Customer Reviews

Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wasn't expecting much when I sat down to read this book. I assumed it would be a fairly cut and dried bio of an marginally interesting, blatantly social-climbing first lady. Was I wrong!! There's plenty to read here about Nancy Reagan, her family, the presidency, and more. They don't call Kitty Kelley the Saddam Hussein of journalists for nothing! I enjoyed this book very much, (going on the assumption that all of her sources were being 100% honest of course) and I'd recommend it without reservation.

You just have to love Kitty Kelly, if a subject of any of her books was ever short with a staff member, cut someone off in traffic, or returned a movie late Kitty will find out and make a chapter out of it. This book is really no different, it is the standard, made for tabloid mini series book from her, but that is probably why you buy it. Whenever a person gets to a high profile public job they are always going to have issues that the rest of us what to read about and authors tend to make a little more scandalous then they actualy were. This case is no exception with a person that was first a successful actress and then the First Lady of one of the biggest states and then the country. There are any numbers of toes that have been stepped on and Kitty found them all.

The most interesting bits I found were the years in the White House and her hatchet jobs of staff members of her husbands that she did not like, the odd calls to her San Francisco psychic to plan major events, and the wonderful warm relationship she had with her kids (sarcasm in high gear). Overall this is a fun and gossipy kind of book that you would expect from the author. At times there is a bit much detail, but some judicious page skipping will correct that issue. The book is a good representation of all the bad days Nancy had and is worth reading for no other reason to understand the closest advisor Ron had.

When the late Barbara Olson wrote a biography of Hillary Clinton from a right wing perspective, she was imitating this excellent "hatchet job" of a book. Nancy Reagan comes across as a phony control freak in this book. She ordered her husband around like he was a little baby throughout their marriage. There is a lot of fascinating gossip about the rather dysfunctional Reagan clan. There is a great joke in the book as follows: Ron and Nancy go to a restaurant. Nancy tells the waiter she'll have a steak. The waiter asks"And the vegteable?" Nancy answers"He'll have the steak too".

Whenever I see a biography that is unauthorized, that usually means two things...the subject had aboslutely no input into it and thus cannot refute or put into perspective on tidbits given to the writers by (usually) disgruntle sources, and the book itself is going to trash the subject (Madonna Unauthorized by Christopher Andersen comes to mind).

In any case, I do have to admit the Kitty Kelley did her research into Nancy Reagan. Straight from the mouths of her children, step-children, relatives, colleauges, fellow Hollywood starlets (and from Nancy herself, thanks to her own gossipy book "My Turn"), Kelley chronicled Mrs. Reagan's beginnings as a Hollywood starlet to her tenure as America's first unofficial "petticoat president".

The tone of Kelley's approach was cast when the book began with Kelley claiming she ran into a wall of silence while researching the book (well, she still did find plenty of people to open their trap), and the book opens with how everything on Nancy's birth certificate was manufactured other than her race and gender.

Yes, you can tell by now, that Mrs. Reagan's dirty laundry is going to be exposed to the world. I particularly take interest on the chapter dealing with Nancy's years in Hollywood, where it is chronicled that she got parts in movies by ingratiating herself with the higher-ups; as if everybody else in Hollywood was not ambitious as well.

In all, Nancy Reagan is portrayed as an ambitious woman who placed her career and place in society by sacrificing her relationship with her family and children; like men hasn't been doing that for years. It is again, a case where a woman who has sights for higher heights is put down for her ambitions (not to say that tact and diplomacy are not virtues, something Mrs. Reagan, according to the book, seems to lack).

There is a Notes section at the rear of the book that detailed all the sources Kelley compiled from that make up each chapter, and almost every one included a little expose on Nancy that otherwise didn't quite fit in the book proper (yes when you thought there isn't more to read!).

One more observation, the book also tell of Nancy's agressive pursuit of Ronald Reagan. Given his recent passing and Mrs. Reagan emotionally farewell to her husband, I can only say she really loved that man.

