5 comments about Nemesis: The True Story of Aristotle Onassis, Jackie O, and the Love Triangle That Brought Down the Kennedys.

1. What a fascinating, very well written book! It seemed every page had a juicy morsel or two and really opened my eyes into what was really going on during the last months of John Kennedy's life and why Jackie married Aristotle Onassis. As a teenager, I was shocked she'd married someone who obviously wasn't a friend of the United States. But Peter Evans portrays Onassis as someone so fascinating, even desirable in his "bulldog" approach to women, maybe money wasn't the only reason. Then again, once you read this book your whole image of "Camelot" and the "Holy Widow" will never be the same.



2. Those who find a conspiracy in every world event will be satisfied with the well-researched and well-written account of the possible involvement of Aristotle Onassis in the assassination of Robert Kennedy. As to the oft-asked question as to why Jacqueline Kennedy would want to marry the Greek tycoon, it is answered with a new understanding of the greed and lust that drove these compelling personalities. The narrative fairly jumps from the pages of this very fast read. Even the footnotes are fascinating.



3. I thought that this book would be interesting to me because I like the Kennedy family and am interested in conspiracy theories, but I was wrong. This book is pretty good, but it is really confusing with so many people involved that sometimes it is hard to keep straight who this person is and what they did.



4. Fans of Callas, Onassis, & Kennedy(s) should embrace this book a.s.a.p. Peter Evans does a wonderful job. What an extraordinary story that is told. I couldn't put this book down for several weeks. Even after I've finished it, it inspires re-reading. Highly recommended!!



5. Except for the garish cover jacket, this is a devilishly well-written and well-presented book. True enough it is "conspiracy fare," but with a flair: a la British style, where the conspiratorial plot is insinuated rather than unceremoniously stuffed down the reader's throat as uncontestable media-driven and "state sanctioned" fact.
   
   The strength of the book however is not the conspiratorial plot, which in my view is mostly a sideshow to the main event. Its power lies in the excellent writing that exposes the utter shallowness of the pseudo-royal and nuevo-monied jet-setters, as they go about their desperately empty lives, trying to pump meaning into them by way of extra-marital sex, alcohol and drugs, gaudiness, world-class treachery, lavish globe-trotting cruises and parties, and mindless spending for spending sake, in short, the worse sort of debauchery. There was a time when such decadent hubris, and money-based royalty was to be envied as the "good life," but Peter Evan brings them and their phoniness back down to earth and it is not a pretty picture. When he finishes with them, using mostly their own words (as he very carefully mines most of his material from a host of their own memoirs), there is certainly very little left to envy about them.
   
   At the epicenter of the story are the two "uber-egos" of RFK and Ari Onassis, locked into battle for over a generation, and who, despite all their power and wealth retained the social minds of a couple of juvenile delinquents. Their respective struggles and feuds bordered on the psychopathic, more befitting a couple of teenage gang leaders than respected world-class "prime movers." But this seemed not to have bothered either of them one iota, as they both continued obsessively committed to the utter destruction of the other.
   
   According to the author, the seminal event triggering the feud was Onassis' paranoid suspicions that it was RFK's hidden hand responsible for scuttling his carefully laid plans to corner the oil tanker shipping market, first in Saudi Arabia, then in Haiti. Likewise, Bobby was equally worried and paranoid that Onassis, would use his tight-knit social connections (within the Kennedy clan via Jackie's sister and eventually via Jackie herself) to find out and use what dirt he could uncover, against the Kennedys, thereby scuttling first JFK's chances of being re-elected, and then RFK's chances of becoming President after his brother's assassination. These mutual suspicions eventually spilled over into "all out" psychological warfare and reached a crescendo in the run up to Onassis determined efforts to marry Jackie, which he eventually did. But not before RFK first forbid it, then to avoid a scandal (since the whole world already knew Onassis was screwing Jackie), insisted on it.
   
   If you believe the author's version of the way events unfolded, RFK got the worse of this multi-decade series of vendettas that coalesced around JFK's widow's "shotgun marriage" to Onassis. What is insinuated (if only ever so lightly) is that Onassis, after marrying Jackie, used his Palestinian connections to pay for (though not set up) the hit that ended in RFK's assassination.
   
   A la British style, one is of course expected to read between the lines and connect the dots for himself, which is fine if you are a non-American: this version then makes perfectly good sense. But if you live within U.S. borders, you can almost feel the other anti-RFK wheels grinding as they pre-position themselves (with Ari's 1.5-3.5 million dollars) to take advantage of the RFK-Onassis feud: And here we mean, LBJ/Hoover/Mob/Texas oil/CIA machinery, for instance.
   
