32 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Mary Meyer Deserves Better, November 15, 1998
This review is from: A Very Private Woman : The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer (Hardcover)
You would think that given the subjects of a mistress of JFK, the CIA, the Washington art world, high society in the 1920's and 30's, political intrigue, etc. that it would be difficult to write a dull book. You would think so, but the author has succeeded -- if that is the right word -- in doing just that. This book is callow, trite and flawed in almost every respect. The author shallowly misunderstands every one of the subjects listed above and the history of the 1950's too. Her leaden prose and tin ear don't help. This is a dreadful mix of politically correct staitjacked thinking and PEOPLE magazine style fascination with the lives of people the author does not understand. It is a shame this book was published, as the underlying story is a fascinating one, and all this book will do is postpone the publication of a decent book that does justice to the subject. Mary Pinchot Meyer deserved a better biography than this, and I hope someday someone else will write it...
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17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Culture That Designed American History, February 9, 2004
This review is from: A Very Private Woman : The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer (Hardcover)
Mary Pinchot Meyer's life and death occurred within the apex of American old money and power. That power, politically and ideologically was no where more penetrating than within the intelligence community. The'Company,' where her previously idealistic and later reactionary husband worked, has been implicated in nefarious, double dealings since that time and Cord Meyer was at the top of its chain. His was the brainstorm that invented student dissident groups, staffing it with agents and keeping tabs on my generation's protests. His best friend was the infamous James Jesus Angleton. Angleton took posession of Mary's diary hours after she died.
The first part of the book, the graced childhood, Brearley/Vassar educations and the social connections that the beautiful Mary enjoyed was for me the most interesting. This fascination remained steady through the early days of her marriage to Cord Meyer, their relationship to the World Federalists a group of high-minded world- government idealists, and the decline of their affections and left leaning beliefs.
Mary's relations with the Washington Elite were also revelatory. Especially little known facts of the iconic Ben Bradlee's tell all relations with the CIA. Women were marginalized and often depressed- Mary was psychoanalyzed by the famous Dr. Oller, a follower of Wilhelm Reich. These well-educated and often gifted women toyed with art Gurdjieffian mystecism and many divorced after numbing and endless affairs. Mary Meyer was not unique in her adulterous and monied travels; but her relation to Timothy Leary, (also a CIA confidant at times) and her status as JFK's rare female friend as well as occassional mistress casts a different perspective on the otherwise sex-addicted president.
There is no clear evidence that Mary Meyer was taken out by the CIA for knowing too much about Kennedy's death, but the author spends the latter third of the book sifting through the evidence. That section unearthed and mainly debunked any theories that previous writers have put forth. Indeed, that was where the pace of the otherwise compelling story slowed.
Whereas some reviewers found the tale too spare a study of this debutantte turned psychedelic artist; I found the book essential to coming to terms with the human personalities that directed our lives in the Cold War. American operatives hobnobbed with the mafia and ex-Cuban mercenaries as well as drank, played around not much differently from how they and their fathers had famously done at Harvard and Yale.
There are several portraits of Jackie and Jack that give some further insight into that complicated relationship but mainly this is a tale of men who were, as their wives, patricians all- despite a forced street guy bravado, men who believed strongly in first their entitlement to lead the world, second, to protect the nation from communism with whatever means possible and third, to use the constitution to defend their actions.
The Washington set was a social club that led the world- it was a collusion of media and government men and politicians.
Perhaps most telling, is the depiction of the nature of power, the manner by which it is bestowed and what occurs when so few checks and balances are secured to manage its shadow side.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great story, not a great book, July 13, 2005
This review is from: A Very Private Woman : The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer (Hardcover)
The story of Mary Pinchot Meyer is a lot more interesting than this book. Occasionally, the author tries to recreate scenes and conversations on a pretty slim set of facts, supposing what may have motivated very private people she never met.
Oh, and Dean Acheson was not *Under-Secretary* of State! Did this woman read anything about diplomacy, the Cold War, or Washington society between 1940 and 1965? How could she and her copy editor not know that Dean Acheson was our Secretary of State, and a major figure in post-war Washington?
Washington was a very exciting place to be -- but you won't get the full description of those times in this book. too bad.
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