Trio: Oona Chaplin, Carol Matthau, Gloria Vanderbilt : Portrait of an Intimate Friendship [Hardcover]

Aram Saroyan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Saroyan here limns the characters and relationships of three women who married world-famous artists much older than themselves. The four principal husbandsWilliam Saroyan, Walter Matthau, Leopold Stokowski and Charlie Chaplinare also sharply drawn. PW observed that Saroyan is, however, "most concerned with his mother Carol's character and her obsessively painful relationship with the author's father, William Saroyan."
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (July 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671509195
• ISBN-13: 978-0671509194
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #980,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Aram Saroyan is a poet, novelist, biographer, memoirist and playwright. His website is www.aramsaroyan.com.

Ebook editions of his books The Street: An Autobiographical Novel; Trio: The Intimate Friendship of Oona Chaplin/Carol Matthau/Gloria Vanderbilt; and Rancho Mirage: An American Tragedy of Manners, Madness and Murder, as well as two new titles, My Own Avedon and Artie Shaw Talking, are now available.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Trio, February 23, 2000

By 

Jeri Sloan (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trio: Oona Chaplin, Carol Matthau, Gloria Vanderbilt : Portrait of an Intimate Friendship (Hardcover)

I'm just about finished with this book and it's fascinating. The book starts with the three girls as teenager's and you soon realize that these famous women are very human just like the rest of us. They deal with love, relationships, children, and careers. Granted, they started out on a higher monetary level (for the most part) and associated and socialized with the more privileged, but their fears, woes, etc. were the same as anyones.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Life of Her Own, December 9, 2003

By 

Carol Harrison (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trio: Oona Chaplin, Carol Matthau, Gloria Vanderbilt : Portrait of an Intimate Friendship (Hardcover)

I found this book, and the friendships of the three women, completely captivating. More than the fame that surrounded them, what entranced me was their enduring friendship. I thought Aram Saroyan's grasp of women's relationships unusually astute and loving.
After reading TRIO, I found myself looking for more information about all three of the main characters. I recommend this often, and even purchased an additional copy just to loan out.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating!, June 27, 2003

By 

HeyJudy "heyjudy" (East Hampton, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Trio: Oona Chaplin, Carol Matthau, Gloria Vanderbilt: Portrait of an Intimate Friendship (Hardcover)

This is a fascinating book about three fascinating women who had been best friends since childhood. One woman, Gloria Vanderbilt, has a reputation that speaks for itself. Oona is the daughter of Eugene O'Neill, and she married Charlie Chaplin, who was decades older than she was. They had a long and happy marriage, and many children together. Carol Matthau's first husband was William Saroyan, and she is the mother of the author. After a disastrous first marriage, she married Walter Matthau before he was either rich or famous. Collectively, the three young women personified the concept of synergy, of one plus one plus one adding up to much more than simply three. They all were the debutantes of Cafe Society in New York in that happy moment just after the end of World War II, the favorites of the gossip columns of that era. Aram Saroyan has written a touching valentine to his mother and her best friends.