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Jackie Ethel Joan : Women of Camelot
: This is the first book I have read by J. Randy Taraborrelli, and I was impressed. I am distantly related to the Kennedys -- a distant cousin -- so I like to think I know a little bit (probably not much) more than the "normal" reader. But even I didn't know this material. Taraborrelli approached his women of Camelot with such grace and evenhandedness, he makes other biographers of the women seem like samari warriors. I most enjoyed reading about the differences in the Kennedy women's background prior to their marrying into the powerful family. These are three very different people --- Jackie, Ethel and Joan -- and in reading about them you wonder if they ever would have known each other or spent a second with one another had they not married into the family. (Though I do think, from reading this book, that Jackie and Joan may have been friends, anyway ... though I don't know how they would have met.) Taraborrelli writes about the rumors having to do with Jackie and Bobby (not true, he says) and Marilyn and Bobby (again, not true, he says) and Marilyn and JFK (very true, and much to Jackie's ongoing unhappiness.) Plus there's lots of political suspense in the book, too -- though we all know how it works out in the end. I enjoyed this book tremendously and would recommend it to anyone. You don't even have to like the Kennedys to enjoy this, it's such a good read. A-Plus effort, and thank you Amazon for giving me a chance to voice my opinion.
To me, it sounds like the critics of this book on these boards have never even read a biography before this one. What's with all the discussion about conversations between people being reconstructed. Big deal. Who cares? It's real clear to me how each scene was constructed based on who was in the room witnessing the conversation, or based on what one of the particpants in the conversation told someone else. I get the essence of what this book is about, anyway, and it's a great story that should be read. Buy this book! Jackie comes off like an angel sent to help Joan through such terrible ordeals. Yet, you also get it that she was a diva, herself, and that you wouldn't want to cross her. (Poor Judy Garland is taken to task in this book for interrupting Jackie while she paints!) Ethel is as complex as they come, always saying the wrong thing but always well-meaning. I loved Ethel in this book, and felt terrible for her when all of her dreams were dashed because of her husband's horrible murder. And Joan is the strong one, though she doesn't start out that way. At the beginning of the book, she has a lot of problems. She becomes an alcoholic due, at least in part, to her bad marriage but also her poor self-esteem. She sees herself as a victim, and that's what she is. (If Oprah was around then, she would have had Joan on her show!) But then when Jackie empowers Joan, Joan reinvents herself as the book's heroine. THIS is the way to live your life, I think, and the book really lays it all out for you. This author is pretty enlightened for a man. LOL. I learned a lot from reading about these women's experiences, and I'm glad the author passed it all on to me and the rest of his readers.
I was always under the impresion that these three Kennedy women barely even knew one another. This books tells a great and emotional story. But it's also well-researched and historically relevant. Political wives, in a sense, maybe haven't changed that much. Jackie Kennedy and Hillary Clinton have a lot more in common than you might think, especially after reading this book. I read the whole thing in three sittings ... very enjoyable. My thanks to Amazon for making it so readily available before the stores had it!
 I haven't read many books on the Kennedys, but there was little new and enlightening in this one. Aside from a few tidbits, much of this stuff has been rehashed in previous magazines, articles and books. This book was at its worst when the author tried to recreate conversations between the women and pass it off as actual truth. Some of the "supposed" conversations were almost laughable in their simplicity. A second-grader could have done a better job with the dialogue. Anyway, how does this author claim to know what happened during a private conversation between two people without any witnesses? Don't buy this book - if you really must read it, take it out of the library or borrow it from someone. It's much ado about nothing.
I have followed the Kennedy family's highs and lows through the years and often found myself wanting to know more about these three women. In the past, biographies have focused on the Kennedy men, and their wives seemed overlooked as subjects. This thorough look at the lives of the Kennedy wives gives the reader an insiders feel. The mystery of the Chappaquidick incident was never so clearly explained, and many of the intriguing facts surrounding Marilyn Monroe's affair with JFK are put into perspective. This book was obviously well researched, and kept me up until the wee hours reading. After finishing the book, I realized that I had never really had a very strong opinion of either Joan or Ethel, they were always more second fiddles to Jackie. But all three were incredible ladies whose surprising friendship with one another was well worth the 500 pages written by the talented Taraborrelli.
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