Customer Reviews

The Season: The Secret Life of Palm Beach and America's Richest Society

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is an eye opening look at Palm Beach society featuring big bucks and big boobs (2 kinds of boobs-silicone and people!) Seriously,Kessler devotes a whole chapter to the fake breasts that dot the Palm Beach landscape! And the silly, snobby behavior of some of the locals is described by Kessler in great detail. The money must grow on palm trees there too. Kessler describes in depth how the $$$ are made, spent and used as tools to further "ones position". And there are lots of $$$ flowing. Kessler does tend to focus though on limited areas in Palm Beach. At times I felt as though I was reading an advertisement for the Palm Beach restaurant Taboo. Not that it wasnt interesting. I had lunch at Taboo several years ago and never realized that folks there have been know to pay $500 for twinkies with cream and leave their panties for the busboy. If I ever get back there I will certainly be more attentive! I was also surprised to read that Donald Trump who does not play well in the media often coming across as self centered and immature actually listens to people and appears interested in them.(Or did the private flight in "the Donalds" plane influence Kesslers opinion?) Regardless of what his true character is, sounds like the Trump is shaking up the Palm Beach area with his gusto and drive! I am so sorry I did not get a chance to visit Donald's club while I was there...Sounds gorgeous, if one can afford the dues! It was also interesting to read that Palm Beach is considered very safe. Unfortunately I had a bad experience just on the outskirts after dining at the absolutely exquisite Breakers hotel (which is not mentioned in the book enough) that has not helped my feelings towards the town despite its great beauty. The book is gossipy, revealing and definately a juicy read. I do wish though that Kessler had explored some other avenues in the town and not focused primarily on Taboo and just a few other places. Overall though a nice, light read. Perfect for the pool! (Oh you say its winter where you are? Well why aren't you flying to one of your other homes for the season?!)

I was hoping to settle in for a juicy read of the goings-on regarding the "fabulously" wealthy but was extremely disappointed with the author's lack of both content and style. Lamely reported ancedotes such as someone getting stuck with a group bar tab, fights breaking out between bar patrons and flowers being sent out to a table for a restaurant birthday celebration do NOT an interesting tome make and that's just in the first 40 pages! Also Mr. Kessler's interviews are reported in such a "jumpy" manner, one is never sure who is speaking at any given time. Irritating, clipped paragraphs abound which gives the book a "pasted together" feel. There is a treasure trove of subject matter in Palm Springs. Hopefully, someone will write about it someday in a more readable manner.

After consuming this book, the only aftertaste left in my mouth was dissatisfaction. I was unfamiliar with Kessler's writings, and I must say that this unflowing novel did not leave a good first impression. I'll just say that I am not anxious to read anymore of his writings.

My purpose for purchasing this novel was to learn more about Palm Beach's society. After reading the book, I feel that I knew more before opening it. The characters portrayed in the novel do not seem to give an accurate portrayal of the majority of Palm Beach's population. For example, he is informed by a restaurant owner that the trust fund babies are spoiled, tight handed party animals. How would this restaurant manager know? Even if he saw a group of trust fund babies partying, are all or most of them party animals? If you go to a club or bar anywhere in the US you are likely to see some people getting wasted, but this wouldn't mean that the town's population should be categorized as wild clubaholics. He also gathers information about anti-semitism in the Private clubs from people who are active members and who have witnessed it. However, I feel that such second hand knowledge is partly responsible for discreditting his book. Why not interview a good selection of trust fund babies, or take accounts from those who have been discriminated against, first hand? These biased and one-eyed accounts make it impossible to draw a credible conclusion of Palm Beach's society.

Another big problem I find in this book is Kessler's wishy washy details. For each critism he throws, he seems to pay three or four compliments. For example, yes Palm Beachers have scandalous affairs, but they are so physically attractive, protective, and forgiving. Yes, Palm Beachers are stingy, but they are also humame, helpful, generous, and sincere. Yes, Palm Beachers are anti-semitic, but they are also pro-american, accomodating, and inviting. It is so ironic how Kessler proclaims to expose Palm Beach's scandals whenever he takes so much time to view each Palm Beacher who bothers to interview with him in such a positive light. He manages to paint the Palm Beachers who have taken him in as the sheep among wolves. These inconsistencies crushed any existing confidence I may have had that Kesslers accounts of Palm Beach Society are totally accurate.

