AT LAST

A novel about the life and work of real-life Hollywood film composer Harry Warren.

Raymond, author of Grace Notes: A Novel Based on the Life of Henry Mancini (2018), here focuses on another musician of the silver screen: Warren, the first songwriter to win three Academy Awards. His impressive catalog of more than 400 tunes includes such standards as “At Last,” “42nd Street,” and “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” and in the pages of this novel, he hobnobs with such luminaries as George and Ira Gershwin, Johnny Mercer, and James Cagney. In real life, Warren was a notably private person, so there’s not a lot of existing material about him on which to base a biography, so Raymond supplements his work with fictionalized material. It works, for the most part, although there are moments that don’t ring as true as others; the author’s re-created and wholly invented conversations lead to some hokey dialogue, such as during a discussion among members of the protagonist’s family to change their surname, Guaragna, to Warren. Later, readers are melodramatically told that the first moment that Warren, who was known as Tuti as a child, played an organ, “a ray of light beamed through the stained glass, splashing Tuti in a rainbow of color.” Raymond clearly took liberties with this scene, but some others aren’t as clear-cut. Did a teenage Harry have a chance encounter with silent film star Norma Talmadge? Did Harry learn his true fate from a fortuneteller? One can’t be sure, as no citations are provided. Readers can only hope that scenes like the one in which Warren, lyricist Al Dubin, and choreographer Busby Berkeley put together the song “We’re in the Money” are at least close to the truth. Still, the mix of fact and fiction generally functions well, and Raymond manages to shine a light on a Hollywood great who may be unfamiliar to many.

A breezy read about a skilled and prolific musician that mostly hits the right notes.