   Just as Evan-Prichard's "The Secret World of Bill Clinton," exposed the corruption surrounding Bill and Hilary Clinton, this book, written by another Englishman, attempts to tie up the loose ends surrounding the primal feud between Onassis and Bobby Kennedy. One does not need to be a conspiracy nut to enjoy a well-documented, well-told story, and this is it. Five stars

No comments about Mr Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream.

5 comments about Rickles' Book: A Memoir.

1. This book was very good. You get to see a side of Rickle's you don't normally see. The side that loves his mother, wife, and friends with all his heart. Every story is very interesting. It's crazy how many celebrities he is close friends with. It's not necessarily one of the funniest books I've read but if you like Rickles you will definitely enjoy this book.



2. I really enjoyed this book. It's nice to read a book with a happy ending and that doesn't involve some evil dark side of a comedian. I believe if Don was born into today's generation he'd be twice the superstar. A man ahead of his time.
   
   The best parts of the book are when he recalls his old acts and jokes. At least twelve times I laughed outloud. If I had to say something bad about this book it would be that we didn't get enough stories and jokes. Don was blessed to grow up in the amazing days of Vegas. I know he must have endless stories. A few more would have been welcome.
   
   This book is a good read which will leave you smiling.



3. Just finished reading Rickles' Book. Although "entertaining" and funny, I was mostly disappointed. All chapters very short, doubled spaced, many blank pages. The 239 pages could have been condensed to thirty-nine, with pictures. Glad I did not purchase this book and borrowed from local library.



4. This is a sort of mini biography of Don Rickles. A collection of reminiscences arranged chronologically beginning with his childhood, the book is easy and fun to read. There are some laughs and some great anecdotes from the glory days of The Rat Pack. For example , the boys are in a steam room and Frank Sinatra tells Don "You're not getting enough publicity Don, the public needs to see more of you" So they grab a naked and struggling Rickles and carry him outside to the pool and leave him there in front of the shocked hotel guests.
   We also get a nostalgic look back at what it was like for a young comic trying to make it in the 50's and 60's.
   I saw Mr. Rickles at the MGM in Vegas in the late 90's. After the show was over , he came down from the stage and shook hands and talked a bit with people in the audience. I was one of the lucky ones who got to meet him. Really, a nice guy. If you can't see him in person, read this delightful little book and get to know one of the last of his era.



5. I didn't scream with laughter the way I do when he's talking, but I could hear his voice in the book. Too short I think, but it's not some detailed biography--it's a quick presentation, like his typical stories. I reckon if you hadn't heard him talk, it wouldn't read as funny as it does for me. But Mr. Rickles has class and heart and that comes through loud and clear; and that counts for a lot.

4 comments about Let Me In!.

1. First of all, let me tell you I may be a little biased with my review, because I love Mario Testino's work as it is. His photos of beautiful glamorous worlds and people living in them are always sleek, suave and well-polished, and they display, to my taste, a delicate sensitivity within image, reality and make-belief. You know: the whole smoke and mirror thing, but it is obvious his mirrors and smoke have some magic in them. All the celebrities, models etc, or let's say his subjects, look like a million bucks, especially in this carefully edited book. Not that any of them are not gorgeous in real life, but they seem extra sublime, and believe it or not, still human. By risking to sound superficial, and shallow even, I daresay I love it. I appreciate to see so-called 'glamor' handled and manufactured in a way this sophisticated and tasteful.
   
   'Let Me In' is a wonderful piece of high profile celebrity photo collection, which tends to catch its subjects in parties, social gatherings, or behind the scenes at fashion shoots or editorials. It is rough, time-to-time feels out of focus as a collection: more like a photo album of a photographer's 'work in proogress' pile. Some photos I had seen before, but some are fresh from the oven. It may seem obviously celebrity obsessed to look at the photos of these actors and models that only display their general celebrity magnetism and magnificence, and one may ask what the difference is between this book and let's say a junk like People magazine. And it is this: these photos do take joy in their pop culture value in a tongue-in-cheek way. It has no excuses for it other than it's title: LET ME IN! It is a naughty, almost forbidden, and intimate collection.
   
   I love it. I love the roughness of the photos, how generous Testino is, and how wonderfully generic most of the photos look. It does not mean to say anything special. It is what Testino does best: beautiful people, a lot of skin and a surprising sense of intimacy. I highly recommend the book for anyone who appreciates the perception of a high fashion photographer on celebrity and the slight obsession that we are all in.



2. Beautiful photos of celebrities in their more casual moments. Though some of the photos are posed, they are all stunning and vivid. A great gift for the movie fan/celebrity watcher in your family.



