Too Close to the Sun: Growing Up in the Shadow of my Grandparents, Franklin and Eleanor [Hardcover]

Curtis Roosevelt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2008

Curtis Roosevelt was three when he and his sister, Eleanor, arrived at the White House soon after their grandfather’s inauguration. The country’s “First Grandchildren,” a pint-sized double act, they were known to the media as “Sistie and Buzzie.”

In this rich memoir, Roosevelt brings us into “the goldfish bowl,” as his family called it—that glare of public scrutiny to which all presidential households must submit. He recounts his misadventures as a hapless kid in an unforgivably formal setting and describes his role as a tiny planet circling the dual suns of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Blending self-abasement, humor, awe and affection, Too Close to the Sun is an intimate portrait of two of the most influential and inspirational figures in modern American history—and a thoughtful exploration of the emotional impact of growing up in their irresistible aura.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Curtis Roosevelt was barely three years old when his grandfather FDR became president and he and his older sister, Eleanor, and mother, Anna Roosevelt (recently separated from the children's father), joined Franklin and Eleanor as residents in the White House for much of the next 12 years. Curtis and Sis quickly became known through the press as Sistie and Buzzie, whose slide and monkey bars adorned the White House lawn. Curtis writes affectionately and beautifully about his grandparents, but he also describes their large, sheltering presence as a double-edged sword. Life outside the protective—and isolated—White House cocoon, he writes, became hugely distorted, especially for an impressionable youngster like me. Along with relaying a rich and fascinating cornucopia of anecdotes involving family life, Curtis devotes thoughtful discussion to the complex subject of reflected fame and its impact on young people growing up as the scions of celebrity. No one alive today knew Franklin and Eleanor quite as well as Curtis, their eldest grandson, and his sister. Thus this splendid, intimate memoir represents an invaluable addition to the literature of the Roosevelt era. Illus. (Nov.)
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From Booklist

As Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s grandchildren, the author and his sister lived in or visited the White House throughout FDR’s presidency. Reflecting on his formative years, Curtis Roosevelt covers the constellation of personalities in the presidential family, many of whose members wrote their own memoirs of life in the FDR clan. Curtis’ viewpoint on the family dynamics is dominated by something with which many readers can identify: divorce. In the wake of his parents’ split, young Curtis was stressed by dealing with the hostility his mother and grandmother bore for his father and by adjusting to a new stepfather. Finding an emotional haven in a warm relationship with FDR and FDR’s mother, the author fondly recounts his visits with them and, less fondly, the difficulties of growing up as one of America’s most famous boys. Plainly, Curtis Roosevelt has reflected deeply on the mixture of happiness and unhappiness in his childhood, which he expresses with a genuine feeling to which readers will positively respond. --Gilbert Taylor

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs; 1 edition (October 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586485547
• ISBN-13: 978-1586485542
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #586,522 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( R ) > Roosevelt, Eleanor

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How Youth is Bruised By the Mighty, November 24, 2008

By 

J. Stasny (Falls Church, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Too Close to the Sun: Growing Up in the Shadow of my Grandparents, Franklin and Eleanor (Hardcover)

Curtis Roosevelt was a child star. The oldest grandson of FDR, he and his sister became media celebrities before the term existed. In the case of Curtis (Buzzie) his childhood was swallowed by it.

His family insisted on propriety and tradition. Children apparently were accepted and graded according to a cultural template emphasizing the outcome as an adult rather than the process of becoming one. In a world where the governess or the nanny or the hired person became the substitute parent, childhood seemed to be tolerated by the family more than enjoyed by the child.

This lovely yet discomfiting book turns out to be about bewilderment and disappointment in a seductive world sadly short on adults warm enough, open enough or patient enough to make a child feel truly loved and secure. The author explains rather than complains while recounting childhood with a grandmother (Eleanor) with problems of her own and a mother (Anna) who appears more interested in satisfying her parents than understanding her children. Glitter and privilege rub hard on the boy. He notes that among his mother and four uncles (the FDR children) there were 16 divorces. His biological father was slowly walled off from him. His step father committed suicide not long after he joined the list of Roosevelt marriages gone wrong.

