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Rating: 
Summary: MONEY CAN'T BUY HAPPINESS AFTER ALL
Review:
The cliche "Money can't buy happiness" and its waggish footnote "but there are plenty of other selections" are both proven true in The Onassis Women by Kiki Feroudi Moutsatsos,
former secretary to Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
As reverential as it is revelatory, this chatty discourse begins in 1966. Thus, one misses much of the mogul's early years, such as his days hawking neckties on Buenos Aires streets.
Nonetheless, the slice of life the author did share with Onassis and his women is juicy enough to sate the hungriest curiosity. Is there anyone extant who doesn't know that
the aforementioned women included Jackie Kennedy Onassis and tempestuous diva Maria Callas? That these iconic ladies shared him makes the story even more intriguing. At center stage is, of course, Aristotle Onassis, "part god, part mortal" - a modern day Croesus, albeit a mercurial one, small in stature yet larger than life. Oft described as a cunning, predatory wheeler-dealer, he is presented here as an energetic, intelligent man whose craggy face could blacken with anger or soften with compassion.
Equally adept at dictating and doting was his older sister, Artemis, who adored and feared the titan, as did his two half-sisters Merope and Kalliroi. However, it was 90-pound, fashionably dressed, vodka sipping Artemis who played a major role in this contemporary Greek tragedy. Although married to an eminent surgeon, she saw herself as an Onassis first, hosting celebrity studded dinners in her 100-year old villa, and becoming confidante/advisor to her brother's famous American bride.
Tina Livanos, Onassis's first wife, whom he married when she was 17, receives scant attention. Blond, tall and beautiful, she gave him two children, Alexander and Christina. Of his marriage to Tina, Onassis said it was as if he'd had three children rather than two.
A 3-week 1959 cruise on the Christina, Onassis's sumptuous yacht, with Tina, Sir Winston and Lady Churchill, Artemis, Maria Callas and their respective husbands made waves and headlines. Following that voyage Tina sued Onassis for divorce citing adultery, and Maria Callas left her husband declaring she loved Onassis.
Disembarking the ship Maria wore a bracelet engraved TMWL (To Maria With Love). "Tina already owned a bracelet with the initials TTWL, and Jackie would receive her TJWL a few years later."
The nine -year Callas/Onassis liaison was a vesuvian match notable for vitriolic quarrels followed by passionate reconciliations. Artemis disapproved of this pairing, deeming "the Tigress," as she called Maria, "of peasant stock." Apparently, Onassis also considered Maria unmarriageable. Refusing to let her rearrange furniture in her shipboard suite, he said, "Never forget, my darling, you are not the housewife here. You are only a guest."
Despite his sometimes public disparagement, it is said that Maria truly loved Onassis, giving up her career and suffering two abortions to please him. In 1968, when Onassis left Maria for Jackie Kennedy, the bereft diva commented sadly, "I have lived the most beautiful years of my life next to Aristo, and I have lived the worst."
Although Christina and Alexander disliked Jackie and violently opposed their father's remarriage, Onassis sealed his vows with a $1.25 million heart-shaped ruby ring, only one of many lavish gifts for Jackie. He delighted in hiding a diamond bracelet in her dinner napkin or wrapping her breakfast roll in a strand of priceless pearls.
Yet, they had not been married a month before Onassis visited Maria in her Paris apartment. Whether or not the new Mrs. Onassis was aware that he had resumed his former affair is not known. One of the magnate's greatest coups may have been keeping the two women apart for over six years.
It is in reference to the Kennedy/Onassis marriage that the author puts many persistent rumors to rest. Citing the eye-witness accounts of servants, Ms. Moutsatsos insists that the pair enjoyed each other sexually as well as intellectually, and were truly devoted.
A life marked by luxuries that few of us can imagine was shattered by Alexander's untimely death. More than a father's pride and joy, Alexander was Onassis's raison d'etre. Heedless of his deteriorating health, the man whose hero was Odysseus turned into a pathetic shadow, scarcely existing until his death in 1975.
This was a loss so debilitating to the fragile Christina "that she attempted suicide within minutes of her father's death."
Of all the Onassis women, Christina's story is surely the most heartbreaking. Born into a life of ostentatious privilege, she ran second to Alexander in their father's eyes. Longing for friends yet unable to win them, she bought company with trips on her Learjet and extravagant house parties on Skorpios, the family's private island.
