Customer Reviews

The Kennedys: The Third Generation

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

 

 

In spite of the title, a good portion of the book is devoted to a repetition of familiar family history centering on Joe, Rose, Jack, Bobby and Teddy. This book is not friendly to the Kennedys. It will be most interesting to those who enjoy watching members of the younger Kennedy generations self-destruct.

Having read and enjoyed Barbara Gibson's story about working with Rose Kennedy during the matriarch's later years -- and the related stories of the fun and foibles of the clan's grandchildren -- I anticipated a more in-depth chronicle here about the lives and significant contributions and problems of the grandchildren-generation of America's Kennedy clan.

It was a bloodbath.

Whereas Gibson sounds as though she enjoyed her job despite the frustrations of working in such self-centered and affluent milieu in her book about Rose, this book presents those same grandchildren as selfish, snobbish, hedonistic hellcats with thorough disregard for the lives of those around them... resulting from their sub-par parenting courtesy of their abused, neglected, drug-addicted folks and hell-bent-on-success grandparents.

This is a textbook of intergenerational blame.

The redeeming qualities of this book include its attempt at even handedness (for example, the author does note that with few exceptions, Maria Shriver did in fact earn her journalistic distinction on her own... and that Caroline and John Kennedy were basically good children, exceptions to the Kennedy rule) and its historical validity; based on my experience reading every other Kennedy biography I can get my hands on, most of Gibson's factual information is accurate.

However, allegations that Rosemary Kennedy never was retarded ring false to me (Gibson claims Rosemary was merely unacceptably mediocre as well as dyslexic... seems to me that other Kennedy children were similarly underendowed in priority areas, but no one wanted to lobotomize THEM -- except maybe Gibson herself). The word "hate" and its relative "hatred" are flung around with reckless abandon, classifying everything from Ethel's feelings about her son David to Rose's reaction to Kym to Jackie's response to John Jr.'s potential acting career.

The author truly seems to hate this family, to use her already overused adjective. Obviously, she anticipated a windfall of money to make such a distasteful book worth her time, or maybe her co-author bewitched her... but there are more judicious Kennedy biographies out there, ones that manage to highlight accomplishments of this very accomplished family without seeming to relish their weaknesses, proclivities, deviations, or vulnerabilities.

Get this from the library.

Wow, I was a little suprized at this book.I like other are semi intrigued by the Kennedy's( I go through spurts LOL) I thought that Barbara Gibson would write a true story about the family since she was so intimatley connected to them. This was really horrible!(I can understand why some of the Kennedy's don't read any books about their family after this book)She had nothing nice to say about one Kennedy...Caroline and John like the rest of our generation maybe tried out drugs(pot,ups,diet pills)but certainly were not drug addicts as it seems to allude to in the book. Caroline and John(RIP) seemed to be brought up very well. Even if you did not like Jackie, she raised two good, solid adults who by all outward appearances seem humble. So what Caroline tried to get to the head of an ice cream line by using her name....What KID wouldn't try that if it might work? LOL Somehow I dont see her doing this once she became an adult. I cant even picture her trying to cut the line, she seems like a very dignified lady, as was her mother. Ditto Maria Shriver. I saw an intimate portrait of her and she too seems humble.She was 17 when she got a little annoyed at Barbara Gibson because she would not let Maria drive Granny's car..C'mon this is the best you have on Maria, and you label her a brat. I dont see her shoving people out of the way either. What they did as kids we all did, just on a smaller stage and a smaller scale. I was a brat from 13 to about 18 and I am super glad no one is writing about me.I do feel sorry for Ethel Kennedy. From several different books she sounded obnoxious from the word go...talk about power going to your head..and you never hear any real positive stories about her children, yet I am sure some of them have contributed to the world at large. Ethel could have learned a thing or two about parenting from Jackie and Eunice Shriver. Even poor Sarge Shriver is attacked in this book as a snob!(Maybe he appeared snobby so he could not be misquoted, and he kept his mouth shut) Poor man. Anyway if you want to read a book that tears down this family as much as possible, this is the book to buy (LOL), otherwise save your money and buy one that would give a fair picture overall.

This book should never have been written. It is poorly researched, riddled with inaccuracies, and so relentlessly anti-Kennedy that it induces mental nausea. Ms. Gibson has made capital out of her secretarial job, but neither her pontificating nor the scuttlebutt of "household staff" is worth reading.

While I don't have an overwhelming delight nor animosity towards the Kennedy family, I believe that the author, Barbara Gibson, does. Writing this book provides her with an opportunity to bash a former employer. The book is poorly written with regurgitated passages throughout. It also contains typos that should have been easily caught during proofing. Example: Anthony Shriver "was born in 1965..." Further down on the same page you will find this sentence: "In February 1965, he was quoted in People magazine..." Please! If you are going to take my money at least get your product correct.

Bottom line - Don't waste your money or your time on this book.

This book is just a rehash of Joe,Rose,Jack and Ted. In the back of the book is a few short paragraphs about the various younger Kennedys. This book is not worth the purchase price unless you have never read a book about John Kennedy before. The information is as old as the assasination of John Kennedy and there is so little about the younger generation that you will find absolutely nothing new in here. This is just an attempt to cash in on John Jr.'s death. At the very end of the bood is a very short summary of the fact that he crashed his plane. No new information there.

I think this was a very good book. It has lots of information about the younger Kennedys that I never knew about. It has alot of information about the older Kennedys, but you must know about the older ones to understand the younger ones. I highly reccomend this book if you want to know anything about the younger generation