The Kennedy Women: The Saga of an American Family

Summary (from the publisher): Laurence Leamer was granted unheralded access to private Kennedy papers, and he interviewed family and old friends, many of whom had never been interviewed before, for this incredible portrait of the women in America’s "royal family." From Bridget Murphy, the foremother who touched shore at East Boston in 1849, to the intelligent, independent Kennedy women of today, Laurence Leamer tells their unforgettable stories.

Here are the private thoughts of Kathleen, the flirtatious debutante in prewar England . . . the truth behind Joe Kennedy’s insistence that his mildly retarded daughter, Rosemary, be lobotomized . . . the real story behind Joan and Ted’s whirlwind romance . . . Jackie’s desire for a divorce from JFK in the 1950s . . . Pat Lawford’s disastrous Hollywood marriage . . . how Caroline discovered her cousin David’s death by overdose, and more.

Tough enough to withstand the unimaginable, these Kennedy women soldier on in the name of their extraordinary family and what they believe is right.

Review: "These Kennedys were the most generous and philanthropic of people and the most niggardly and selfish. They were the most outgoing and gregarious and the most withdrawn and insular. They were the most spiritual and yet full of the most worldly cynicism. In the Kennedys these did not seem like contradictions, but integrated on some high plane that only they could understand" (432).

My interest in reading this family biography on the Kennedy women really sprang out of my enthusiasm for HBO's documentary on Ethel Kennedy. Although much is known about former first lady Jackie Kennedy, I was curious to hear about other family members, and in particular, the origins of the wealthy family who are frequently referred to as close to royalty as America gets. Although the size of this book was daunting (the notes and index take it to almost 1000 pages), this was a fascinating read that spanned the first American Kennedy woman who reached America in 1849 and concluded with the president day generation in the 1990s. This is a large family with a rich history, and my greatest complaint with this book is that I wished it had covered more.

The Kennedys are characterized by their staunch Catholic faith, their infidelities (legendary on the part of the men), their loyalty to the family, their wealth, their business acumen, and their political involvement. The women are largely in the shadows, raised knowing to defer to their male counterparts in all ways, no matter how ill they are treated. It's hard to find a happy marriage in the whole bunch and easy to find tragedies, youthful deaths, alcoholics, lavish lifestyles, and philanthropic contributions.

The Kennedy story begins in 1849 when Bridget Murphy landed in America and soon after married Patrick Kennedy. Patrick didn't last long, and Bridget was left a poor widow with four children. Yet somehow, despite the obstacles facing her, especially as an poor Irish immigrant with four dependents, she eventually became "one of the most successful immigrant women in all of East Boston [...] The story of how she achieved that, what other sacrifices she made, what assistance she had in her ascent have all been lost to history, unworthy of recollection even in the oral history of the Kennedy family" (19). This sound suspicious to me - yet her legacy meant that her only son was able to become a successful businessman and the first Kennedy to hold office as a state legislature. His great-grandson would one day become president of the United States.

At times, I did feel that Leamer's writing has too much of a fictional bent to it. For example, in the introductory first chapter, Leamer describes the family's home saying, "On that grassy plain at Hyannis Port had walked other feet though, feet ponderous with the burden of their duty: priests with tragic messages and all the condolences of faith; a son and daughter bearing tidings of such heaviness that they stumbled with their burdens; retainers with whispered stories so dark and inexplicable that they challenged everything Rose believed her family stood for" (4). Although not as heavy handed throughout the entirety of the book, this almost mythical flourish to his words in the introduction had me concerned the book would be less non-fiction and more Leamer's re-telling of tales. Fortunately, this was not the case.

I was also surprised to see the negative bent in which Jackie, and to some extent Ethel, are portrayed.  The family did not accept Jackie for some time; the family introduces Jackie to her rough and tumble lifestyle by breaking her ankle during a game of football, mocked her debutante mannerisms and childish voice, and what they interpreted as the rude selling and trading of carefully chosen wedding gifts. Additionally, her snotty behavior and impression of herself as royalty, especially after her marriage to billionaire Aristotle Onassis, is chronicled in some detail. To Leamer's credit, he does show how Jackie was also a victim as well. For instance, shortly after giving birth Jackie was forced into a tour of the White House. "Luella had warned Jackie that if she walked up and down the stairs at the White House she might well die, and as she greeted Mrs. Eisenhower she looked desperately for a wheelchair that was not there. She asked for no wheelchair, made no excuses, walked the long corridors and up and down the stairs" (514-515).

Considering that I got into this mammoth of a novel to learn more about Ethel, I was disappointed at how relatively little time is spent on her. In fact, the largest time on any one woman is given to Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, the daughter of the mayor of Boston and the mother of the future president. Even less time is devoted to Rose's granddaughters; they are summarized and only briefly referred to. Perhaps this is partly because the family has grown too large by this generation to cover in detail or because many of this generation is still alive. Either way, it's likely actually a compliment to complain that a book this thick should have included even more details.

Stars: 4.5