Rose Kennedy: The Life and Times of a Political Monarch
Barbara A. Perry
Category: Nonfiction:
Biography
Synopsis: Perry
presents the life of the matriarch of the Joseph P. Kennedy family.
Date finished: 22
November 2013
Rating: ****
Comments:
I didn’t grow up in the Kennedy era. The golden lights of
Camelot had long dimmed by the time I was aware of politics and power. What I
knew about the Kennedys came from a TV special I watched several years ago and
a book here or there. With the dozens of books
being printed this year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the
assassination of president John F. Kennedy, I settled on this one to read. I’m
always more interested in the woman’s role in a family and history than the
man’s.
I wasn’t disappointed with the biography. It was
comprehensive, covering Rose Kennedy’s life from her birth in 1890, through her
Victorian coming-of-age through the 1910s-1950s when she gave birth to and
raised nine children; to the years as a president’s mother; the years of grief
following the assassination of two of her children and the tragic deaths of two
more, and one daughter’s mind lost to a botched lobotomy; to the years of
caring for her husband after his stroke; and into her later years filled with
grandchildren. Through it all she traveled widely, kept close to her Catholic
faith, and watched her family raise in prominence and importance—and occasionally
fall in scandal.
As with any biography, you don’t know how true the story you’re reading is, but then, Rose was a chronic re-imaginer of family history. It seems that her own autobiography would be no more accurate. Perry seemed heavy-handed in her depiction of a woman who traveled to escape her family. While I tended to agree with her assessment that Rose didn’t so much raise her children as oversee the raising of her children, if you had nine children and millions of dollars, would you not take a Riviera escape now and then? It’s what women in that situation did.
Still, her insistence that she raised her children and
that’s why they became so influential and created American history, is
something I attribute to her reimagining tendencies. Her children were sent
away to boarding schools at young ages (Teddy was only seven). And her sons
began political careers almost immediately upon graduation from their Ivy
League educations. I’d argue that money had a fair amount to do with their
influence and power. I think Rose was too out of touch with how the average
family lived to understand this. She talks about knowing they had money because
as time when by she had bigger houses and more maids and more expensive fur
coats. (page 57)
I had always hoped that the Kennedy clan was more noble than
the scandals they brought upon themselves. Joe Sr., JFK, and Teddy were all
philanderers. Kathleen (Kick) died in a plane crash with her married lover. Joe
Jr., too, was seeing a married woman. Rose never publically (or privately, it
would seem) acknowledged Joe’s infidelity. She would never divorce him due to
her Catholic faith (and one would guess, reliance on the standard of living
under Joe’s roof), she seemed to settle for jewels and furs and expensive
clothes and extravagant vacations as retribution. Acknowledging his
unfaithfulness would put a crack in the foundation of the empire, and that was
something Rose would not allow.
Other areas colored by Perry:
It cracked me up to see Ted Kennedy portrayed as a political moderate. Good heavens, that tells you about Perry’s political ignorance or prejudices.
It’s presented that Jackie remarried only for Ari Onassis’s
money, that the Kennedy fortune wasn’t enough for her. I have no facts to back
up my assertion other than the information that Jackie ended up with only $26
million after Onassis’s death, and that she had to fight his daughter (and sole
heir) for it in court. JFK was said to be worth $100 million at one point.
Twenty-six million is a drop in the bucket, frankly.
Perry spent a long time conjecturing over which of Rose’s
medicines may have caused which side effects in her life, and that bored me.
Need we go that far?
Although Jack was quoted as saying his success, and that of
his brothers and sisters, was due to his father, not his mother (page 312),
there is no doubt that Rose raised a president, three senators, a congressman,
an attorney general, two World War II military heroes, an ambassador, and two
Presidential Medal of Freedom winners. And no matter her part in that, it is a
phenomenal legacy.
Would you recommend
this to a friend?
Yes, I think so.
You might also enjoy:
Mrs. Kennedy and Me
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