Customer Reviews

Jackie, Ethel, Joan : Women of Camelot

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I really loved this book for so many reasons and I can't encourage you enough to read it. It's chock full of information on Jackie, Ethel and Joan Kennedy, but it's never dull or plodding. It actually draws you in from the opening chapter and goes on to weave a complicated tale of three famous women who you may think you know - but learn more and more about as the book goes on. Taraborrelli has achieved a perfect example of biography at it's best because it's written by an author who knows and understands his subjects. Like putting the pieces together to a complicated puzzle he carefully brings each character to life using historical facts and never before heard anecdotes. He somehow managed to get first-time interviews with reliable sources so there's quite a few shocking revelations. But even the most lurid details are presented with compassion and integrity. Believe me, there are greater ingredients here than any mini-series writer could dream up: power, sex, money, betrayal and fame - with backdrops that include the White House, Hollywood, and Europe. There's Jackie - the complicated first lady, sometimes strong, sometimes insecure. Ethel, the first of the women to marry into the Kennedy family but who was soon overshadowed when the glamorous and provocative Jackie married the first born son. And Joan, beautiful, sensitive and totally unprepared for the high pressure life of living in a fish bowl. It is fascinating to read how these three ladies - each one very different from the other - interacted when they were forced into "sisterhood" when they married into the illustrious Kennedy family. Each woman was extremely complicated with different areas of strengths and vulnerabilities. They somehow learned to get from each other whatever it was they were lacking in themselves so that, combined, the three women made up the perfect "Kennedy Wife." Taraborrelli shows that during each significant moment in their lives, the wives banded together - in triumph and tragedy, through joy and suffering. Even with all their money and fame and power Jackie, Ethel and Joan had to struggle all their lives against extraordinary odds because of the complications of being the wives of the most famous brothers of this 20th century. "Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot" is a perfect read....historic and informative while being entertaining and glitzy. By the way, the chapters about the wives' dealings Marilyn Monroe alone are worth the price of admission.

"Jackie, Ethel, Joan -- Women of Camelot" is such a wonderful and exciting read. It is both fascinating and touching -- often having me in tears. Each character is so well defined, by the end of the book the reader feels that he or she has truly lost a "friend." The way Jackie assisted poor Joan during Joan's times of crisis in her marriage and with her alcoholism was beautifully documented by the author, who had great sources. And Ethel's eccentricities, yet the way they all loved her despite them, reminded me of so many women in my own family. I was also happy to see that the picture of Jackie painted here by author Taraborrelli is so unique. Unlike in other books about her, he doesn't dwell on silly things like her spending habits, but rather on how she related to the other people in her family, always with grace and dignity. Sometimes she could be a little bitchy ... but that was Jackie, too, and the author writes about that side too. And I loved the way Jackie handled her husband, so self-empowered in her refusal to let him believe that she was naive to his unfaithfulness. The material about Jackie and Marilyn Monroe held me spell-bound. Please buy and read this great book, "Jackie, Ethel, Joan," if you really want to laugh, cry and have a good time. I loved it.

The reason I decided to buy and read this book was because of all of these reviews on Amazon by interested readers. Most are positive, a few not. But it seemed like this book really touched people, moved them in some way. So, I wanted to be in on it, see what all of the talk was about. I was glad I decided to read it. I, too, felt strong emotions. Sometimes I was annoyed with the writing; it seemed too personal and I thought some of the revelations could have gone "un-revealed." Sometimes I was amazed; the research really is in-depth ... and who could be bothered to read all of those boring source notes? Mostly, I was entertained. What a great read! Three amazing women, so different yet so much alike. They endured so much. They reminded me of women in my own family. Was I educated? Probably not. I think that's asking too much of a book like this, after all this isn't a political biography of the Kennedys. It's about personal relationships ... families, not politics. I think if you want to read about politics, you should go elsewhere. But if you want to read aboutr real people -- strong women -- this is the book for you. Yes, it does read like a miniseries, and now I hear it's going to be one in the Fall of 2000. I think it'll be as good a miniseries as it is a book ... five stars. Great job.

Jackie Ethel Joan is a light-hearted view of the three Kennedy sister-in-laws, their relationship with each other and the Kennedy family. The book also touches upon their roles in the political realm of the Kennedy world. This book is an entertaining read, but disappointing as a biography. The book is written in a very easy to understand and fun manner, yet the book has a slightly tabloid angle to it. While the book is titled "Jackie Ethel Joan" much more attention is focused toward Jackie than Ethel and Joan. Yet this is a good introduction to Ethel and Joan Kennedy's lives and their relationship to the rest of the Kennedy family. In all this book was an amusing and easy read.

