Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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67 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dishy Non-Fiction Beach Read, August 7, 2004
The Cast of Characters in this book is unequaled for sheer social and political wattage: Bobby, Jack, Ari, Jackie, Princess Lee, Marilyn, Maria, Gore, Truman -- top-drawer icons of the 50's and 60's who possessed the cachet of first-name-only reocognizability. "Nemesis" gives the confluence of these starcrossed lovers -- and trust me, they all slept together -- a
bloodless quality, as though we have stumbled into a smoky room in Hell where deals with the devil are made. But first we meet Christina, the daughter for whom the yacht (upon which so much of the power sex in this book takes place) is named. Mere months before her suicide, bright but doomed Christina drops a bombshell over lunch with the author, illustrating a connection between Bobby Kennedy's assassination and Aristotle Onassis'
money.
Within each family many secrets were held, from each other and from the world. "Nemesis" depicts the outer edge of an age where secrecy was still available from the press as well, and politicians and other celebrities were able to live in half-shadow, to disguise the emptiness of their arranged lives. Their wanton dance of destruction in this environment is fascinating to watch. If the author had said, in one of his many footnotes, that he had strapped an old gypsy woman to a lie detector machine and verified that she was responsible for placing the curse on the Onassis and Kennedy clans, I'd believe him. You can't read about young Alexander Onassis dying in a plane crash without thinking of John Kennedy, Jr. Obviously, there is a pox on both their houses. How else can you explain
so much unhappiness and loss in the midst of so much privilege and wealth?
The story of Kennedy and Onassis lends itself to conspiracy theories. (Look at the two names together . . . each has seven letters with two consonants in the middle; that's got to mean something!) Mr. Evans has familiarized himself with the voluminous material available on the topic (including Anthony Summers "Goddess," which places Bobby in Marilyn's house the day she died) and he hacks through the forest of speculation surrounding the families with a silent chainsaw, stylishly, but at times indelicately, providing a stream of jaw-dropping facts and sublime quotes which recall Truman Capote as he decimated his beloved socialites in "La Cote Basque."
In fact, Mr. Evans runs the risk of casting doubt upon the veracity of his book because he's obviously having such a good time with the antics of his monsters . . . it is a tale about shady tale-tellers after all, and truth really is stranger than fiction. But to those as curious as Mr. Evans is about this era, his suppositions have the ring of truth to them.
In the absence of empathy or compassion, however, this book suffers. Every one of these creatures, with the exception of poor Maria Callas, seems to exercise their worst motivation at every opportunity.
Although the author makes it hard to see the principals as anything more than a pack of horny, sociopathic vampires drawn to each other in some kind of weird, karmic death embrace, you get the feeling he has given you the goods. I honestly feel I never need to read another word on Kennedy or Onassis after "Nemesis." Nor do I want to. (We want to see them hoisted up, but we don't necessarily want to see them beaten with sticks.)
Peter Evans has supplied a great read that appeals -- in spite of the occasional feeling that, even with all the footnotes and attributions and acknowledgements, he might not have it quite yet. There is the whiff of speculation. After all, Christina Onassis loathed Jacqueline Kennedy. So Evans has buttressed his central revelation with several sources who back him up in his assumption. It seems credible. "Nemesis" reads like a political thriller, which indeed it is, a real-life
"Manchurian Candidate." And if it's true, it is easily one of the most incredible and horrifying stories of our time.
It's the kind of book where you stop at times and marvel at how
beautifully, and savagely, written it is. And how talented Peter Evans is.
He's a great storyteller.
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65 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shocking and Powerful, August 1, 2004
I was unprepared for a book as blunt as NEMESIS proved to be.
Admittedly, under the law, it is impossible to slander a dead person, but a few of the players in Peter Evans' report still are alive, such as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' sister and Senator Edward Kennedy. Nonetheless, they undoubtedly would be construed as public figures under the libel laws of the United States. Evans, therefore, obviously is comfortable with some of the allegations that he makes here.
Nobody who reads this book ever will feel the same about any of the primary cast of characters. President Kennedy reads almost like a sexual pervert and, according to Evans, his wife may have defined the concept of the "Merry Widow." Her sister, Lee Radziwell, comes over as even more ungrounded than Jackie was in conventional morality regarding adultery--and this is being polite.
According to Evans, Marilyn Monroe sounds anything but simple, and Robert Kennedy appears almost venal. Evans casts doubt on everything including the motivation behind Jackie's pregnancies and those of Ethel Kennedy, considering them to be largely political tools contrived by the husbands. This seems hard to believe.
The person who comes across worst is Aristotle Onassis. Among the other assertions in this book, it is claimed that Onassis originally had been a homosexual and that the basis of his fortune had come from drug smuggling.
The kicker is that Evans states that Onassis had arranged for the assassination of Robert Kennedy, his "nememis" of the title, by Arabic terrorists.
NEMESIS makes for gripping reading, one of those books that prove impossible to put down until the very last page.
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32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lifestyles of the Rich, Famous and Scandalous!, July 4, 2004
By A Customer
This book is a fascinating and addictive read. I could not put it down, unless I was throwing it down in shock, complete and utter shock at the way our so called "American royalty" lived their lives! But everytime I threw this book down, I picked it up again and continued -- the truth hurts, but it must be read! Peter Evans has spent more than 30 years researching and writing about Aristotle Onassis (He wrote the bio "Ari: The Life and Times of Aristotle Socrates Onassis"). He has demonstrated his insider access and ability to get candid interviews, quotes and details -- it's all in the book and the footnotes!! This author spent time with Onassis, his daughter Christina and many of Onassis's closest relatives and associates from the late 1960's on. His theory, that Aristotle Onassis paid Palestinian terrorists to have RFK killed is supported not just by rumor and circumstantial evidence -- but by the confessions/revelations of Aristotle and Christina Onassis, business associates of Aristotle and one of his many lovers. Plus scribbling in Sirhan Sirhan's notebooks (that were entered into evidence at his trial) that implicated Onassis to anyone who was familiar with his world (and apparently convinced his own son of his involvement!). You will not believe the reckless sexual behavior of Jackie, her sister Lee, the Kennedy men and just about everyone else in their world! Or how Ted Kennedy reportedly "pimped" Jackie when her intention to marry Onassis was announced (read the footnotes!). If you think I have told too much you really need to read this book -- this isn't even the half of it! Very well written, researched and documented. I am already hunting down books listed in the foot and end notes. New, used, you've got to read this book!
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