Customer Reviews

A Very Private Woman : The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer

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

 

 

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...

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.

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.

This book doesn't answer some intriguing questions: Who killed Mary Meyer? What was the motive? What did Mary Meyer feel about her lover, John Kennedy, and his assassination? The author does take the subject seriously and gives Mary Meyer the respect she deserves. However, this book creates more questions than answers.

I am interested in these sorts of events, I have a degree in political science so I am interested in government officials, and as a graduate student I read boring things all the time. This book is worse than any policy review or textbook I have ever had to read.

To be honest I could not make it through the entire book because it was that inane. The first chapter is almost entirely who attended the funeral. Okay, fair enough, perhaps such a synopsis is necessary to introduce everyone who will show up in later events. And then the second chapter tells you how as a child, Mary was forced to attend her parents' poolside parties where baby peacock was served on plates set afloat in the pool. Who cares? Well, not me.

The events behind the book are probably very interesting; this treatment of them, however, is not. Skip it, or get it at the library. (No, really, read something else.)

Wrap up high-society of the '20s and '30s with the Kennedy years, the racial tensions of the early `60s, and a little flavor of the art world, and then sprinkle in a few conspiracy theories, the CIA, and a murder, put it all against a paranoiac backdrop of the cold war atmosphere, and then finally, for good measure, give it a dash of Timothy Leary and the drug culture (oh, and presidential sex too) - and you've got ... well, the potential for quite a mess. You also have the framework of the Mary Meyer story, and in less capable hands it could easily have taken on the tone of a melodramatic soap opera. But if there is one thing that Burleigh can be complimented on, it is her evenhandedness in discovering and examining the actual facts. Exhaustively researched (don't skip the footnotes on this one, they're fascinating in themselves) and carefully crafted, Burleigh gives a well balanced account of a life during turbulent, if not down right chaotic, times.

Readers might be disappointed that there is no tidy conclusion, but, then, that's real life. And what Burleigh delivers is the quite remarkable story of one woman who emerges from the label of housewife and hostess to stake out an identity of her own.

Mary Meyer's murder was one of the great post-JFK assassination mysteries. Nina Burleigh has entered a highly complex and frightening world to try to unravel the layers of lovers and spies. In doing so she has painted a picture of how the elite led bizarre lives from the 1920s to the 1960s. I found this book a great read about an intriguing, independent woman who cast her spell over friends in high places and haunted them long after her death.

A fascinating, detailed account of Mary Pinchot Meyer ... whose connections to other famous personalities made me exclaim about halfway through the book, "She's a female Forest Gump!" I agree with another reviewer who suggested one also read the footnotes ... I found myself doing that almost immediately, marking the first time I recall keeping two bookmarks in a book (one for the "regular" pages and one for the footnote section). My only disappointment is that author Nina Burleigh in her introduction says she "decided early on that (John F.) Kennedy warranted only a single chapter in Mary's life" so a single chapter on Kennedy was "sufficient." Why, then, is the subtitle of this book "The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer" and why is (easy to recognize) JFK pictured with Mary Meyer on the cover? The answer most likely relates to marketing ... the titillating subtitle no doubt helped to sell this book.

President Kennedy was not all we thought at the time. We reverd him, his family life and all that he did. This is an eye opening book and as such, necessary reading for the times we lived through with rose colored glasses.

You would think that it would be impossible to write a dull, mediocre, cramped and pompous book about the combined topics of the CIA, a presidential mistress (JFK's), high society in the 1920's and 30's, the Washington art scene, early LSD users and the 1950's. You would think so, but the author of this dreadful book has succeeded -- if that is the right verb -- in doing just that. She wilfully misunderstands and distorts everything she writes about. Every woman is either a feminist who agrees with the author's PC stance on everything, or an oppressed suburban housewife who would agree with the author about everything if only the blinders would fall from her eyes. The Vietnam War and the Cold War were caused by male prep school headmansters (!). You get the idea. The author's tin ear and leaden prose only make it worse. The said thing is that her subject's life could, in competent hands, be a fascinating and well-told talle, but the publication of this tepid biography will probably prevent the issuance of a book worthy of its subject. Mary Pinchot Meyer deserved better and I hope someday another biographer will do her justice. The publisher should be ashamed. This dreadful thing is far, far below any civilized standard and never should have been printed.