Customer Reviews

In Her Sister's Shadow: An Intimate Biography of Lee Radziwill

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If Lee Radziwell is ever referred to, it is usually in minor passages in Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis biographies; a minor character in the overblown legend of the Kennedy dynasty. Yet "In Her Sister's Shadow" offers a new view of Lee Radziwell and the parallels to her more famous sister.

The book covers Lee Radziwell's three marriages, two children, and multiple careers ranging from an author to an interior decorator to an actress. It also covers the unspoken rivalry between her and Jacqueline Kennedy. Though Lee was often considered the prettier and more interesting of the two, her sister became an internationally beloved figure. Lee's quest for happiness, glamour and fame is the central focus of this biography.

Upon finishing this book, it is easy to see parallels between Jackie and Lee: both married powerful men, both were reputed to be difficult to get along with, both thrived in glamour and fashionable circles. Yet Lee often seems to be the more interesting of the two, simply because she did not have the "Camelot" myth and the Kennedy aura paving her way. She stumbled and fell more often than Jackie, and her repeated attempts to pick herself up make her a more real and interesting person.

The writing style is somewhat gossipy, though not as explicit as is usual in Kennedy-related biographies. When love affairs and marriages are referred to, the references are usually tasteful and discreet, except for the description of an obscene art exhibit made by Truman Capone. The photos are excellent, displaying Lee in a variety of places and settings and in the different stages of her life, as well as ones of her children and ex-husbands.

Overall this is an intriguing read about an interesting woman who has been overshadowed for years by her sister. While readers may not truly like Lee when they are finished, it is difficult not to admire her.

I have read several biographies on Jacqueline Kennedy and I was intrigued when I heard that one had been written about her sister, Lee. I read this book and enjoyed the gossipy details about the 1960s jet set and Camelot. However, this biography begins with Lee's first visit to AA in 1981 but never mentions her drinking again until more than halfway through. Then there's a brief chapter about her problem drinking and then it's dropped again. It just seemed to me that the author used the AA story line to snag the reader when that was unnecessary. Ms. Radziwill had/has a fascinating,privileged life. That is reason enough to read the book. Some of the stories were so bitchy that one must discount them at least partially. But there's enough there which rings with truth to keep you entertained.

Very disturbing and scandalous book on the life of Princess Lee Radziwill (sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis) will leave many wondering what went wrong in her life. From her childhood years in New York to the present day, Diana Dubois paints an unflattering picture of the second most famous Bouvier sister. With the resecent death of her son Anthony (he passed away from cancer only two weeks shortly after the death of his beloved cousin, John F. Kennedy Jr. in a plane crash) the lives of Lee and Jackie are eerily similar. Married to powerful men, considered regal in social circles, each had a son and a daughter, etc.. Lee's life as a primadonna will leave many with negative thoughts for years to come. If you are into sensationalism, this book is for you.

I found this book interesting if somewhat depressing. However, I still liked it. I feel that Lee Radziwell could have done so much more with her life. This was an objective study of a truly wasted life.

I think we can say, without making any mistake, that Lee Radziwill is a ''courtisane''. At one point in her life she became Onassis's lover while she was still married to Prince Radziwill... she was certainly after Onassis's money and power. There would have been a King available somewhere, she would have gone after him. That's what we call a ''courtisane''. In my opinion, her behavior is rather erratic and far from noble. Into that world of privilege and money, that kind of behavior is not unusual. That being said, Diana DuBois wrote a very interesting book.

lee may not have been as famous as her sister, jackie, but her life in ways was more fascinating than that of her sister. lee took risks, and lived life to its fullest, not really caring what others thought. i hope there are more book about her in the future, and i hope some she write her autobiography. excellent read.

Candid look at an inherently uninteresting self-obsessed person who lived a troubled life through interesting times.
Quick read.

If you can't get enough of stories on Jackie Onassis you will love this twist of a story on her sister, Lee. Entertaining with its' mix of past characters in history such as Andy Warhol and Truman Capote.
I wish there were more photos-

In terms of writing, this book is full of run-on sentences and obscure phrases such as "ran her homes like a seventeen-jewel Swiss clock." If one focused on the subject, one would find a bitter and disillusioned woman, whom I think is really more beautiful and more stylish than the late Jacqueline Onassis was. Sadly, someone who has gone from one professional disaster to another, as Lee Radziwill has, is not worth writing about. Here is a woman who never learned her lesson - that success comes with hard work. Diana DuBois shows that perhaps Lee was too conscious of who Jackie was that she could not pull herself together, even for her own ambitions' sake. One more catastrophe, as shown by the book, is Lee's relationship with her children, that her maternal love "came in spurts." Now, even in that regard, she does not measure up to her sister. I think, I would not have known who she was if she had not been Jackie's sister in the first place...but that does not mean she was not capable of carving a separate niche for herself. Lee Radziwill, as depicted in the book, is a portrait of what a woman envies (for being beautiful and stylish and elegant) and what a any human being would not want to be (still lost in the middle age)

I thought I would find something more of interest here than her previous sophmoric writing aobut the "fabulous summer" she & her sister shared in their younger single days in Europe (complete with Jackie's amateurish drawings).
Without JFK Jackie would have turned out to be the same vacuous shallow dilletante that Lee is. Lee flits from one decorating adventure to another like her sister with her "historical White House renovation" which was essentially a very nice interior decoration that she made a televion prgram out of.
Lee has great fashion style but little else. I think today she must be a very lonely empty 80 year old with no grandchildren & one divorced childless daughter.
The loss of her son was certainly tragic but seems to have done little to deepen her psyche beyond the rich glitterati life.
A total gold digger with no sense of social justice or any serious interests beyond what to wear or how to decorate her various homes..