3. This was a hard book to find. But, like anything you have to wait for, it's worth it once you get it! It is gorgeous! From the moment I took it out of the box, I didn't move. I even took it to my best friends house the next day and shared it with her. I love photography and especially photos of my favorite celebrities. I highly recommend this book. It's also a good-looking book on your coffee table.



4. Mr.Testino does take perfect photographs of people and that's probably all those celebrities loved him. doesn't really think he has his own style though except clear picture, pretty colors and perfect angle....that makes him more of a technician than artist i think. and again for this book, which offers a slightly more SOLID content than his previous ones, looks more like a last minute pull out from all of his vanity fair and vogue spread from previous few years. don't just look at the cover and be conned like me, look thorally inside and then decide.......^_-

5 comments about My Life at Grey Gardens: 13 Months and Beyond.

1. I have to give this book three stars just because the writer shared her experiences with the public. But considering, as she tells us, that she ended up taking two of the many ghosts in the Grey Gardens house with her when she was packing to return to her home...Well, you don't get a lot of objective observation. You don't get much extra insight about Grey Gardens. What she writes about is pretty much what you already saw in the film "Grey Gardens." I hoped to learn more about the rooms and what happened to all the furniture. She treats her stay there as just another day in the life of and with no one in particular. REAL disappointment.



2. Jackie O's aunt and cousin lived in a Munster-type mansion in East Hampton. Edith Bouvier Beale (or 'Big Edie') was the sister of Black Jack Bouvier. Edie had a daughter, 'Little Edie', and both lived in harmony and dis-harmony in the ramshackle old house. Author Lois Wright, artist of questionable talent and palm reader, lived with the ladies for 13 months. The book is based on Wright's journal, which she kept during the 1970's. Big Edie, who was bedridden upstairs, had cats and the cats had fleas. Wright described the agony of the fleas, as well as raccoons climbing out of the ceiling (which Little Edie fed daily) and rats that jumped on the author and Little Edie on occasion. Wright wore boots and a hat 24/7 to ward off most of the critters. Newspapers were placed on beds, on floors, even in the Edies bathtub for the cats. Nevertheless, they were allowed to "go" where they pleased. If a cat or kitten died, Big Edie kept it on her bed for a couple of days, covered with a Kleenex. Contrary to past publicity, Jackie O and Ari stepped in and helped her relatives - Ari sending gifts, Jackie paying bills. The eccentricities of the three ladies are well worth reading about in this mesmerizing page-turner (Wright seemed a bit 'off' herself.) Just to let you be aware that there are DVDs available about Grey Gardens, starring the Beales, that are excellent. It brings Ms. Wright's pages to life, which completes their picture.



3. An interesting remembrance of months living at Grey Gardens by an offbeat friend of the Beales. Would be helpful to have read, which I have, or viewed the DVD Grey Gardens before reading this book. An interesting view of these most unusual mother and daughter combination.



4. Having been a fan of the play and documentary I found this book to be very revealing and touching at the same time.



5. Welcome back to Grey Gardens! I just received this from Amazon last night, and I am 1/2 through it already!It truly IS a page turner. A must for all fans of these fabulously eccentric,and theatrical ladies.It is a light,diary-entry style read.It will hold your interest, for sure. These women were fascinating characters, Lois Wright included.How wonderful it would have been to know Big and Little Edie.However, we must settle for just reading about them here,in this gem of a tell-all.I agree with the other reviewer....No mention of Jerry Torre (The Marble Fawn), was strange, as he seemed to be an integral part of Grey Gardens machine.

5 comments about Gut Check: Confronting Love, Work, and Manhood in Your Twenties.

1. What a great premise-- thinking about DEATH helps one prioritize LIFE. Scholars have claimed that. Saints have insisted it. Yet, an ordinary, successful-by-the-world's-standards man proposing it in 2008 is something unique.
   
   Tarek Saab's life experiences in a private college mirror a common occurrence for many young men--away from parental controls for the first time, many students *go crazy*. Immersed in freedom, surrounded by college coeds' typical forms of debauchery, Saab is faced with this unsavory environment and ..... with himself. What will he choose as his life's compass? "What is the purpose of his life.....of life itself?" This inimitable presentation got me at chapter one.
   
   GUT CHECK reads like a novel--conversational, descriptive. Yet, the book is deep and rings true. Saab's conclusions are brilliant, and while he seems like a normal every-day guy, it is easy to see he has Mensa brains. (He is, in fact, a member of Mensa) Saab chronicles his financial success story, yet reveals that he finds affluence and material prosperity empty. This is not to say the book bashes wealth. On the contrary, it shows how true wealth goes beyond mere finances and taps into something more enduring.
   
