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I am a little behind on my reading goal for the year, but hey, there’s plenty of time to catch up! To my defense, the books I’ve been reading lately are pretty long, so take that GoodReads 🙂
I’m pumped to talk about “The House of Gucci” by Sara Gay Forden for many reasons.
For starters, I saw the movie before reading the book — when I saw the movie, I didn’t even know there was a book!
Once I saw the movie and found out about the book, I put my name on the waitlist at the library, and a few weeks ago, it was finally my turn to read it!
I knew the book was going to cover much more than the movie because there were obvious gaps, and the book definitely fills those in.
The book covers the lifetime of Gucci, as a business, which follows the Gucci family. The Gucci business has been around for 100 years.
There’s a lot about the early days of Gucci — the inspirations, the designs, the manufacturing, the first shop — and it’s fascinating.
A large part of Gucci (the business) is Gucci (the family) and there’s lots of drama and lawsuits between this bunch.
Then, there’s also the relationship between Maurizio Gucci and Patrizia, which ultimately leads to Maurizio’s murder.
The book covers this in great detail — from the moment the marriage started to fall apart, her plot to have him killed, the trial, and her sentencing.
Although I saw the movie before reading this, there were still so many moments that shocked me. One of them was the amount of turmoil between the family and how they handled business matters.
The other was the massive difference between the success and failure of the business. I don’t want to give anything away here, but it’s a wild ride.
This book was fantastic. It’s more than a true-crime novel, as there are other historical tidbits tied in with the glamorous fashion of it all. It makes me want to read about other fashion houses!
If you’re at all interested in fashion and true crime, this one is a must-read!
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