Happy Times [Hardcover]

Lee Radziwill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2001

Leafing through a wealth of private photo albums and personal archives, Lee Radziwill offers a unique perspective of happy times: from the first trip to Europe and the Bouvier sisters to fond memories of Christmas in Palm Beach with President Kennedy, from her years in London to summer days in Conca, Lee Radziwill has enjoyed a very colorful and successful life. She brings alive, with humor and feeling, privileged moments with family and friends. Happy Times is the credo of a lady who, having witnessed historical moments and shared the lives of characters struck by fate, has made the deliberate choice of only remembering what's beautiful. Through anecdotes and pictures, personal notes and drawings, Happy Times offers readers a very personal perspective on a highly publicized life.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Andy Warhol would have approved of close friend Lee Radziwill's autobiographical picture book, Happy Times. A sort of postmodern photographic journal crossed with a lovey Hello! spread, Radziwill's book offers a visually lush, mildly gossipy, somewhat surreal document--solely in photographs and brief reminiscences--of the younger Bouvier sister's unique brand of celebrity. As Radziwill explains in her introduction, friends had urged her to write a biography for years, but she felt doing so would "involve me in too many other lives." So she opted for a biography that focuses only on her "happy times" (hence the book title), and these, she says, happened mostly in the 1960s. The resulting slim volume is essentially a collection of gorgeous photographs, scattered haphazardly like a scrapbook, interspersed with Radziwill's selective memories and little handwritten comments. With a somewhat unconvincing naiveté ("memories should be of happy times"), each chapter is devoted to a particular "happy time" but in no special order. We have summers in Montauk with Mick and Bianca, Christmas with the young Kennedy family, a tour of India with her sister Jackie, whole chapters devoted to each of Radziwill's many exotic homes.

Assuming the reader knows most of the big events of her life, Radziwill offers little in the way of context of these happy times, and it's this element that ultimately gives the project a surreal, celebrity-by-association feel. You wonder why you're reading this random assemblage of country-house photos and memories of Truman Capote; or, considering so much of the book is taken up by photos of the Kennedys, why you should especially care about Lee Radziwill. But it isn't without its charm, and as you flip through the book, Radziwill's breathless gratitude for her own good fortune becomes contagious. The book's final chapter, hand-drawn by Lee and sister Jackie in 1951, documents a summer trip to Europe. An odd inclusion but ultimately fascinating, it's the essence of Happy Times: you're not exactly sure what you're looking at, or why--but isn't it lovely? --Marisa Lencioni, Amazon.co.uk

Product Details

• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: Assouline (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 2843232503
• ISBN-13: 978-2843232503
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 7.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #320,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #31 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( O ) > Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More sweet than bitter, March 22, 2001

By 

Steven G. Williams (Jackson, MS United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Happy Times (Hardcover)

This was an incredible book filled with candid photographs of Lee Radziwill, her family and friends. Fortunately, you will recognize everyone in the book. The style and presentation are very mellow and you will be especially touched by the pictures of the people in Ms. Radziwill's life who were taken prematurely. The photographs of her with her children and her sister, Jacqueline Kennedy, are wonderful and unposed. This book is a fantastic addition to my coffee table. You will enjoy it, too.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poignant memories..., April 10, 2001

By 

Susan Towers (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Happy Times (Hardcover)

I found this book to be charming - it's like a scrapbook - very personal and offers a glimpse at this tragic and iconic family. I thought Lee Radziwill's drawings sweet - it's not meant to be some profound statement about the Kennedy's - it just captures the spirit of the moment. I think it's an unusual and highly evocative publication - worth buying despite what some other reviews have written!

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's not supposed to be about Jackie!, November 19, 2001

By 

Jennifer (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Happy Times (Hardcover)

You have to like, or at least be interested in Lee Radziwill in order to appreciate this book. You have to realize that it's a Lee Radziwill book, not a Jackie book, or a Kennedy book, or even a Truman Capote/ socialite circle book. Its title suits it perfectly. This book represents what we'd all like to have one day: a sparkling documentation of the happy times of our lives with no mention of, in Lee Radziwill's case, the considerable bad times. It's unfair to criticize this book for what it never was meant to be.
If you've read the DuBois biography, you will recognize a lot in this book. Unfortunately the DuBois biography focuses exclusively on the negative, documenting every last derogatory comment anyone ever made about Lee Radziwill. I think Happy Times proves that Lee Radzwill is far more graceful than the world seems to think.
This is a beautiful book. Great photography, creative format, interesting narrative. A real treasure!