To begin with I must say that I am not American and therefore I am giving an outsiders point of view. Having saying that however, I am pretty knowelgeable on American Politics. What a book! From start to finish, every morsel of Nancy Reagans life is turned over and strongly critisised. Kitty Kelly gives Nancy credit for nothing. According to Kelly, every good deed that Nancy undertook was only for her own personal benefit. I thought this was a bit over the top. I am not a fan of Nancy but I think she should get credit for the good deeds she did. However those good deeds were far and few between, and the thrashing that Kelly gave her in relation to the disgraceful comments Nancy made about her children in her own book were fair. Having read Nancys own book subsequently, I could only conclude that Kitty Kelly was right in about 90% of the things she said in her book and that overall Nancy Reagan was and is a spiteful vindictive mean woman who brought dishonour and distain to the role of First Lady. It also shows her husband to be nothing but a pathetic lackie, but then Nancy herself portrayed 'Ronnie' in that light so nothing new there. It makes me wonder. Were the American people on some kind of drug when they elected this, to put it mildly, less than intelligent man.Overall the book was revealing and it undoubtably rubbishes any slight semblence of respect I would have had for Nancy Reagan, however slight, and I think and hope the same is true for other people. If even 10% of the allegations that Kitty Kelly made in her book are correct, then anyone with any respect for Integrity and Honesty has to hold Nancy Reagan in nothing but contempt. Well done Kitty for telling a story that had to be told.

I am reading the book (Nancy Reagan Unathorized Biography) while I listen to President Clinton get slammed in the Media. I believe the American people would be surprised, as I am, to know the life style the Reagans lived. On page 82 at the top of the page, I read that President Reagan raped Selene Walters,She was 19yrs old he was 42. That is information I never expected to get out of this book. I don't believe I would have ever gotten this information if I had not gotten it in this book. I wonder why no one has brought this up.This is a must read for America.

Roberta Rager

Kitty Kelley is known for her searing books on people like Frank Sinatra, Oprah Winfrey, and this woman, Nancy Reagan. Anyone remotely interested in reading or wanting to own the definitive book on the 1980's First Lady of the United States this is a must-own.

Long out-of-print, there are several used copies available and this book became probably the biggest seller in Kitty Kelley's career selling a whopping 800,000 copies. Obviously people were interested in Nancy Reagan, her early formative years, the days she spent in Hollywood as a B movie actress, her encounter and ultimate marriage to Ronald Reagan, her years as a California Governor's wife, and her eventual crowning as First Lady from 1981-1989 known to most historians as the Reagan years.

Most compelling are the pages Kitty devotes to Nancy's time in the White House, how she was not shy in firing anyone whom she didn't like, the extravagant ball gowns she wore and the parties that were held there that made "Dynasty" look like a cheap 1950's daytime soap opera.

No matter what you think of Kitty Kelly she is an excellent writer and makes you want to read the book from cover to cover as fast as you can.

An A+ read on one of the most popular First Lady's of all-time.

She was nothing more than a prostitue, sleeping with men to get what she wanted. She must have invented the casting couch. You can also tell from the photos that she had p.s. done. I read Kitty Kelly's book on Oprah, and find both of these credible. Nancy was not beautiful, so I guess that is why she had to use sex to get what she wanted. I didn't like her before, and I sure don't now. She wasn't an excellent actress, just a bit player, and not a good one of those. She also has stove pipe legs. She is one heavy legged moma. I like the book

Thanks for sending this so quickly. The book is in good condition.
I do appreciate Amazon.com.
Jean

Kelly's books, whether you like her or not, can be taken to the bank. You know they are true, no matter how salacious (which means most of them) otherwise she would end up tied into a thousand libel law suits -- and yet she has not.

The same is true for his one. She mines the alley-ways of Washington, and drains the swamps of her close "tell-all" friends and family to come up with the goods on the "made in Hollywood plastic doll" called Nancy Reagan. Too bad Kelly had to become an institution in and of her self. If we had anything other than a "limp-wristed" press, we would not have to rely on the likes of Kelly to give us the "true skinny" on what's happening in the "Lincoln bedroom" and its environs.

This 600-page tale has more than just the ring of truth. Even without hearing her voice, we all knew that Nancy was a flawed personality in the classic way of American flaws; the kind that makes her blend-in and makes her become all but invisible to the typical majority American public. She possessed a kind of "dainty and flighty empty persona" that goes down well with being a "washed-out ex-starlet" and a conservative Republicanism (or is this redundant?).

But inviting Frank Sinatra in through the backdoor of the White House for private lunches when "Old Ronny boy" was away? This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "when the Cats away, the mouse will come out to play."

And this is just the most salacious of a whole feast of salacious fare. Her firing of Donald Regan, for instance, was a Machiavellian work of art. It proves that Nancy knew how to protect and run interference for her "golden goose." Her consultation and faith in the prediction of psychics bordered on lunacy: Don't these people ever read books? And also, I thought that the Reagan's were religious? How do they pull it off, conning the American people so easily with their facades and "public show faces?"

Nancy's deep insecurities grew out of her troubled childhood and erratic upbringing. However, throughout her life it was all covered-over by a patina of faux style and grace, that got her a long way in our empty culture. There is something mildly vulgar about having leaders as intellectually empty as the Reagans running our country. But Kelly did her job well.

Three stars.