The Bouviers: Portrait of an American Family by John H. Davis

 

Summary (from the publisher): This is a fascinating book - a richly detailed, elegantly written saga of an extraordinary family that would make absorbing reading even if one member of that family had not become the most celebrated woman in the world. The Bouviers begins with the struggles of Michel Bouvier, a poor immigrant from a remote village in the Rhone Valley of France, to establish himself in the New World, and continues through four generations of the family to be founded. 

The book is both a narrative of the rise, fall, and rise again of a family's fortunes and a series of vivid portraits - of eccentrics and ne'er-do-wells, of fabulous successes and pathetic failures, of lovers and husbands, of idealists and hedonists. Among the highlights in the gallery are: the rough-and-ready Michel Bouvier, who began as a cabinetmaker in Philadelphia in 1815 and made a fortune in Philadelphia in 1815 and made a fortune in his lifetime; his daughter Alexine, who was spurned at the altar by a European prince and spent the rest of her days as a devoutly religious spinster; Emma Bouvier Drexel, who started a private civil-rights movement that resulted in the contribution of over $40,000,000 to schools for American Indians and Negroes; M.C. Bouvier, who vastly increased his father's fortunes, becoming one of the shrewdest Wall Street financiers of his day. 

In the third generation, when the Bouviers achieved social status and respectability, John V. Bouvier, Jr., sought to transform his family heritage by transfusing it with alleged aristocratic blood. But in his later days he was to watch his once proud and united family fall apart as his younger son died a tragic death and his elder, "Black Jack" Bouvier, become a dashing, flamboyant playboy scornful of family tradition. Then, with the family's fortunes on the wane, came a new beginning, as Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy ascended to the White House, bringing to it a new grace and esprit. 

John H. Davis has written this chronicle of the Bouviers from an unusual vantage point. A member of the family himself - he is Jacqueline Onassis's first cousin - he has had access to the family documents both her and in France, and intimate personal knowledge of all the third-, fourth-, and fifth-generation Bouviers. But he is also a trained historian, committed to telling the unvarnished story of his family, without glossing over weaknesses or hiding skeletons in the closet. 

The Bouviers is an intensely human story, with moments of deep tragedy as well as of high triumph; it is also a portrait of American society from the early 1800's to the present, seen through the aspirations, failures, and achievements of one family. It will surely take its place among the great family biographies. 

Review: This is an absolutely fascinating family biography that takes its readers from Napoleon-era France to Philadelphia in the early 1800s and all the way to the White House. The Bouviers are a fascinating French family who were skilled artisans making very detailed furniture in France for generations. When Michel Bouvier was forced to flee France to avoid execution for serving Napoleon, he traveled to Philadelphia and supported himself the only way he knew how - through making beautiful handmade furniture. But of the course of his life, he moved from hand production to furniture manufacturing and eventually to real estate. He died a wealthy man, leaving a fortune to his ten children and having seen his daughters married to millionaires. Many of his daughters were incredibly religious and philanthropic, donating millions to progressive civil rights movement causes.  His only male descendent, while far more spendthrift than prior generations of the family, continued the line. And it was his son, "Black Jack" Bouvier, who was the father of unquestionably the most famous member of the family, Jacqueline Bouvier, who became the first lady of the United States of America thanks to her husband John F. Kennedy. 

I loved family biographies and this one was a particularly fascinating one. Even had Jackie Kennedy not been a part of this family, this is a fascinating read. In fact, my favorite sections of the book are the earlier chapters that cover the family's rise to great wealth in America. The family is full of fascinating characters and shocking plot twists. I found this book just as thrilling as any novel. 

One element that helped make this book great was the fact that the author is a Bouvier. He is a first cousin of Jackie Kennedy, and like Jackie, grew up spending lots of time with his grandfather at the Bouvier country estate of Lasata. Not only did his position as a family member mean that he had exclusive access to many family documents, letters, and photographs, but he also was able to add his vivid members and descriptions of the family members and homes when the book got to the sections that covered his lifetime. I felt like I was there at the family luncheon with him, Jackie, and all the other cousins and aunts and uncles reading his vivid description. Yet he also seems able to hold himself back and present his family honestly and without embellishment, something his grandfather was unable to do. 

Perhaps understandably, the final section of the book is really all about Jackie and the family's peak having a family member in the White House. While interesting, I do wish the author had spent a little more time detailing the other members of the family, other than a very brief summary. But perhaps this was a complicated issue since his cousins were all alive at the time of publication. 

I loved this book so much. I enjoyed it so immensely and am so grateful to the author for taking the time to present such a comprehensive, well-researched but also personally informed portrait of his family. 

Stars: 4.5