Customer Reviews

Nemesis: The True Story of Aristotle Onassis, Jackie O, and the Love Triangle That Brought Down the Kennedys

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The Cast of Characters in this book is unequaled for sheer social and political wattage: Bobby, Jack, Ari, Jackie, Princess Lee, Marilyn, Maria, Gore, Truman -- top-drawer icons of the 50's and 60's who possessed the cachet of first-name-only reocognizability. "Nemesis" gives the confluence of these starcrossed lovers -- and trust me, they all slept together -- a
bloodless quality, as though we have stumbled into a smoky room in Hell where deals with the devil are made. But first we meet Christina, the daughter for whom the yacht (upon which so much of the power sex in this book takes place) is named. Mere months before her suicide, bright but doomed Christina drops a bombshell over lunch with the author, illustrating a connection between Bobby Kennedy's assassination and Aristotle Onassis'
money.

Within each family many secrets were held, from each other and from the world. "Nemesis" depicts the outer edge of an age where secrecy was still available from the press as well, and politicians and other celebrities were able to live in half-shadow, to disguise the emptiness of their arranged lives. Their wanton dance of destruction in this environment is fascinating to watch. If the author had said, in one of his many footnotes, that he had strapped an old gypsy woman to a lie detector machine and verified that she was responsible for placing the curse on the Onassis and Kennedy clans, I'd believe him. You can't read about young Alexander Onassis dying in a plane crash without thinking of John Kennedy, Jr. Obviously, there is a pox on both their houses. How else can you explain
so much unhappiness and loss in the midst of so much privilege and wealth?

The story of Kennedy and Onassis lends itself to conspiracy theories. (Look at the two names together . . . each has seven letters with two consonants in the middle; that's got to mean something!) Mr. Evans has familiarized himself with the voluminous material available on the topic (including Anthony Summers "Goddess," which places Bobby in Marilyn's house the day she died) and he hacks through the forest of speculation surrounding the families with a silent chainsaw, stylishly, but at times indelicately, providing a stream of jaw-dropping facts and sublime quotes which recall Truman Capote as he decimated his beloved socialites in "La Cote Basque."

In fact, Mr. Evans runs the risk of casting doubt upon the veracity of his book because he's obviously having such a good time with the antics of his monsters . . . it is a tale about shady tale-tellers after all, and truth really is stranger than fiction. But to those as curious as Mr. Evans is about this era, his suppositions have the ring of truth to them.

In the absence of empathy or compassion, however, this book suffers. Every one of these creatures, with the exception of poor Maria Callas, seems to exercise their worst motivation at every opportunity.

Although the author makes it hard to see the principals as anything more than a pack of horny, sociopathic vampires drawn to each other in some kind of weird, karmic death embrace, you get the feeling he has given you the goods. I honestly feel I never need to read another word on Kennedy or Onassis after "Nemesis." Nor do I want to. (We want to see them hoisted up, but we don't necessarily want to see them beaten with sticks.)

Peter Evans has supplied a great read that appeals -- in spite of the occasional feeling that, even with all the footnotes and attributions and acknowledgements, he might not have it quite yet. There is the whiff of speculation. After all, Christina Onassis loathed Jacqueline Kennedy. So Evans has buttressed his central revelation with several sources who back him up in his assumption. It seems credible. "Nemesis" reads like a political thriller, which indeed it is, a real-life
"Manchurian Candidate." And if it's true, it is easily one of the most incredible and horrifying stories of our time.

It's the kind of book where you stop at times and marvel at how
beautifully, and savagely, written it is. And how talented Peter Evans is.

He's a great storyteller.

I was unprepared for a book as blunt as NEMESIS proved to be.

Admittedly, under the law, it is impossible to slander a dead person, but a few of the players in Peter Evans' report still are alive, such as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' sister and Senator Edward Kennedy. Nonetheless, they undoubtedly would be construed as public figures under the libel laws of the United States. Evans, therefore, obviously is comfortable with some of the allegations that he makes here.

Nobody who reads this book ever will feel the same about any of the primary cast of characters. President Kennedy reads almost like a sexual pervert and, according to Evans, his wife may have defined the concept of the "Merry Widow." Her sister, Lee Radziwell, comes over as even more ungrounded than Jackie was in conventional morality regarding adultery--and this is being polite.