   (As an aside, it is interesting to read how the whole "Apprentice" drama in which Saab found himself embroiled was orchestrated as plot. We probably all knew this, but it confirms that reality TV is anything but.... )
   
   I'm no Mensa member, but I'm smart enough to know a good book when I read one. Grab a copy and curl up under a comfy quilt. Or better yet, buy one of these books for your son or your husband for Father's Day. After all, every man needs a GUT CHECK.



2. I thought Saab's was a good book about faith and the struggle to find meaning in your 20's. I wish it had been written about 20 years earlier.



3. My mom threw this book on the counter a few weeks ago and said I should read it. So after a week or so I picked it up, and it was hard to put down. Great read, but more importantly, great message. Mr. Saab really does an incredible job of explaining how important priorities are in our lives, and how God needs to be our first priority, always, and his story of how he came to realize this is very interesting, entertaining, and even inspiring. I very highly recommend it; it's one of the best books I've read in a very long time.



4. This book is outstanding and very timely. In a world which is in dire need of heroes and saints, Tarek's book comes to us as an inspiration to young men to break through the deceitful lures of our modern world and to live out authentic, virtuous manhood. He offers this snapshot of his college and business years and the struggles that came with them, and the battles he describes are all too familiar to so many. This book is a must read for anyone who senses that deep yearning for more than just "business as usual" and the riches of this world, and who strives to be the person God sent them here to be no matter the cost.



5. As a man in his 40's, I can say that Tarek Saab has very accurately described the challenges that face men today. More importantly, he has described how to overcome these challenges and find true happiness. And, although the title refers to men in their twenties, this book is applicable to anyone who wants to live a good life. This is a quick and very engaging read. My sixteen yr old son read it before me, and also liked it very much. I am Catholic and Saab's discussion of his faith journey resonated very strongly with me. However, even if you are not Catholic, this book should be very interesting and helpful!!!!!!!

5 comments about Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club.

1. I borrowed this book out of curiosity, and I wasn't a bit surprised at the shallowness or the egocentric views of "The Man" himself....
   
   This book contains a sociopathic world-view in which all are wrong except Sonny Barger and his rat-pack....when usually the reverse was true.
   
   
   The romantic view of most reviewers would change dramatically after a couple of Saturday night encounters with the drunken, violent speed freaks that I knew.
   
   To glorify and romanticize this loser as an "American Hero", to glorify the Hells' Angel's and their criminal lifestyle, to pretend they're just misunderstood, and that they are "just good Americans like yourselves" is pathetic, and giving Sonny Barger your money is a joke on you (and society in general).



2. and a book about Satanic Architecture. But I didn't see any pictures of the Devil's House so I was disappointed. Anyway these guys are pretty scrungy. I wouldn't want the job of washing their underwear. Boy I bet they stink.
   
   The author was on a lot of drugs so I don't know how true his recollections are. Anyway .....
   
   I remember when I was living in West LA during the Iranian Hostage Crisis. One day Iranian supporters - mostly from Beverly Hills mansions - marched down Wilshire Blvd in support of Iran. They were beat up by a mob of motorcycle gangs, little old ladies from Pasadena, and irate Mexicans before they got very far. The cops stood by and laughed and cheered. The one time the Law and the Angels were on the same side. But I thought that was pretty cool.
   
   I liked the parts in the book where they stomped Anti-War hippies in Berkeley and beat up fans at a Rolling Stones concert.
   
   There is some justice and pay back - and so I guess they are kind of tarnished angels. But as bad as they are, they are a hell of lot better than the rich jerks that ship US jobs overseas just so we can all eat poison Chinese vitamins. (Some day the Chinese will make poison Harleys with tires that explode after 10 miles).



3. The microcosm birth of the Hell's Angels motorcycle club evolved in the Fontana/ San Bernardino, California area on April 1957. Ralph Robert Barger,(Sonny) who was only 19 years old, was the founder and leader of the Hell's Angels San Bernardino motorcycle club.
   
   Sonny Barger's book, "Hell's Angel" is the only authorized, genuine story about the, sometimes, but not always, controversial motorcycle club founded by the author himself.
   
   In reading, "Hell's Angel," the reader might disagree, agree and perhaps even sympathize with the story and history of the Hell's Angels' motorcycle club. More often than not different law enforcement agencies classified the Hell's Angels as a `criminal organization' for usurping the American legal system.
   
   It is up to the reader to make his or her own assessment whether those law enforcement agencies were correct in their judgment of the Hell's Angels; or if they were prejudiced in their appraisal of the motorcycle club (MC).
   
