Product Description

Jacqueline Bouvier. Ethel Skakel. Joan Bennett. Three women who married into America's royal family and became forever linked in legend. Set against the panorama of explosive American history, this unique story offers a rarely-seen look at the relationship shared among the three women -- during the Camelot years and beyond. Whether dealing with their husbands' blatant infidelities, stumping for their many political campaigns, touring the world to promote their family's legacy, raising their children, or confronting death, the Kennedy wives did it all with grace, style and dignity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #478403 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 6.75" h x 1.25" w x 4.25" l, .79 pounds
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 752 pages

From Amazon.com
What a great idea for a deep-dish tell-all! JFK's lonely, classy wife, Bobby's athletic, competitive wife, and Ted's meek, alcoholic wife, together at last between covers, soothing each other when not fighting like fishwives. Taraborrelli's breathless prose makes you a fly on the wall when formidable mother-in-law Rose Kennedy walks in on Joan commiserating with Ethel about their honeymoons: "I think Bobby was finished before I got into the room!" said Ethel. "Now what are you ladies talking about?" asked Rose. Jackie, who was present, cooed, "Oh, we were just saying how well Bobby sleeps at night." "He gets that from me," said Rose.

Ethel should never have been so catty when gentle, simple Joan joined the clan: "Goodbye wine and cheese," hissed Ethel. "Hello macaroni and cheese." And she shouldn't have mocked Jackie for being unable to compete in touch football--with the Kennedys, it was more like "claw, scratch and bite" football. And what about when she rubbed it in that she and Bobby were closer than Jackie and Jack? After all, when Lee Remick phoned Ethel to say "You're on the way out," and Ethel replied that Bobby was home in bed, Bobby was in fact (says Taraborrelli) in bed with Lee Remick.

You may have heard that JFK's dad, Joe Kennedy, offered Jackie $1 million not to divorce JFK, but did you hear Jackie's alleged reply? "The price goes up to $20 million if Jack brings home any venereal diseases." Did Ethel betray Jackie's discontent to Joe--and then go ballistic when Joe only gave Ethel $500,000? You'd think Joan would be the clinker in the group, like Zeppo Marx. She was a bit dim, but should Ted have put her down as dumb? He's the one who showed up soused with a prostitute for dinner with the king and queen of Belgium, whose priceless antique couch Ted's date ruined by wetting it.

Who knows how historians will judge this book, but it sure does a great job of making history into a Jackie Collins novel. --Tim Appelo

From Library Journal
The author of best-selling biographies of Sinatra, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross on being a Kennedy woman.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
At times, this book-both in its text and in its reading-seems to present the so-called second-generation Kennedy women as saints or saint-like. It praises the Kennedy men at times but also includes periodic criticisms of their personal lives. While Fowler reads with clarity and an even pace, her reading is too positive and too cheery. Such a reading seems to reflect the almost uncritical characterizations of the women, and perhaps Fowler is merely reading in a manner consistent with the text. It seems, however, that a voice not so warm would have been better for this book. M.L.C. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine