Customer Reviews

Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House--1911 to 1980

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4 star:		(1)
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Bob Colocello has produced an honorable, historically valuable, and oh-so readable account of the formation of America's two most iconoclastic political figures. Honorable because given the extraordinary, unique access he enjoyed to the Reagan family and their closest friends Mr. Colocello resisted the temptation to quickly write a hugely popular and profitable, juicy, inside-gossipy, but simplistic piece of hard-backed journalism. This decision also surely involved fending off, tolerating, and finally ignoring incessant pleas from friends, family and editors in an impatient chorus of "Where is it already?" "Hurry up or soon nobody will still be interested in the Reagans anymore."

Instead, Mr. Colocell hunkered down and researched, researched, researched, devoting five or six years to understanding the formation of the now near-mythical Ronald and Nancy Reagan, finally producing "Ronnie and Nancy", a remarkable, meticulously detailed intinerary of the unplanned, unexpected odyssey of two normal, not at all politically ambitious people, from middle-class America to the White House; to counting some of history's most meaningful world leaaders as their friends, and for those same historical figures to consider themselves blessed by the friendship of the Reagans. It is an exquisite work.

"Ronnie and Nancy" is the American Dream if ever there was one, told with an historian's detail and detachment, combined with a popular writer's ability to combine those facts with the human, page-turning material that describes how hard it was, yet how good it was. The passages in which the author quotes people who were there from the beginning to the end, the legendary Kitchen Cabinet, are priceless in their charm and intimacy and authenticity.

I loved this book. I know of no other like it. And because of it I will never again be able to look at a major political figure and his wife or her husband, of whatever ideology, without sympathy for how hard and long a road he or she traveled to get there, to be scorned or lionized, but to make a huge difference.

"Ronnie and Nancy" ends as the movie actor, then Governor of California, is elected President of the United States of America. The eight White House years and beyond will appear in a second volume. This reader can hardly wait.

Some 100,000 books are published annually in America. "Ronnie and Nancy" is one of the few important ones.
(...)

The perfect mix of gossip and history. Meticulously researched and carefully observed. You won't be able to put it down.

Colacello deconstructs the Reagans like no other author has. He starts with the premise that their personal and social lives were inseparable from their political ambitions, and an essential factor in Ronald Reagan's rise to power. He goes on to explore how the couple's social milieu and interpersonal relationships influenced Reagan's political ideas and governing style.

A fascinating portrait of Nancy emerges as well: Colacello sees her as supremely focused and determined to advance her husband's political career, but motivated by pure adoration of Ronnie rather than any overriding desire for control and power.

The writing flows easily and is peppered with enough interesting anecdotes and revealing quotes to make the reader forget at times that this is, in fact, a serious political biography. A great read from cover to cover.

I passed this book by many times before finally breaking down and buying it. Somehow, its title and dust cover just didn't grab me. Besides that, having already read several biographies of the Reagans and the Reagan family members, I was fairly well convinced that the book couldn't possibly contain much of anything new. Even after buying it, I still wasn't much inclined to read it. What finally convinced me to do so was when I read in the prologue that Colacello was a personal friend of Nancy Reagan and that Nancy had arranged for him to have unprecedented access to her personal files and to virtually all of the Reagan's living friends and associates and/or their children. How could I resist? This had to be a spectacular source of inside information. And it was!

The early part of the book traces the lives of Nancy Davis and Ronald Reagan in parallel chapters. This section is interesting primarily for the light it sheds on Nancy's early life; her relationships with her mother, Edith Davis, and her adoptive father, Dr. Loyal Davis; and for the in-depth background provided concerning both Edith and Loyal.

The book really takes off, however, in the mid-sections where it deals in depth with Reagan's and Nancy's film careers; Reagan's military service; his marriage to and divorce from Jane Wyman; his actions while president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), particularly in combating the Communist attempt to take over Hollywood's film industry; his, and other's, testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) - who was who and what was what; the members of "The Group" who induced Reagan into politics and the subsequent "Kitchen Cabinet" members (mostly wealthy, conservative, high-powered friends of Nancy or Edith) who guided, supported, and, it might be said with some degree of truth, made Reagan Governor of California and President of the United States; Reagan's abortive run for president in 1968; and the rationale for his run in 1976. From that point on, the book is hard to put down.

In summary, this book contains inside information which can't be found anywhere else, making it a vital historical document. The information doesn't always reflect well on Ronald Reagan or Nancy, but it dispels a lot of myths and misinformation, and certainly provides a great deal of insight into what it takes for even a great leader, such as Ronald Reagan, to become President of the United States.

The book certainly rates five stars for content. It loses something for readability, however, due largely to its repetitious descriptions of parties and dinners, including: who was invited; what foods and wines were served; what gowns the women wore and who made them; who were the women's hair stylists and what were their hair styles; etc. But that was a small price to pay. I give it four stars.

As a Reagan supporter, I really wanted to love the Reagans and to see Nancy Reagan's reputation vindicated. Nancy, in her elder years, is very admirable. It is a bit creepy to read that Ronnie always called her Mommie, but no one can deny their mutual love. Bob Colacello is quite thorough in his research,fair and honest - no whitewashing here...the endless sniping and self-aggrandizement of Nancy's pals, like Betsey Bloomingdale et al? These women were all intimate friends, but were clawing at each other for primacy in the Reagan inner circle. Bloomingdale brags about her caviar parties and hobnobbing with the Paris set of sophisticates, but gets caught evading customs duties for lying about how much she paid for a new couture outfit in France. The other graceless, snobby chums of Nancy also seem like the idle, witless, rich that P. G. Wodehouse skewered in his books. The Kitchen Cabinet husbands are scary and only a tad less obnoxious. The book makes one feel queasy; Ronnie and Nancy seem bought and paid for by their cronies. Nancy herself comes off as self-deceiving and controlling - a shallow and manipulative social climber who rewrote her personal history;possibly she is portrayed as second only to Joan Crawford as Mommie Dearest. Ron takes up ballet as an adult. Patti has herself sterilized at 24 because she's afraid she'll be like her mother??!

The book proves what most of us assume - being well-connected helps a lot with success and acts as a powerful "deodorant". Colacello is due to write a second volume on the Reagans. I will read it for the writing, the history and my belief in redemption.

Some friends of ours in Australia started to read this on an Asian cruise last Fall and asked us to bring them a copy when we visited Cairns in August.

They loved it and so did we, when we got to look at it prior to giving it to them.