   Many believe the original Angels were members of the U.S. Army's 11th Airborne Division; an elite group of paratroopers trained to rain death on the enemy from above, drifting in behind the lines of battle.
   "They called themselves the Hells Angels because they flew on silk wings into hell itself, bringing a brutal hope for peace with 20 pounds of TNT strapped to each leg. The nickname was a badge of honor, a mark of invincibility, a wartime emblem pointing out the toughest of the tough. It was a totem to ward off the worst."
   
   "A handful of those original Hells Angels, and many other returning soldiers who had awakened to the nightmare of war, found it difficult to settle into the half-sleep of the American Dream. After living on the edge so long, they found only a depressing fatalism and monotony in jobs, family, mortgages, and college, suburbia and cookie-cutter houses with white-picket fences." And so they joined the MC.
   
   According to Sonny Barger, "The Hell's Angels is an organization; a group of people, who get together to ride motorcycles and have fun, and go to parties." "... Just because certain people in the Hell's Angels have committed crimes in the past does not make the organization a criminal organization."
   
   Under Barger's guidance, the Hells Angels chapters came together, hammering out bylaws, codes of conduct, outlawing the practice of using drugs, choosing patches, colors, tattoos and clubhouses. The Hell's Angel's made sure that no one used their "Patch" who had not been accepted in the MC, or who were not worthy of their motorcycle club. The MC is a close-knit motorcycle club who not only fights to preserve the dignity of their "Patch," but take care, protect, and stand by one another to the fullest.
   
   There were other motorcycle clubs, throughout the United States, who not only rivaled the Hell's Angels but tried to outdo them as well. However, law enforcement organizations did not excoriated those motorcycle clubs as they hammered the anvil of law enforcement against the Hell's Angels.
   
   The Hell's Angel reputation crashed into the public consciousness in 1954 when Marlon Brando starred in "The Wild One," a Hollywood sensation inspired by the rumble at Hollister.
   
   All the while, the Hell's Angels boldness more than irritated all types of law enforcement. And in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the government tried to pin an official organized crime label on the group, trying to prosecute the Hells Angels under laws originally designed to combat the Mafia. The alleged violations of racketeering, influence and corrupt organization (RICO) laws, however, were never proved, with two hung juries that were unable to decide on 38 of 44 separate charges.
   There were many high-profile accusations, arrests and acquittals - suggesting either the Angels are slippery or that police like to arrest them despite flimsy evidence. Many believe the truth lies between both theories.
   
   George Christie, longtime president of the Ventura, Calif., chapter, who is considered Barger's second-in-command and likely successor; admits the Hell's Angels are "not monks." Nevertheless, he insists that if they were as bad as police allege, they would've been jailed and disbanded years ago." George Christi adds, "...cops chase Angels because Angels are easy to chase. Finding real criminals is much tougher, and would require investigative initiative beyond pulling over every biker wearing the infamous winged death's-head."
   
   For their part, the Angels continue to deny all criminal charges, and in 1998 happily celebrated their 50th anniversary.
   The Angels have grown, in the past 50 years, to include many chapters in the United States, a presence in many countries and a worldwide membership estimated in the thousands.
   
   I recommend, to the interested reader, Sonny Barger's book, "Hell's Angel" before reading any other books, or magazine articles on the subject of the famous motorcycle club; The Hell's Angels.



4. Since he was old enough to wander out onto the streets of Oakland, California, Ralph "Sonny" Barger has done things his own way, viewing the world from his unique, American blue collar perspective. In his work Hells Angel, Sonny shares his life and opens the door to the world of the Outlaw Biker. It's as though the whole biker thing evolved as Sonny evolved, and these days Mr. Barger is held in the highest esteem as the premier elder statesman of the biker world.
   
   And why shouldn't he be? He's certainly earned it. After a life of living on the razor's edge, including drugs, beautiful women, police harassment, hard prison time, fast motorcycles, and keeping a club comprised of some of the most notorious and colorful individuals on the same page, anyone who considers himself a biker knows who Sonny is. If he doesn't, then he's not really a biker, he's one of the legion of wannabes that puts on a make believe patch, somehow trying to emulate what Sonny Barger and a few other hard cases started back in the day.
   
   I read this book coming away with the feeling of what it might be like to view the world from the Outlaw Biker perspective. I learned that many these free spirited men served their country with distinction, have conservative values of family and friends, and actually live the kind of freedom that so many in the non-1%er world fear, yet envy from the safety of their easy chairs.
   
   This book provided what I was looking for and more, and after reading it for the third time I still come away with the same feeling. Hats off to Sonny Barger for giving us a non-apologetic and in-your-face rendition of his turbulent life and times, and a glimpse of the Outlaw Biker world. This book is highly recommended.



