party on the beach, one held by Fred Trump. What if someone holds on to what she knows is dear, even if there is heartache? What if someone holds on and gives a second, third and fourth thought to the idea of flinging caution out?

Amidst all the yearning and desires for other things in life throughout The Queen of Tuesday, the sections centered on Lucille Ball are outstanding. Both the difficulties in dealing with an unfaithful husband and with a career that is on the brink of being a Hollywood has-been are clearly conveyed. The success of "I Love Lucy" is both something that no one imagined happening and something that leads to more "What if?" scenarios.

The breakthrough sitcom, which apparently is being shown somewhere in the world every minute, lends another "what if?" layer to the narrative. What if Lucille Ball had not been beloved as Lucy when HUAC came calling? Or would they have come calling at all had she not become famous as Lucy? What if Lucille was more like Lucy and Desi was like Ricky? How would their own marriage have been different? What if we viewed "I Love Lucy" as an extended playing out of Lucille not wanting to break into show business, like Lucy, but instead wanting to be close to her husband? What if we viewed Ricky Ricardo not as a bandleader, but as the man Desi turned out to be -- successful at running the business side even while being an unfaithful husband? Is Lucy's attempt to be on Ricky's stage nothing more than Lucille's attempt to have the TV show as a way to keep her marriage to Desi?

The Queen of Tuesday is the kind of book people could chat about with large glasses of a preferred beverage, wondering aloud various "what if?" ideas.

With the tagline of “A Lucille Ball Story,” I was under the impression that this novel would be a factual/fictional account of the Lucy and Desi’s rocky marriage, their triumph of making television history, and what it was like to co-own a television production company in a male-dominated industry. I’ll admit that while I’m not the hugest fan of Lucy’s comedy, but I have always admired her shrewd business acumen.
But upon getting my hands on this novel, I quickly learned that it, really, has nothing to do Lucy’s real life. It is a smash-up of memoir and fantasy based on a “what if” scenario. Granted that is what writing fiction is based on, but author Strauss takes such liberties with timelines (Desi Jr’s birth year is wrong) and events that the whole concept is outlandish.
The novel is based on a Strauss family myth that the author’s grandfather had a torrid affair with Miss Ball. The writing is convoluted, with multiple plot-lines showing up in almost every paragraph. I was looking for some shred of evidence that Strauss’ ancestor’s story was true, but found none.
Avoid this novel at all costs. “The Queen of Tuesday” receives 1 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

I couldn’t figure out what this book is: fiction, non fiction, biography, memoir, etc. I grew up with Lucille Ball and watching I Love Lucy. I really wanted to like this book, but didn’t. The book was disjointed and hard to follow at times. The characters didn’t come off as likeable and it portrayed Lucy and Desi’s life in total disarray. I had hoped to learn more about the star’s life, but this book didn’t deliver that.

I liked the idea but why make the book about a real person when you aren't going to stick to any facts? Just make it a fictionalized account of Ball's life and call her something else. It was a real mess.

Darin Strauss flawlessly combines fact and fiction in this novelization of the life of the Queen of Comedy, Lucille Ball.
Strauss goes behind the scenes of her marriage to Desi Arnaz and dissects it to show the unhappiness that didn't show on screen: Arnaz's multiple infidelities, the struggles of being a woman in show business and how even though she was in charge, big wig executives sometimes bypassed her in favor of her husband.
An enjoyable trait of the book is that Strauss gives Ball a passionate affair of her own, which makes the plot much more interesting. Whether the affair was real or not, doesn't feel relevant. The poetic justice of Lucille Ball leaving her life her own way in a time that wasn't friendly or fair to women, is the point.

Such a unique story! This fictionalized story takes a few real life events and creates a retelling of some parts of Lucille Ball's life. This author's grandfather did attend a party with Ball, coincidentally thrown by Donald Trump's dad, but that's where the similarities may end. This story focuses on a possible fictionalized affair between the author's grandfather and Ball. While I am a fan of I love Lucy I had no idea the powerhouse that Lucille Ball was. This book was such a fun fictionalized twist on the Lucille Ball that America cherished while also opening a window to the true powerhouse and legend she was. Thank you #NetGalley and #randomhouse for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve haven’t read many celebrity biographies or (any?) novels about once-world-famous TV stars. And so, I expected The Queen of Tuesday to be full of glamorous scenes at glittering parties and high-drama from start to finish. But, this novel subverted all my expectations. For Lucille Ball super-fans, leave your version of her at the door and allow yourself to be suspended in unreality for a few hundred pages. It seems Lucille’s dazzling charisma is the only element flirting with something resembling the ‘truth’. Strauss is less concerned with ridgid facts and dates, and is far more interested in the legend of Lucille, the concept of ‘celebrity’ and what happens when famous folk collide with mere mortals – such as his own grandfather.

Throughout the novel, the perspective switches between Lucille and her philandering husband Desi, Isidore and his wife Harriet, and Darin Strauss himself. Isidore’s utter fixation with the thought of Lucille is both infuriating and fascinating – he is haunted and enthralled by the memory of one electric moment of passion they shared. His infidelity makes him subsequently dissatisfied with his existing marriage but, regardless, Lucille will always be out of reach. Isidore’s attempts to grapple with his unfulfilled desire – and Strauss’ broader comment on celebrity – made this novel really interesting and unique.

Although set in the 1950s, The Queen of Tuesday raises questions about the precarious and curious nature of celebrity status that are as relevant today as they were seventy years ago.

I've been meaning to read Darin Strauss for years as I've heard he's a terrific writer. So I was happy to get "The Queen of Tuesday" from NetGalley in return for a review.

Strauss has written a highly entertaining book in which he imagines an affair between his grandfather and Lucille Ball. It seems like they both attended a Coney Island party thrown by Fred Trump. Strauss uses that as a springboard to fictionalize an affair between the two.

This book is really fun (which is an odd description for a tale of infidelity, but testament to how likable Ball and the Grandfather are). The one drawback is perhaps the book drags a little at the end. The scenes featuring Ball-Grandpa are so entertaining, the book loses some momentum when they're not together.

But I really enjoyed it. I always knew how great Lucille Ball supposedly was, but I felt like I learned a lot about her and was charmed by Strauss' depiction of her. Really a good book.

Don’t come to this book to read about Lucille Ball as the perfect movie star. In this novel, she has flaws. She hates the public adoration but is determined to land on top. For those of you who have read Mary Trump’s story of the Trump family, you’ll recognize the opening scene where the president’s father, Fred, has invited dignitaries to come help in the demolition of an amusement park by throwing bricks at the windows. Desi Arnaz and his wife have been invited to throw a brick. The book was interesting, but it seemed to be part biography and part fiction. Ball’s friendship with a real estate developer Isidore Strauss (who was the author’s grandfather). Strauss’s story mingles with Lucille Ball’s as she works her way to the top.