I must say that there is one thing that I am confident of and that is that this book did not satifactorily open up the world of Palm Beach to me. I do not know if I wasted more time or more money on this book. Now I will have to spend more money on a different book that will do for me what "The Seasons" should have done. On the other hand, I do not want to risk wasting anymore of my time, in whatever season, reading a novel as lifeless and unreal as this one. Now I must ask myself is the risk of wasting more time and money worth reading about these people who are unconcerned about me?

Having visited Palm Beach several times in the last couple of years for conferences and meetings, I became curious about this place and how, for instance, it might be different from another tony seaside enclave where I live.....Newport Beach, CA. Though the author, Ron Kessler, professes that The Season is not an expose, I would beg to differ. Kessler adroitly works his contacts to give the reader a facinating look at the insular (and some might say incesteous)world of Palm Beach high society, the only kind there is in Palm Beach. Yes, as previous reviewers have noted, the book is a bit disjointed and the flow could be better. But make no mistake---Kessler is on the mark with his characterizations and decriptions of such Palm Beach establishments as The Everglades Club, The Bath and Tennis Club; anti-semitism at those and other clubs, the charity ball "season" from which the book draws its name, the Palm Beach Police, and the assorted people who make their livings off the rich much as a pilot fish attaches itself to a shark for its survival. Personally, I thought I got enough out of this by the time I got to the picture gallery which was quite interesting in and of itself. The last half of the book is where the biggest organizational breakdowns occur. Stop at the pictures.

As I read this book, a thought kept recurring- can't these people come up with anything better to do with their time? Kessler writes about a group of people who have all the money and all the time anyone could want, but choose to spend their lives hanging out at (anti-seimitic) private clubs and attending charity balls that don't actually raise all that much for charity, once the enormous expenses are deducted from the money taken in.

According to Kessler, Palm Beach is populated by women who want nothing more than to snag a rich man, and men who reaffirm their youth and masculinity by getting involved with much younger women. When a more decent person did turn up, I wondered what they were doing there. Even after reading this book, I can't figure out the alleged attraction of Palm Beach.

The book was repetitive and disorganized, and I was ready for it to end, but it does provide a glimpse (and I have no idea how accurate it is) into a world I will thankfully never be a part of.

I hate myself for having read this book right to the end. It was like reading aspecial double issue of Vanity Fair, packed full of scabrous gossip about a bunch of people I never heard of efore and never will again. The so-called "celebrities" who flicker through the pages of the book were just flying in, they don't live in Palm Beach, and who's left? Well, Donald Trump and a few others, all of them deadly dull.

Every page has some kind of cautionary tale about the straight men who rule the roost in Palm Beach and buy their love with money. This one "can't keep it in his pants." That one " has to get his affairs into order." It would be interesting if the reader cared about any of the people, or again, knew who they were. The author, Kessler, who wrote a fairy tale book about George Bush Jr's Presidential character, is obviously in great anxiety about his own social status, and he must feel that rubbing against these rich, spoiled people on vanity fair's bank account, is going to make him somehow less Jewish.

As many readers have commented, the book is filled with photos of Kessler and his wife ("Pam") meeting rich people, trying to look happy and relaxed. But their flop sweat is written all over them. Whoever the photo editor was for THE SEASON should have discreetly taken the Kesslers aside and told them how tacky their photos are, save them for the panelled den in their suburban home, or their cabin cruiser.

Kessler tries to imitate the highly worked novelistic shape of MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL by focussing on the dreary story of a male "walker," a single presentable man who is available to escort society women to parties--this character is called Kirby and he indulges in a passion for a so-called straight man named Bill, a loser ex-con who's always up to some drug-inspired mischief. Kirby would be pathetic, but at least he shows some emotion. Unlike the other people Kessler tries to impress us with.