I married into a large Catholic family and can sort of identify with this. You don't marry just the man, you marry his whole freakin' family. I have read literally hundreds of Kennedy books and felt I knew it all. Actually I didn't. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters come off as real people, not demons or deities. I believe this book made me actually like Jackie for the first time. I've always liked Ethel and Joan.

I have read a lot about this book, and thought I knew what it was about --- basically, I did. But what I didn't know was that it was so very sad. I cried many times along the way: when JFK died, when Bobby died, Joan's miscarriage, Jackie's still-birth, Ethel's grief and on and on ... Such tragic lives these three had. Yet, at the end I was not the least bit depressed, but rather sort of uplifted by the whole experience, this journey the author took me on. It was wonderful to read the way these women survived it all, and the author brought it all home with just the last few lines of the book (which I won't give away here.) Love them or hate them, you have to respect the Kennedys. Love these kinds of historical/biography/show biz books, or hate them ... you won't be able to put this one down.

This was one wild ride into the Camelot zone written by the guy that gave us "Sinatra" a couple of years back, which I loved. Author J. R. Taraborelli focuses here on the Kennedy women and manages to turn what could be a really dull subject about three spoiled, self-indulgent babes into something that is much bigger and more interesting than you'd imagine. The book completely explains why they stayed in marriages that didn't work, and how each went on to bigger and greater things after they were finished with their husbands (all of whom were pretty big jerks, let's face it, even if they were great politicians.) Taraborelli has one keen sense of human behavior, too. He knows how to make these women jump off the page, and if you liked the way he portrayed tough-talking-but-sensitive Frank Sinatra as much as I did then you'll appreciate this book. So I give this one five big stars for a wild ride into the Camelot zone by a writer who is completely out of control with these incredibly entertaining books every couple of years.

As someone who's read numerous books on the Kennedy's, I can honestly say that this is a great read. There are so many new and previously unknown things revealed, that I just couldn't put it down. (I read it in 3 days.) One thing that I really liked about this book is that it reads almost like a novel, which (for me) is very appealing and makes for an easier read. Joan has always been of great interest to me, simply because she wasn't in the spotlight and wasn't publicized nearly as much as her famous sisters-in-law were. Alot of things about her life, her marriage, her relationship with the Kennedy family, and especially with Jackie and Ethel were revealed. Joan had a very sad life while in the Kennedy clan, and after finishing the book, I found myself feeling very sorry for her. Ted Kennedy was put into a completely new light. ("The Senator", by Richard Burke, doesn't begin to delve into the marital relationship he and Joan shared, possibly because the author was Ted's former assistant.) Anyone who's ever read anything about Jackie and Ethel are familiar with their personalities, but the complex nature of their relationship has never been clearly defined, until now, which alone makes it worth the read. There are many new, fresh, and exciting revelations in this book, and, as a Kennedy expert (practically!), I recommend it to anyone interested in these three fascinating women.

This book about the wives of Kennedy rogues Jack, Bobby and Ted reads like Valley of the Dolls goes to Washington. Booze, pills, bitchy rivalries -- it's all here in this bloated but fun read by celebrity biographer Taraborrelli.

Based on interviews (though not with the wives) and previously published material on the Kennedys, the author -- dishy tone aside -- provides surprisingly three-dimensional portraits of queenly Jackie, sharp-tongued Ethel, sensitive alcoholic Joan and their complex relationships with one another. (Ethel's jealous sniping at Jackie is a hoot.)

While the book upholds old rumors, such as Ethel's affair with singer Andy Williams, it leaves a question mark surrounding alleged flings between Jackie and Bobby and Bobby and Marilyn Monroe. (The book was completed, of course, well before a family imbroglio -- the Jan. 19 arrest of Ethel's nephew Michael Skakel, 39, who is charged with the 1975 murder of his 15-year-old Greenwich, Conn., neighbor Martha Moxley.)

Though none of the cheating Kennedy men was any bargain as a husband, it's Joan -- if the long list of Teddy's cruelties here is to be believed -- who got the rawest deal. After she campaigned for his Senate re-election in 1964 as he recuperated from a plane crash, Teddy's way of saying thanks was to head directly from the hospital into the arms of a mistress.

Ah, politicians and their wives, do indeed make for strange bedfellows and fun dishy reading.

"Jackie, Ethel, Joan" is an unusual biography in that it's written in a way that makes the reader feel like a fly on the wall to some very major historical events. If you read it carefully enough, it's clear where the conversations came from in this book ... and the writer made these women come to life for me, which is the important thing. I thought it was also a very sexy book, and I felt the passion and drive of all of the Camelot subjects as well as its royal women. This is what is called a page-turner. I couldn't put it down. How much is true? Who knows with these kinds of books? I think it all is, but who knows? The important thing to me is that it was a good read, and I trust the source notes and the author. So, I give "Jackie, Ethel, Joan" five big stars.