Desperately afraid of being alone, she paid an Argentinean polo player $30,000 a month to be at her beck and call. He was her favorite paid companion, "Even though he was always accompanied by his young girlfriend, Clare." Violent mood swings tested those around her; an uncontrollable appetite for chocolate and Coca-Cola pushed her weight to over 200 pounds.
Happiness in her fourth marriage was found with the birth of her daughter, Athina, whom she worshipped. When her husband, Thierry Roussel, asked for a divorce to marry his longtime mistress and the mother of two of his children, Christina offered him $10 million to impregnate her again. He refused.
Christina died at the age of 38. Official cause? Pulmonary edema.
The remaining Onassis woman, Athina, is now of age. In the year 2003 she inherited a $3 billion shipping fortune, the legatee of a grandfather she never knew and a mother she may not remember.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing new. Too much author's self-importance!
Review: Although Kiki admired and grew to love her employers, I think she sugar coated many of her observations. She also made quite a few mistakes, so I wonder how much is true. The anecdotes she narrates are mostly known, she could have made up the whole thing. In all, a good account of a family who despite their wealth -or maybe on account of it- had many failures. But she does present them as human beings, with their good and bad qualities. Easy reading, but not much content.
Rating:
Summary: A fairy tale about the Onassis family
Review: I'm almost finished with the book and must say I'm disappointed. I expected a real account of the Onassis family, but instead got a world where everyone is wonderful. The book is written in mushy prose and never seems to say a bad word about any of the Onassis family, no matter what they did. Everything is "delicious", "of the finest quality", etc., as if Kiki were describing her ideal world. I never felt that I really learned much about this family. If Kiki were not so obviously infatuated with the entire Onassis family it would have made for a more interesting read.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasant
Review: I've read almost all the Jackie books on the market, and what I most appreciate about Moutasatsos's book is the way she acknowledges the rumors and innuendos of other authors while putting forth her perspective as exactly that -- nothing more. While her memory is generous, she also strikes me as honest; she really loved her employers, so she saw them as noble, honorably-intentioned people with understandable flaws. I would recommend this book to anyone who's tired of the unceasing merry-go-round of Onassis-related rumors who wants to hear about this family from someone near it but not of it. Also, Moutsatsos, with co-writer Phyllis Karas, tells her story in lyrical English I can only guess was translated from the native Greek... resulting in a particularly musical and poetic narrative, quite an exception for a translation.This book got four stars from me, not five, merely because there IS a bit of fairy tale stardust sprinkled through it... Moutsatsos does come across as a bit of the Onassis groupie, her only failing.
Rating:
Summary: Jackie and Aristo, from the other side of the pond
Review: It's about time we got a view of the whole Jackie/Aristo (not Ari, it turns out) thing from the other side of the Atlantic. This book is breezy and gossipy and so sycophantic I have to wonder how much of it it true. Kiki justifies and sugar-coats as much as she can (is she still getting Onassis money???? One has to wonder...), yet you can't help but see that the Onassis clan were an abusive, debauched, and addictive bunch. She rationalize EVERYTHING--physical and emotional abuse, drunkeness, profligate spending, ruthlessness, cheating...but after all, Aristio was really a very CHARISMATIC and RICH man who'd made it up from poverty. Other sources dispute many of Kiki's facts. If she gets even the most basic details wrong, what else is suspect (i.e., Jackie's governess/cook Marta Sgubin is ITALIAN, not Spanish, and her name is Marta, not Martha)? Everything. Does that make Onassis behavior any less reprehensible? It shouldn't. I have to say that this book makes me think the Onassis family did themselves in, no matter how much Kiki spins it.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing new. Too much author's self-importance!
Review: Kiki Mousatsos has told a moving account of of lives that seemed to be like fairytales, but sadly ended in nightmares. It is so rare to be able to read chapter after chapter graced with such love, insite and devotion to these mysterious and real people that the author so obviously carries with her to this day. The fact that she knew and loved these people like family and was given permission to write this moving story gives this book a rare quality. Grab some tissues and enjoy your read.
Rating:
Summary: A moving account of lives touched by tragedy
Review: Kiki Mousatsos has told a moving account of of lives that seemed to be like fairytales, but sadly ended in nightmares. It is so rare to be able to read chapter after chapter graced with such love, insite and devotion to these mysterious and real people that the author so obviously carries with her to this day. The fact that she knew and loved these people like family and was given permission to write this moving story gives this book a rare quality. Grab some tissues and enjoy your read.
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