5. Having grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area during the '60s and early '70s I became aware of the Hells Angels when members of the San Jose chapter trounced a friend of mine for coming back into an Angel hangout (bar) after they'd suggested (strongly) that he leave.
   
   A Hispanic car club, the "Royal Coachmen" (also out of San Jose) was shut down by the Angels when its numbers became a concern for the HAMC. Even then the Angels wielded a great deal of "underground" power and influence, as so well described in Barger's book.
   
   "Hell's Angel" is very subtle as to the shift of the club's direction which is described by Barger upon careful reading. Back in the day the Angels were unsophisticated in their tactics and techniques, and loosely organized. They were also very rough around the edges. Today the club is an incorporated organization with global wide chapters and affiliates, a strong legal network for its members and properties/enterprises, and very much the focus of international law enforcement on a daily basis.
   
   However, I knew the Angels had changed dramatically since the 60s when in Los Angeles on business in the early 90s I ran into two full patch members of the club at a nightspot on Hollywood Blvd. They were clean cut, well groomed, and their "colors" looked as if they'd come out of the dry cleaners that day. As I was leaving and was a bit ahead of them I held the door to the club open and both offered "Thank you" as they passed by.
   
   Yep, the early days as described in detail by Ralph "Sonny" Barger are now long ago lore where the Red & White is concerned.
   
   Barger makes no excuses about the criminal activities he's been involved with and convicted of. His is a well written, graphic memory of the Hells Angels with a look into the future of this organization coming from the man who created it. A "must read" for any law enforcement officer who deals with the 1% outlaw biker subculture - and who wants to be successful as an OMG investigator in terms of background and research.
   
   Finally, with Ruben "Doc" Cavazos' new book on himself as a Mongol and international president of the Mongols - one of seveal arch rivals of the Hells Angels - it is interesting to compare Barger to Cavazos in terms of their backgrounds, upbringing, and commitment to their chosen ways of life at the head of two of the Big Six outlaw motorcycle clubs globally.
   
   Say what you will, Cavazos is no Sonny Barger when it comes to old school outlaw values and traditions, and he is certainly not even in the same class when it comes to organizational abilities and vision.
   
   Hunter Thompson pegged Sonny Barger best in his own legendary best seller on the Angels - a companion book to Barger's tome that is likewise must reading for the best possible view of the brotherhood that is the Hells Angels.

5 comments about Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story.

1. This delightful story is like watching a wonderful old movie from the 30's-40's! And I learned a thing or two about history!!! I'll be urging my book group to read this.



2. Zelda Fitzgerald died on March 10, 2005. Hers was a terrible death --- she was a patient at the Highland Mental Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, and the building caught fire, and because the patients were locked in, Zelda and eight others died. She was 48.
   
   Her life had, effectively, ended years earlier, when she had the first of her breakdowns and was diagnosed as a schizophrenic. Or had it ended earlier than that? Perhaps with the death of her estranged husband, the once glamorous, then ruined F. Scott Fitzgerald, in 1940. Or maybe even earlier, on the Riviera, in 1924, when she had a dalliance with a French aviator that so enraged that her husband she tried to kill herself a few months later. Or even earlier, when Scott started appropriating her personality and her ideas for the characters in his novels.
   
   Yes, but for a few years there, they had it all, didn't they? They were the Golden Couple, the personification of the '20s: young, beautiful, gifted. But not smart about fame, although, back then, almost no one understood how the flame of media draws you in, consumes you for the amusement of an uncaring public, and leaves you with ashes in your mouth and regret in your heart.
   
   No, wait. Some people did grasp that. The Murphys did. And, as Amanda Vaill tells their story, they are considerably more interesting than their friends, the drunk and disorderly Fitzgeralds.
   
   And can we talk about turning life into art?
   
   Late each morning in the summer of 1922, Gerald went outside his home in Antibes and created something never seen before --- a beach! --- by raking the seaweed and stones. For this, he is said to have invented the idea of the Riviera as a summer destination.
   
   Moments later, Sara would join him and, on a blanket, read or write. She wore a white linen dress or bathing suit. And, always, a long strand of pearls, which she looped around her back so she wouldn't mar her tan (and, she said, because the sun was good for them). For this, she became a style-setter and muse.
   
   Gerald and Sara together were not two but one. They were "The Murphys," a young and rich American couple who used their youth and money to establish themselves at the center of a cultural elite in which everybody was young, talented, acclaimed. Cole Porter, Stravinsky, Picasso (who was in love with Sara), Cocteau --- though they were stars on their own, they orbited the Murphys. "There was a shine to life wherever they were," Archibald MacLeish said. "It was as though custom and habit had been wiped away and the thing itself was, for an instant, seen. Don't ask me how."
   