According to Evans, Marilyn Monroe sounds anything but simple, and Robert Kennedy appears almost venal. Evans casts doubt on everything including the motivation behind Jackie's pregnancies and those of Ethel Kennedy, considering them to be largely political tools contrived by the husbands. This seems hard to believe.

The person who comes across worst is Aristotle Onassis. Among the other assertions in this book, it is claimed that Onassis originally had been a homosexual and that the basis of his fortune had come from drug smuggling.

The kicker is that Evans states that Onassis had arranged for the assassination of Robert Kennedy, his "nememis" of the title, by Arabic terrorists.

NEMESIS makes for gripping reading, one of those books that prove impossible to put down until the very last page.

This book is a fascinating and addictive read. I could not put it down, unless I was throwing it down in shock, complete and utter shock at the way our so called "American royalty" lived their lives! But everytime I threw this book down, I picked it up again and continued -- the truth hurts, but it must be read! Peter Evans has spent more than 30 years researching and writing about Aristotle Onassis (He wrote the bio "Ari: The Life and Times of Aristotle Socrates Onassis"). He has demonstrated his insider access and ability to get candid interviews, quotes and details -- it's all in the book and the footnotes!!

This author spent time with Onassis, his daughter Christina and many of Onassis's closest relatives and associates from the late 1960's on. His theory, that Aristotle Onassis paid Palestinian terrorists to have RFK killed is supported not just by rumor and circumstantial evidence -- but by the confessions/revelations of Aristotle and Christina Onassis, business associates of Aristotle and one of his many lovers. Plus scribbling in Sirhan Sirhan's notebooks (that were entered into evidence at his trial) that implicated Onassis to anyone who was familiar with his world (and apparently convinced his own son of his involvement!).

You will not believe the reckless sexual behavior of Jackie, her sister Lee, the Kennedy men and just about everyone else in their world! Or how Ted Kennedy reportedly "pimped" Jackie when her intention to marry Onassis was announced (read the footnotes!).

If you think I have told too much you really need to read this book -- this isn't even the half of it!

Very well written, researched and documented. I am already hunting down books listed in the foot and end notes. New, used, you've got to read this book!

I found this book, intriguing, interesting and sad because it is so credibly written. The footnotes are at times more interesing than the book. The research, the interviews the documentation of where people where, when events occured. Facinating.

I have been an admirer of Bobby Kennedy all my life. The poise and class of Jackie Kennedy seemed so believable, undeniable. Sure many know all the stories about the Kennedy men. (I for one wonder when he had time to be president, he seems to have had so many women) Turns out Jackie Kennedy Onasis could keep pace with the darker side of Jack Kennedy and was even greedier than Joe Kennedy.

Myths die hard. The author creates the sense of being inside the unraveling of the mystery. It is amost voyeristic to read about the tradegies that these wealthy people created for themselves.

I think this book is a must read, but be prepared to be disappointed in what you learn at some level. For in short, there simply never was a happily ever after life in Camelot.

I read this book on a flight from Boston to London, and over a weekend, and was gripped from its opening revelation that the Onassis-Bobby Kennedy feud went all the way back to the 1950s, and festered calamitously for nearly 20 years. It explained a lot about Jackie's extraordinary marriage to the Greek billionaire that had been (to me anyway)inexplicable.

Although its central revelation (that it was Onassis money that paid for Bobby Kennedy's murder)is interesting, and very well documented, it is the insights to the characters who inhabited the society in which the Kennedys, Jackie O, and Onassis moved, and clashed, which make this book so enjoyable. Not all of them are attractive people but none of them is boring. In spite of its essentially tragic theme, it has some gloriously funny moments, too. I was reminded of a typical Scott Fizgerald tale about the rich, with shades of John le Carre.

I started out being cynical about the major claim of this book. If I am still not one hundred per cent convinced about some of the author's disclosures - although he is clearly very well informed, both about terrorists and socialites - I am less cynical about its overall premise. There is plenty that rings true and which explains many of the long-unanswered questions about the astonishing Kennedy-Onassis marriage.

I have read quite a few Kennedy books dwelling on the same or similar areas, and this is exceptionally revealing. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in Bobby Kennedy's assassination as well as to those who want to know more about Jackie, Bobby, Aristotle Onassis, and the world in which they lived.

I guess I'm more of a prude than I realized -- I was completely unprepared for the money-grubbing decadence of the rich and famous, particularly Jackie Kennedy!

