The Kennedy Women

Rating:
Summary: BRAV0! BRAVO! BRILLIANTLY DONE
Review: "For the most part Rose grandchildren observed and respected and obeyed her, tiptoeing around her life as if she were an exquisite piece of porcelain. She had led such a decorous life, blocking out the untoward, the ugly, and the unacceptable, that her eyes no longer saw the darker colours of the spectrum. "Pat drank a bottle of wine in the morning," Rose was told. "That's impossible" Rose replied, Pat doesn't drink"

I was glad that I read this book because it has helped me to understand so much more about this so much talked about family. In Mr. Leaner's book we get to know about the Kennedy women's personal thoughts and the correct stories of the daughters and daughters-in-law. Mr.Leamer has given us indept portraits of these women and my favourite is Rose Kennedy the Matriarch of the family. For Rose was a woman so strong and who suffered great disloyalty by her husband which she took all gracefully all for the sake of her family and what she supposed the public expected of them. She was a stern Catholic and gain her strength through her prayer and trust in God.
Also portrayed are Joan Kennedy; Ted wife who had a problem with alcohol. Jackie Kennedy Onnassis; the President's wife who remarried after the President's death to a Greek tycoon. Pat Lawford; married to a Hollywood star and spent most of her time in Los Angeles. Eunice Shriver, who was always working for the handicapped and underprivileged and was one of the Kennedys with great patience and common sense. Ethel Kennedy, Robert Kennedy's widow and Jean Smith.
The Kennedys pushed their tragedies to the inner recesses of their minds.They refused to let others see the negative side of their lives, and carried their problems and burdens inwardly taking pains not to show their broken hearts. To some this might seem pretentious, but they honestly had their reasons. After all they were special in the eyes of America.
Whenever tragedy struck it was not unusual for them to suddenly get physical by taking walks, riding, swimming and any form of exercise. Rosemary the eldest daughter who was mentally retarded was isolated from the public eye and sent to Wisconsin where she was looked after by those of the Sacred Order. This book has helped me to understand so much more about the choices they made and the reason they made them, though tragedy seem to follow them everywhere.

Mr. Leamer has pulled out all the stops in the brilliantly written book, and I would not hesitate to read anything by him in the future. Bravo! Bravo! Heather Marshall 04/04/04

Rating:
Summary: Credible, detailed profile of the Kennedys
Review: A brilliant and thorough telling of what made the Kennedys tick, especially Rose Kennedy. Great recounting of the people(& their experiences) who were the earliest Kennedys in America. This book does not shed a good light on many key members of the family. A good reason to lose respect for Rose will be provided and documented over and over again throughout the book. Her hypocrisy regarding Catholicism, her philosophies in the raising of the children all serve the top priorities in her life- a superior family image, and social ambition to the highest degrees. Kennedy males were not discreet about any of these issues and apparently didn't have to be, but Rose constantly made the decisions to deny the array of family sins evident throughout the decades. The Kennedy Women were just victims of the system Rose and her husband created for them. They themselves are not necessarily to be disrespected. On the contrary, you feel sympathetic to this segment of the family. Rose Kennedy, her husband, the family sure give Catholics, Irish Catholics, the social elite, politicians, a bad name. This book reveals great truths about the past century with this family and their legacies. Ambition+ Greed+ Hypocrisy+ Wealth= The 20th century Kennedy family members. Read this if you are interested in the Kennedy saga, sociology, religion, and politics, and American history.

Rating:
Summary: CAPTIVATING
Review: A Handsome addition to anyone's bookself, The kennedy Women explores the themes and connections that bind these women together. Highly recommended. FOR QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSIONS ON JACKIE ONASSIS, PLEASE E-MAIL ME AT [e-mail]. HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: filled with emotion and heartache
Review: a tale of the rise of the kennedy family, from the first kennedy to the current kennedy generation. tells the story of the many adventures of joe sr. and jfk with their women friends, and the women who supported them. absolutely awesome, and a must-read

Rating:
Summary: Well done!
Review: Celebritys are easy targets to degrade in print. Scandal and tragedy, often exaggerated or made up entirely, sell millions of dollars of tabloids and books to the baser people in the world. Aren't you sick of reading scathing critcism of people who happen to lead public lives? I think people who write that stuff and the people who consume it are very unhappy with their own lives and thrive on attacking someone who has what they do not. What I LOVED about this books is that Leamer was JUST REPORTING STORIES AND FACTS. This book is NOT SENSATIONALIZED and DOES NOT exploit this family's tragedies and embarassements. He just reports them. There aren't sweeping, generatlized statements but specific details. And he has an EXTENSIVE bibliography which futher adds to his credibility. I was so impressed with his integrity as a writer that I bought his biography of the Reagans and I'm looking forward to reading it.

