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

I read it straight through. I could not put it down. Wonderful book with fantastic stories about their lives and their friendship.

I loved reading this book. It's one of those special books that one can't wait to open again and read more and is sad when it is done. As the other reviewers have written, this book is about a trio of lifelong friends. It is special because it was written by a man, a son, from a female perspective. Once you finish you want to know more about these incredible women, their friends and children, their times and loves. Bravo Aran...Happy Mothers Day!!

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.

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.

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.