   Then F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway showed up.
   
   If you've read Tender Is the Night, you know that Fitzgerald took the Murphys as models for the Divers. Whatever its merits, the novel reduced the Murphys to "Beautiful People." In fact, Gerald was an accomplished painter, an American Leger. He and Sara were experts on African-American spiritual music. They financed theatrical productions and helped worthy friends (Hemingway, for just one).
   
   And they were far from untouched by the troubles of ordinary mortals.
   
   First their young son Patrick came down with tuberculosis. Then, suddenly, their younger son died of meningitis. "Fancy. There's no other word for it," John Dos Passos said. "They could have thought & thought for a million years and they wouldn't have been able to think of one like that." And then, "fancy" again, a few years later, when Patrick died, and the Murphys had to carry on for their one remaining child.
   
   It gets, if possible, more intense. Gerald returned to America to run his family business, a posh New York leather store named Mark Cross. He sent money to the faltering Fitzgerald. He had some deep poetic attachments with young men. And then he died. Dorothy Parker sent his widow this telegram: "Dearest Sara Dearest Sara." The widow staged a funeral that was described as "courage disguised as taste." But that was his life. And hers.
   
   It's easy to read a book like this for the anecdotes about the mighty. But Fitzgerald comes across here as an eternal college boy and a bit of a fool, Hemingway as cold and manipulative. In contrast, the Murphys seem like explorers of the rarest kind --- blessed with money, they set out to find beauty and harmony. That they also found tragedy only makes their story more fascinating.
   
   College kids majoring in Gender Studies can find much in the life of Zelda Fitzgerald to ponder. I'm not knocking that --- there are lessons galore in that roller coaster of a life. But when you're further along the road, the Fitzgeralds start to be, at bottom, a lot of noise --- spoiled children breaking things.
   
   The Murphys, in contrast, look more substantial, more worthy of a sustained view. The Murphys, for all their money and privilege, seem real. These days, I don't want to read about the Fitzgeralds; I want to read Fitzgerald. But the Murphys --- they're well worth 500 pages.



3. I had to go out and buy this book after seeing "Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy" at the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, MA. The book is terrific, but if you're interested in this period, its writers and artists than track down this exhibit. It's a wonderful and extraordinary show about the Murphys and those they were friends with. Paintings, theater pieces, diary entries, letters, amazing photographs, home movies and more illustrate that the Murphys were really an essential part of the 1920s and 1930s. An argument can be made that they were the center that everything spun out from. It is absolutely sensational.



4. The world of the rich-and-famous is ever fascinating. Here we're given entree into the Murphy world. If this is your favorite genre, you'll like this. However, I became satiated very early on too much richness, too many names, too many details. I found it over written, over talky. Everyone is charming (one way or another) and I can see why celeb advocates would adore this. Not I.



5. I recently discovered this book so will try not to repeat the favorable reviews of others. I have visited most of the locations in this book and will try to search out the Murphy's history the next time I go. They lived magical lives in a period of tremendous artistic creativity. The 1920s in Paris were a unique period for American literature. That the Murphys were at the center of it makes this book required reading for anyone who wants to study the period. I have been in Sylvia's Beach's Shakespeare and Company, still there on the left bank, but the magic is gone. What must it have been like to be part of this generation of expatriates ? Read the book and find out. It is terrific.

5 comments about 740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building.

1. I lived in NY from 1989-1994, worked around the corner at Ralph Lauren and have always had a strong interest in architecture and New York history. I bought this book with enthusiasm.
   
   I couldn't believe how much information is packed into it. There are over 500 pages! About page 20, I began to get lost. I simply couldn't read it. It is packed with so much minutae and tedious history of each and every tenant that it became absurd.
   
   Here is what (my version) of his writing is. Imagine 500 pages of:
   
   "Lucretia Davis was the widow of Malcom Dodge Davis, the same Dodges who came over on the Mayflower and began to buy up land outside of Dodgeville, MS. The old Mississippi Dodges met the Fish family when wintering in Jekyll Island and they began a friendship that cultimated in Betsy Fish's marriage to Dennis Davis and the birth of their daughter Emily Davis in 1911. In that year, the entire Davis clan, and the Fish family formed a corporation, known as Dodge Fish which eventually became the F. Dodge Fish Financial Bank. This bank began serving customers on July 21, 1921 but not before a terrible fire at 5 Wall Street which began on the night of July 20, 1921 and severely burned Mrs. Fish Davis so that she was forced to recuperate in Oyster Bay, NY where she met her next husband Dr. Leonard Foxhound Koop."
   