Jackie stole her sister Lee's lover, right from under her nose the week before Jack was killed. Ari hated Bobby Kennedy and paid to have him killed. When Ari was dying, Jackie was skiing. Ari refused to let Jackie redecorate his bedroom in the exclusive Paris apartment (it was decked out like a room in a brothel) to remind her of what she really was. Enroute to bury Ari (no saint by any means!), Ted Kennedy was trying to negotiate a better settlement for Jackie....

And, it's not just Jackie & Ari. Joe, Jack & Bobby Kennedy were bedding everyone. Throw in some Winston Churchill, Jr. and FDR, Jr. and you've got one amazing saga. NEMESIS is a must read for the average person wondering what's REALLY going on! The Kennedy's Camelot was a complete farce!

The previous reviews from amazon.com readers on this book really sold me on buying Nemesis. I had a personal reason for not wanting to read it. After Bobby Kennedy's funeral I sold everything I owned and left the country and lived abroad many years. I was living overseas when I saw an American newspaper with the headlines: Jackie To Marry Onassis. Shocked? Actually, I wasn't. But when I read that Bobby had asked her to hold off on the wedding until after the Presidential campaign, it hit me like a bolt of lightning. Oh, my God! Onassis had Bobby Kennedy killed! I remember calling someone I had recently met and asked if I could come visit. He was Canadian/Cuban and highly educated, and nothing shocked him. I told him my theory and we both sat in silence for a long time. That was the late 1960s. You can imagine my shock and horror when I read this book this week. The immature, paranoid delusions of a 26 year old were true. I finished the book this morning, drank some coffee and took a long nap. This book is unlike any book you have read on the Kennedy and Onassis family. To say it names names is putting it mildly. How did he get away with this? This book is going to haunt me for a long, long time. It is 2005 and I am in my 60's. But now and again I allow myself to slip back to that morning when I woke up in Atlanta as excited as I had been in a long time. Bobby had won the California Primary and we Kennedy For President workers (I was one of them) were going to work our butts off to get him elected. Then I turned on The Today Show and my life was over. The pain has not gone away. This book opened up a chapter of my life I had closed off. Incredible read. I would highly recommend it to anyone who seeks the truth.

There is so much "dirt" in this book, that one almost wants to take a shower after reading it. No one is spared. Onassis, Jackie, JFK, Bobby, Christina, Marilyn, Maria Callas, and almost everyone with whom they came in contact comes off as sleazy, disreputable, and worse...far worse. There are some eye-opening theories, such as the "Manchurian Candidate" programming of Sirhan Sirhan. I might have scoffed at this, but after the events of 9/11, I would have to believe that anything is possible in this world. I first heard of this book through Liz Smith's column, and that's what puzzles me about it. With so many bombshells about so many important people, why wasn't this book at the top of the best seller list for months? Why wasn't the author on all the talk shows? In short, why was there so little publicity? Is it because most people think it's merely tabloid trash, without much validity, or just the opposite...so accurate that no one wants to touch it? Read it, and decide for yourself.

I really can't add more praise to that which has already been posted, but I wanted to mention how thorough the research for the book was. The author, Peter Evans, is very meticulous, as shown by his many footnotes where he cites sources or adds more information. Given the fame, power, and wealth of the people who are the subject of the book, this was probably a legal necessity, but it adds a credibility to the book. This makes the book's many revelations all the more shocking because in all likelihood they are probably true.

I originally bought this book after reading Dominick Dunne's recommendation in Vanity Fair. Now I have the same question Dunne did: Why isn't this book getting more attention? One would think the author would be making all the rounds on the tv shows and that there would be countless newspaper and magazine articles written about the book. The only reason I can think why this hasn't happened is because relatives of the subjects of the book have exerted their power to create a virtual media blackout. Given the scandalous and shocking revelations, I can't really say I blame them.

I highly recommend this book. I look forward to the author's next one.

What a fascinating, very well written book! It seemed every page had a juicy morsel or two and really opened my eyes into what was really going on during the last months of John Kennedy's life and why Jackie married Aristotle Onassis. As a teenager, I was shocked she'd married someone who obviously wasn't a friend of the United States. But Peter Evans portrays Onassis as someone so fascinating, even desirable in his "bulldog" approach to women, maybe money wasn't the only reason. Then again, once you read this book your whole image of "Camelot" and the "Holy Widow" will never be the same.