As one woman says in THE SEASON, "There are a lot of floozies and fruits and nuts. There are also a lot of beautiful men and women here.. But the ones who are straight are taken. I live in a crazy town. People try to contaminate me with their bizarreness." Well, hey, I live in a crazy town too, but I never felt contaminated until I read this impossible, heartbreaking book about trying to mingle with your betters.

After reading the other 9 reviews, I feel I must write in support of Kessler's "The Season." Yes, the book should have been rewritten by the author so that it would flow better. It has a pasted-together feel, and certain nonessential characters received too much attention. There is a great deal of information but for the reader, separating the important from the chaff isn't easy. Perhaps the sensational nature of the subject meant that it would sell without such added attention. That said, I found the book fascinating. I don't feel that the anti-semitism was dwelt on too much. Since Kessler is Jewish, why wouldn't he take this personally? Also, it probably will surprise most people who assumed that rich meant education and intelligence that such is not the case at all. Kessler exposes very well the lies, ignorance and shallowness of the people in those clubs that discriminate. Also, the revelation that Donald Trump has thumbed his nose at such attitudes by making his resort completely egalitarian (all you need is money) was a revelation. It was also news to me that the funds raised by the "charity balls," upon which the very rich congratulate themselves, are eaten up by the cost of the balls themselves. Aside from caviar and a live band, I can't understand why a party should cost hundred of thousands, but then at the parties I go to you are lucky to get dip for the chips. Kessler's coverage of ladies in tiaras who can't find a date, men wearing medals they haven't earned and bragging of degrees from universities they didn't attend, and the desparate search for royalty, any royalty, who will drop by for a fee made for an entertaining (and often alarming) read. All in all, if you are interested in the culture of the fabulously wealthy you will enjoy the book and forgive its shortcomings.

The book was an easy read in that respect it was well written. It flowed well. However, I could not help but to think repeated throughout the book how the author harks on anti-semitism in Palm Beach by the upper class. For example, there is more than enough chapters about how the country clubs exclude Jews, over and over. I am not anti semitic, nor do I support anti semitic views and practices but I think the author mentions this way too much in his book. There is prejudice everywhere but what is so appealing in being a member of "members only" establishment is that it does exclude most.

There are more pics of author with the so-called "rich and famous" than the rich and famous themselves!

The book, I feel does give some insight into the lives of the inabitants of Palm Beach but not really into the lives of the original inhabitants, the "old guard". The people he interviews all seem to be poseurs trying to fit in and be a part of the "old guard" and even if theydo float on the "fringes" of "society" they don't really seem to be an insider or a real member. His sources are restaurant managers, real estate brokers, waitresses at hotel bars - how many of the old money-ed Palm Beachers would have these types of occupation? I just question how accurately these sources know the real workings of the truly wealthy, old money-ed Palm Beachers since they are not one themselves.

All in all, pleasant read but take the information with a grainof salt.

Basically a series of anecdotes. Like reading someone's diary.
The interesting anecdotes were that Marjorie Merriweather Post liked her gold bath room fixtures because gold is much easier to clean, that one of Bobby Kennedy's kids OD'd in room 107 of the Brazilian Court Hotel, and that the Kennedy estate was falling in and had no A/C when the family sold it. Of course, Donald Trump weighs in with his genius for self promotion. I guess one could have used it for a guide to the hot bars and restaurants in the late 90's when the book was written.
But the book is sadly lacking in insights and history of how Palm Beach became such a center for superficiality and messed up values. About the only insigths he offers is that super rich are often unhappy, and their children could care less when they die.
Don't bother!

This is not a very accurate portrayal of Palm Beach as a whole. Kessler focuses primarily on the lives of five people and then throws in some other stories to give the book some length. The content of the book is very scattered. Many times I was left wondering where this guy was going. I personally know that some of Kessler's information is factual, which was a delight to see in print, but some of it I strongly questioned (as have many Palm Beachers). He could have uncovered some great stories if only he had done a little more research. It was worth a few laughs anyway.