"Books as Showbiz": A Tour of Adriana Trigiani's Literary Haven

A Literary Life and the Magic of Storytelling

Adriana Trigiani, a novelist known for her vibrant storytelling and creative flair, often reflects on the essence of books as a form of entertainment. “Maybe something’s wrong with me,” she said during a hot summer morning at her Greenwich Village home, “but I think books are show business. Storytelling is the bedrock of everything. A book has to be exciting.” Her perspective comes from years of experience in various creative fields, including playwriting, screenwriting, TV producing, film directing, and authoring 19 novels. She believes it's "insanity" to think any creative industry remains static over time.

When promoting her latest best-selling novel, The View From Lake Como, a heartfelt story about a divorced Italian American woman traveling from New Jersey to Italy for self-discovery, Trigiani took an unconventional approach. “I went to my publisher and said: ‘Look, we gotta pump up the whole situation here. Have you been to a book signing? They’re boring! Stale!’” Instead of a typical event, she created a “Lake Como Show” complete with a band, showcasing her flair for entertainment.

Trigiani’s energy and creativity extend beyond her writing. On the day of our meeting, she greeted me and a photographer at her front door wearing a tuxedo with a big red rose where a bow tie would be. Her personality is as lively as the stories she tells. She has often been suggested to add “stand-up comic” to her list of roles, but she declines, explaining, “I don’t want to be a stand-up because I don’t want to be out late at night.”

Her home is filled with around 4,000 books, many of which hold special significance. One such collection includes a cookbook that she admits is “insane,” though she prefers not to discuss it. Among her prized possessions is a copy of They Had Faces Then, an illustrated encyclopedia of Hollywood stars from the 1930s. Trigiani’s love for old Hollywood is evident in her work, such as All the Stars in the Heavens, inspired by actress Loretta Young. Her library also features signed copies of works by authors like Milton Berle, Ginger Rogers, and David Niven.

She takes great pleasure in reading and studying the works of Edna Ferber and Anita Loos, whose novels were adapted into classic films. Trigiani owns nearly every book they wrote, including Kiss Hollywood Good-by, a memoir by Loos. She describes the book as one of the great works about Hollywood and admits to being obsessed with Loos’s entire body of work, particularly her insights on women in the industry.

One of her most cherished finds was a signed copy of Twice Over Lightly: New York Then and Now by Helen Hayes and Anita Loos. The book, co-written by two icons of theater and literature, holds a special place in her collection. Trigiani’s library is also filled with mini collections of aesthetically pleasing books, such as mid-century volumes titled Best in Children’s Books. These small compendiums, designed beautifully, include samples of notable illustrated books for young readers. She has collected all of them, noting their artfulness and still reads them regularly.

Among the children’s books, a particular favorite is The Elves and the Shoemaker, an adaptation of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. The story revolves around an exhausted shoemaker who finds his work completed by elves in the morning. Trigiani believes the colors in the book mirror the colors in her home and has a theory that the books loved most as a child shape one’s color palette. Inside the book is a picture of her paternal grandfather, reminding her of him and a factory he owned. She sees the story as essential to understanding the subconscious, believing that the mind does all the creating while one sleeps.

While writing, Trigiani avoids reading fiction, but her nonfiction reading influences her work significantly. She once became deeply engrossed in Orson Welles, reading everything written about him. This research influenced her novel The Good Left Undone, though she ultimately cut 300 pages, deciding it was separate from the novel’s core themes. Another deep dive involved works by Ludwig Bemelmans, the writer behind the Madeline series. She found inspiration in a quote from Elsie de Wolfe, which she used as the epigram for The View From Lake Como, shaping the novel’s structure around the idea of “Cry it away,” “Sing it away,” and “Love it away.”

Trigiani’s life is full of colorful anecdotes and observations. She recalls a movie role where she played a cockroach alongside Meat Loaf, a bizarre but memorable experience. Her stories are as engaging as her writing, revealing a deep love for the arts and a unique perspective on creativity.

As our time together drew to a close, she pulled down a volume from The Book of Knowledge, a children’s encyclopedia. As she read sub-headings ranging from “How deep is the sea?” to “The story of the circus,” she pointed to an entry on the Grimms’ fairy tale about the shoemaker and his elves. “It’s all about the subconscious,” she said. “The elves don’t frolic in. The elves are in you!”