Rating:
Summary: Kenndy stories told from a different perspective
Review: Enjoyed the taped version of THE KENNEDY WOMEN: THE SAGA
OF AN AMERICAN FAMILY by Laurence Leamer . . . this is another
Kennedy family saga, but one I was not overly familiar with in that it focused on the women . . . I was especially inspired by the first tale of immigrant Bridget Murphy . . . she met Patrick Kennedy on the boat from Ireland in 1849 . . . nine years after their marriage, she was a widow with four children who worked as a domestic servant, then bought and ran a variety store . . . other Kennedy names were more familiar, including Rose (the center of the story), Kathleen, Rosemary, Eunice, and of course Jackie . . . you'll be moved by the stories, unfortunately, many of them had tragic endings.

Rating:
Summary: a virtual feast for Kennedy lovers
Review: For five years bestselling author, journalist & social historian Laurence Leamer researched the book, receiving unprecedented cooperation from Kennedy family members, interviewing scores of relatives & close associates, & gaining access to hundreds of personal documents. The book combines his exhaustive & superb scholarship with a gripping narrative that will forever alter our perception of America's royal family.

The Kennedy Women is a virtual feast for Kennedy lovers. The book could serve as a university course on the life of the family, chronicling five matrilineal generations in our nation's foremost political dynasty. It provides a poetic panorama of the history of American womanhood, as we are taken from the life of Bridget Murphy Kennedy, who arrived steerage class on an immigrant vessel to work as a servant in the slums of Boston, to the presentation of Joseph Kennedy's daughters to the Queen of England, to John F. Kennedy's White House, through discussions of the future Kennedy matriarchs Caroline Kennedy Scholossberg, Maria Shriver Schwartzenegger, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, & Rory Kennedy.

Wonderful, in-depth portraits with much new material are given of all the Kennedy women, particularly the ubiquitous Jackie, Ethel, & Eunice, & the mentally challenged Rosemary, whose story in all its horror & duplicity is revealed in detail.

It isn't often that one mourns coming to the end of a book. Although The Kennedy Women covers 933 pages, I was saddened to find myself on the last page.

Rating:
Summary: a virtual feast for Kennedy lovers
Review: For five years bestselling author, journalist & social historian Laurence Leamer researched the book, receiving unprecedented cooperation from Kennedy family members, interviewing scores of relatives & close associates, & gaining access to hundreds of personal documents. The book combines his exhaustive & superb scholarship with a gripping narrative that will forever alter our perception of America's royal family.

The Kennedy Women is a virtual feast for Kennedy lovers. The book could serve as a university course on the life of the family, chronicling five matrilineal generations in our nation's foremost political dynasty. It provides a poetic panorama of the history of American womanhood, as we are taken from the life of Bridget Murphy Kennedy, who arrived steerage class on an immigrant vessel to work as a servant in the slums of Boston, to the presentation of Joseph Kennedy's daughters to the Queen of England, to John F. Kennedy's White House, through discussions of the future Kennedy matriarchs Caroline Kennedy Scholossberg, Maria Shriver Schwartzenegger, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, & Rory Kennedy.

Wonderful, in-depth portraits with much new material are given of all the Kennedy women, particularly the ubiquitous Jackie, Ethel, & Eunice, & the mentally challenged Rosemary, whose story in all its horror & duplicity is revealed in detail.

It isn't often that one mourns coming to the end of a book. Although The Kennedy Women covers 933 pages, I was saddened to find myself on the last page.

Rating:
Summary: Best I've Read in a LOOOONG Time
Review: I bought this used and have literally spent the last three days reading it. I couldn't put it down; and I attribute that to Mr. Leamer's excellent writing style and meticulous and unbiased research. I think it's amazing that almost forty years after Dallas there is still an incredible amount of drek and sensational junk journalism floating around the Kennedy family. This book seemed to be very well-researched and the highly readable prose made it a true page-turner.

I was astonished at Joe Kennedy's decision to have Rosemary lobotomized; the passages about her in later years, especailly when her mother, Rose, tried to reconnect with her, were absolutely heartbreaking. That almost hurt my heart more than the more well-known murders and untimely deaths.

I have come away with a new respect for "The Girls", Eunice in particular. What a remarkable family. And an excellent book. I recommend this very highly.

Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding
Review: I had no idea when I purchased this book just how fascinating it would be. I couldn't put it down. There were many facets to the Kennedy family--their heritage, motivations, success, wealth, religion, education, political connections, public stature, traditions--not to mention their indiscretions and tragedies. You get to read it all, and it is more entertaining than anything I've read in a long time.