   This book should not be read in bed or on a full stomach.



2. Michael Gross has been living in New York City his entire life. That's a nice way of saying that he comes by his real estate obsesssion naturally. All New Yorkers seem to talk about these days is where they live, where they want to live and how much it costs.
   
   That makes 740 Park is a natural subject for Gross who's got a sharp wit and fine sense of what makes his native city's power brokers tick. 740 Park is a great read for anyone wanting a history of one of the city's big name building, one of those places that almost everyone in towns wants to own but only a few - very few - even get to visit.
   
   I liked this book both for its dish and its perpective and that's a hard act to pull off successfully. Gross does a fine job.



3. I'm on pg 184, and vow to get to the end, but I don't expect it to be easy. Like the other comments, I agree that pictures would have been wonderful to include, just so I could attempt to keep some of these people straight. This book gets so weighed down with names, and they've become a blur. Junior Rockefeller was interesting, but all the names of each and every lawyer and law firm and decorators and whatnot it just bogs it all down.
   I'm doing Google searches on the main people, just so I can try to paint a better mental picture.
   
   **edited - I didn't make it through the book. It's not worth my time.



4. It's a great book to read if you are interested in the History of New York that most people don't know about. I could not put it down and after reading it I actually went to the building to see what it looked like.



5. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to live in the most beautiful apartment building in NYC, read this book, it's fascinating. *****

5 comments about The Diana Chronicles.

1. I hesitated to read this book. Even once I bought it, I put if off for months. I mean, I love Diana SO MUCH it kind of hurts to read about her. Let her rest in peace. And besides, what could this book possibly have to tell me about my beloved heroine that I didn't already know??? But once I opened the cover, I couldn't put it down. I was completely sucked into and enveloped by Diana's luxurious, heart-wrenching, rule-breaking world of love and tragedy. I didn't want the book to end. I really, truly didn't think it was possible, but when I finished the book, I loved and admired this golden Princess EVEN MORE. The book was filled with new insights, info and titbits that every other book and magazine article is lacking. Tina Brown has filled in the missing pieces of Diana's tangled, bittersweet story and made sense of it all - and most of all, she gave us a better grasp of Diana's radiant humanity that has always lurked beneath the royal façade. A must read.



2. I READ THIS BOOK BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN RECENTLY READING OTHER BOOKS ABOUT THE ROYAL FAMILY AS PART OF MY SUMMER FARE AND CHOSE THIS ONE FOR DELVING INTO CHARLES AND DIANA.
   MS BROWN DOES A GOOD JOB OF DESCRIBING WHAT A PITIFUL, PITIFUL PERSON DIANA WAS--- SOMEONE WHO LED A WRETCHED LIFE, FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE.
   "GENTLEMAN CHARLES'" TREATMENT OF HIS WIFE WAS DEPLORABLE.
   MY YARD MAN TREATS HIS WIFE WITH MORE KINDNESS, DECENCY AND RESPECT THAN CHARLES EVER SEEMS TO HAVE TREATED DIANA.
   IT IS PRETTY CLEAR THAT NONE OF THE ROYAL FAMILY ARE VERY NICE PEOPLE. THEY ARE, MERELY, RICH AND FAMOUS PEOPLE---NOT UNLIKE MADONNA OR MICK JAGGER. THEY JUST HAVE A DIFFERENT FACADE.



3. From the moment I saw Diana and Charles appear on TV to announce their engagement, I was a Dianaholic. I followed every event in her life, through the sad disintegration of her marriage and her shocking death.
   
   I liked this book because it not only gave a thorough background of Diana's life and family, but it tried to be fair and balanced, which the majority of writing on this subject does not even pretend to do. Diana was not a saint and Brown does not sugar coat her faults. But after reading this book you have a picture of the Princess as a genuinely good person who at a very young age entered a life that few of us can begin to imagine. It is tragic that the Royal Family was unable to appreciate her qualities or to help her mature. Both England and the world would have been a better place if Diana were still here.



4. I really enjoyed this CD about the life of Diana... It seemed to give me closure about her death and unhappy life. Tina Brown gives little known facts about her life and death in a captivating style. It is a natural follow up to other books written about Diana. My only wish was that the book was longer!



5. This is an even handed, rich portrait of a very complicated young woman. I purchased the audio thinking it was a fluff piece I could listen to while working out, but found the book fascinating and was sorry when it was over. Tina Brown presents each of the major characters in this tragedy as multifaceted individuals, making this not the usual tabloid nonsense, but a sociological study of a very interesting and often self-destructive family.