Customer Reviews

The Other Mrs. Kennedy: Ethel Skakel Kennedy : An American Drama of Power, Privilege, and Politics

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Slapping maids? Calling them niggers? Spending thousands on the same belt in different colors? Driving cars into pools? I've always wondered about Ethel Kennedy and now I think I know all there is to know. Including the fact that she was a spoiled, uninterested, racist who was obsessed with her husband, and turned a blind eye towards his affairs. Any glamour I had attached to her is now gone and I'm utterly disappointed. Of all the Kennedy brothers I held Bobby in highest esteem because he was a tenacious man who fought hard to rid this country of many injustices. Now in light of his having married Ethel I question that. How could he love and marry a woman like that? She was reckless and had no respect for personal boundaries erected by others. She was a poor mother and left the day-to-day raising of her children to nannies, dogs, horses, friends, and whoever else happened to be hanging around Hickory Hill on a given day. I could appreciate to a certain extent, her love and devotion to Bobby. However, she was on the brink of being obsessed. She was horribly jealous of both Jackie and Joan and would make rude comments at their expense. In short she could dish it out, but was hard pressed to take it. It seemed as though she believed everyone was put here on earth to serve her. In light of her "I'm a princess" attitude and her strong religious beliefs, I cannot fully understand WHY she tolerated Bobby's infidelities. All in all, this book was disappointing as it revealed a side of Ethel I would have preferred not to see.

Today's newspaper carried the news that Hickory Hill, the McLean, Virginia, home of Bobby and Ethel Kennedy, has just been placed on the market for $25 million. I hope to heaven that the prospective buyers read this book before putting down a contract...

Jerry Oppenheimer does a masterful job at detailing the life of Ethel Skakel Kennedy, daughter of a shrewd, self-made millionaire father and a mother who was both a compulsive spender and an extremely devout Catholic, a faith she passed on to her daughter Ethel. Neither Skakel parent expressed any boundaries and limits over the children's out-of-control behavior, which led to tragic results later in life.

A number of family insiders trusted Oppenheimer enough sufficiently to open up to him for some startlingly frank interviews. Ethel comes across as a mass of contradictions: devout and rowdy, self-congratulatory about her parenting skills as well as blind to her children's unmet needs, arrogant and surprisingly insecure.

According to Oppenheimer, Ethel Kennedy was forced to curtail her spending severely after her husband's death, and yet she did not. At one point, her sister-in-law Jackie Onassis bought a new roof for Hickory Hill--again, I hope whoever buys this famous American home has deep, deep pockets!

A fascinating story of a woman who essentially isn't all that interesting herself.

Ethel is my favorite Kennedy along with her husband, Bobby. I was very excited to read this since most of the books about the Kennedy family have been focused on JFK and Jackie. The chapters were pretty short, so it didn't take me long at all to finish the book. I loved reading about her experiences in the 60's when Bobby became a public figure and her lavish parties she threw at Hickory Hill. After Bobby's assassination, the author details some of Ethel's strange behavior and her strong temper, which is a side of her that I hadn't read about before. I won't go into details about it, but it makes for some very interesting reading. The book ends in the mid-1990's right after Jackie Kennedy's death. I hope the author publishes an updated edition talking about Ethel's relationships with her children and grandchildren as she gets older. I would also be interested to hear more about her involvement in Obama's campaign and the effect that Ted Kennedy's death has had on her as she is one of the oldest living members of the Kennedy family next to Jean Kennedy and Sarge Shriver.

Personally, I thought the book was awful as most of the people interviewed were people(fired maids,disgruntled cronies/lackeys or employees who were not with them for long) with axes to grind against the Kennedy's or people who were mislead about the purpose of the book. He interviewed my father who was gravely ill at the time for the book and told him it would be a very nice portrait and it turns out to be nothing more than a slam piece on her which I think speaks volumes of his character and his desire to write or attempt to write a salacious book that didn't sell much so I feel vindicated in that respect.