What fascinates most in this book is that these are the words of one of the very last who were actually there to witness the Roosevelt years first hand from inside the family. The boy was barely more than a toddler when his grandfather was elected president. The author's recollections are bolstered by a huge list in the acknowledgement section, people who evidently provided added perspective, and letters, and reminders. You get the sense that this is something of a reconstruction, difficult to write, likely a product of many painful revisions. The result is a book of memoirs, a man trying very hard to record what it was like to be a boy in a world of Depression and War that baffled even the most experienced adults.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Average..., January 22, 2010

By 

Cynthia K. Robertson (beverly, new jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Too Close to the Sun: Growing Up in the Shadow of my Grandparents, Franklin and Eleanor (Hardcover)

I'd be hard pressed to find a book about Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt that I didn't adore, but unfortunately, Too Close to the Sun: Growing Up in the Shadow of My Grandparents, Franklin and Eleanor by Curtis Roosevelt is just average. Curtis Roosevelt (formerly Curtis Roosevelt Dall) is the second grandchild and oldest grandson of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

The author was three years old when FDR became president. His mother Anna, (the president's only daughter) was going through a divorce at the time, and so moved into the White House with her two children. Anna Eleanor Dall (Sistie) and Curtis (Buzzie) became immediate media darlings. Although his mother remarried and they moved to the West Coast, the White House and the Big House at Hyde Park were always "home" to Curtis. The author's family recognized early on that Curtis enjoyed the attentions that were directed at FDR a little too much. "The idea that I might be suffering from growing up in the orbits of my grandfather and grandmother, whose powerful auras were doubled-edged, was untenable." Being that Curtis was the second oldest grandchild, he did get to witness many events and meet many important people during his grandfather's presidency.

I enjoyed the parts about FDR, Eleanor and the White House. For instance, FDR insisted on having a live Christmas tree in the White House, lit by actual candles. The White House staff was aghast. One can only imagine real candles on a 20 foot tree in the East Room! However, I was almost embarrassed reading some facts about the author's childhood. For instance, this poor, little rich boy never slept alone, unbuttoned a button, went to the bathroom by himself, or flushed a toilet until he was 5 years old and ready for kindergarten. The Sun in this story is definitely Franklin. Curtis adored his Papa. But I got the feeling that while Curtis admired Eleanor, his love was reserved for Sara Delano Roosevelt (Franklin's mother, called Granny). He writes that his Granny was not a villain. "The characterization, coupled with decades of my grandmother's polite but obviously shaded remarks about her mother-in-law, set in motion her ogress's reputation, a mantle that continues to hang around Sara Delano Roosevelt's shoulders." From the hundreds of books that I have read about the Roosevelt family, I believe this reputation is well-founded. Curtis also ends the book with FDR's death, thus reinforcing my feeling that for the author, Eleanor did not receive equal billing. While Too Close to the Sun did provide some amazing photographs, it is lacking an index that I would have found helpful.

I will add Too Close to the Sun to my Roosevelt collection. Although I feel it's just average, at least it's better than any of the books written by his uncles.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific perspective, November 29, 2008

By 

Jon Hunt "musician, teacher" (Old Greenwich, Ct. USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Too Close to the Sun: Growing Up in the Shadow of my Grandparents, Franklin and Eleanor (Hardcover)

Public glimpses inside the White House (especially from family members) are rare, so when Curtis Roosevelt produced this fine volume, "Too Close to the Sun", it allowed readers not to get just a few snippets of casual observations but a dozen years of day-to-day remembrances. Unusual as it is for a grandchild of a president to inhabit the White House, Roosevelt did just that as he lived on and off with his famous grandparents from the time of FDR's first inauguration until the death of our thirty-second president twelve years later. In "Too Close to the Sun", the author reveals not only his memories of that time but also the often internecine relationships that went with all of the Roosevelts. It's a book worth every page.

Curtis Roosevelt, the oldest grandson of FDR, was just three years old when his famous grandfather became president. It was a privileged upbringing, to say the least. This sheltering led to a fearful childhood as the elder Roosevelts made sure their children "knew their place" and behaved in a manner becoming of their family. Without much social contact with other children, Roosevelt developed a fantasy world for himself, all the while maintaining an average student's comportment while not partaking in activities in which most children grow and thrive. How could he? FDR's and Eleanor's children, themselves, hardly led a routine life. All were married more than once and some four times...including (a generation later) Curtis, himself. His parents' divorce, his mother's remarriage (she, Anna, was the president's only daughter) and his moves in and out of a succession of schools left the author with a weak footing, as he freely admits. Home was the White House or Hyde Park, period.

What's fascinating about this book is that it strikes a nice balance between the personalities of the Roosevelts and the author's own challenged upbringing. It is his views on the president, First Lady and Franklin's mother that are the best as he tells us of his abiding love for "Granny" (FDR's mother, Sara) his gradual understanding of his "grandmére" (Eleanor) and his adoration of "Papa" (the president).
The book serves as a tour of the Roosevelt White House, complete with nannies, secret service agents, secretaries, and of course, those rambunctious Roosevelt uncles, who all did pretty much as they wanted.

One can understand the childhood that Curtis Roosevelt led and empathize with him, but his charm is never making the reader sympathize for him. That's a pretty good trick, and Roosevelt succeeds. "Too Close to the Sun" is full of rich detail and given the perspective that the author has, a much welcome addition to the lore of the FDR years. I highly recommend it.