Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot

The author of this book J. Randy Taraborrelli is an outstanding celebrity journalist and author. He has written books on Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and several other stars. He is also a person who is enamored of the Kennedys. He has written several books on them including After Camelot.
This long but easy to read, anecdotal and gossipy look at the Kennedy wives is fascinating for those who are interested in the fascinating Kennedy family. The three wives chronicled are:
1. Jacqueline Kennedy-JFK's beautiful, polyglot, strong and stoic well educated wife! She dazzled society with her wit and brains. Jackie renovated the White House eschewing the dreariness of the old home and made Americans proud of their first family. Jackie was the youngest First Lady in history. She raised two wonderful and accomplished children Caroline and John Jr.who died early in a tragic aviation accident. Jackie was also widowed when Aristotle Onassis died. She loved jewelry, expensive clothes and travel abroad. Jackie did not always get along with her sister-in-law Ethel and adored Joan the wife of Ted Kennedy. She died young in 1994 and her memory will always be a bright beacon in our nation's history.
2. Ethel Kennedy was the wife of attorney general and later Senator from New York Bobby Kennedy. Bobby was assassinated in 1968 and was the one love of Ethel's life. The devout Catholic Ethel is the mother of eleven children. She is still alive and is the matriarch of the Kennedy clan having celebrated her ninetieth birthday. Ethel is noted for her spunk and tomboyish nature and letting her children run wild at her Hickory Hill Estate.A woman of deep spirituality and faith in Jesus.
3. Joan Kennedy-The New York born Joan was a beauty and appeared as a model for a short time on tv commericals and in magazines. Joan is the most vulnerable of the three women and is probably the nicest person to know. She plays the piano and has conquered her alochol addiction. Joan has written a book on classical music and is the mother of three children. She was often cruelly treated by Senator Ted Kennedy her husband. She survived the shame of the Chappaquiddick scandal which ruined Ted's hopes for the White House. A kind and sweet beauty!
The three Kennedy women profiled in this book all:
1. They all had to put up with cheating womanizing husbands. JFK had a dalliance with Marilyn Monroe and countless other mistresses while Bobby had an affair with actress Lee Remick and others.
2. All three women are members of the Roman Catholic Church and take solace in their faith.
3. All three women loved the Kennedy men they married.
4. All three women were good mothers to children who had their share of problems
These famous women did their best to be good wives and mothers to the Kennedy husbands.
The book is focused on the personal lives of Jackie, Ethel and Joan.and is not focused on politics and world affairs. The book is gossip backed up by long years of research making it one of the most enjoyable of the countless books on the Kennedy family. Well done! Enjoyable reading on a family that has suffered both great triumphs and epic tragedies.

It took me just a few days to go through this book, full of great stories and anecdotes about Jackie, Ethel and Joan Kennedy and their relationships with Jack, Bobby and Ted. I don't care how many times Ted was re-elected senator, if just half the stories about him are true as to how he treated Joan, he was never a worthwhile human being. Hard to believe someone could be so cruel to his wife. An inside look at the Camelot years and the times that followed. The relationships between the three women was often wonderful, but more often strained. The business deal Jackie made by marrying Onassis makes you shiver. A terrific read!

This was probably the best book I've read about the Kennedy family. All of the key players and events were there, but seeing it from the point of view of the wives was something I had not previously read. I have since purchased "After Camelot"-1968 to the Present (2012), by the same author, and I'm hoping that it reads as fine as this one did.

This narrative on the three wives is interesting and insightful, especially in the early years of their respective lives and marriages to the big three. Some of the details researched and shared were news to me and I have been a Kennedy follower nearly all my life. I was ten when JFK was assassinated and I have been an avid reader of nearly anything written on this family. Most readers will enjoy the majority of the information in this book. However, when I encountered the information on Marilyn Monroe and the eventual assassination, I felt the text was naive and dated. True, the book was published in 2000, but even then most people were aware of the capers of the CIA, the FBI and the Deep State, all of which have gradually seized control of this country. Taraborelli’s account of Jacqueline Kennedy’s stating that she, her husband and the Johnsons were close friends is sadly inaccurate. There is another source showing the well-known assassination picture—the one we have all seen with Mrs. Kennedy, stricken and in shock, standing next to LBJ while he is taking the oath of office on Air Force One. Then another shot shows LBJ turned looking at Lady Bird Johnson, and the smirk on her face says it all. It is obvious she is less compassionate toward Mrs. Kennedy and far more satisfied to step into the role of new First Lady. Too many other higher powered sources more recently written also indicate Johnson’s amoral makeup. Most people now know, too, that Monroe was murdered to prevent her from revealing information she knew through her affair with JFK. Certainly worth a look, but keep in mind that other sources about key players’ dynamics are more convincing.

Dozens of books have been written about Jacqueline Kennedy, the stylish wife of the late president. At least this one has some new information -- J. Randy Taraborrelli also explores the other Kennedy wives in "Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot." The problem is Taraborrelli's talent for making stuff up.

Jackie was a confident debutante who impressed (or irritated) people with her charm and refined sensibiltiies. Ethel a religious, exuberant gal who fit in with the rough'n'tumble Kennedy family. And Joan was a fragile, confidence-free waif who was troubled by alcoholism and her perpetually philandering husband Ted.

Taraborrelli explores their childhoods, early relationships, marriages and lives with their husbands, which peaked in the glory years of the so-called "Camelot." Then everything went downhill: Jackie and Ethel's husbands were assassinated, Joan's was permanently disgraced, and the three women went through nightmares of publicity, family deaths, miscarriages, remarriages and alcoholism.

The Jackie stuff in here is nothing new, nor does Taraborrelli have any new spins on it. In fact, she seems a bit dull beside the vibrant Ethel and tragic Joan, both of whom are revealed in all their tarnished glory. In fact, it's the information about those two ladies that keep this book from being a total loss.

Unlike prior biographers have done, Taraborrelli seems interested in the many facets of Ethel and Joan's personalities: Ethel was both ruthless and compassionate, utterly loving and very rough. Rather than portraying the forceful woman as a harpy, as others have done, Taraborrelli focuses on her complexity. And Joan is shown as a sweet, almost ideal girl who succumbed to a family disease as she was humilated in front of the entire world.

So long as he sticks to the facts, Taraborrelli is a capable biographer. Unfortunately, he launches into obviously fictional anecdotes and conversations, scuppering much of his credibility, and often fiddles with the facts to make the Kennedys seem like one big happy family, despite all the cheating and infighting. Since when was everyone so fond of the prudish, cold Rose?

The information about Ethel and Joan Kennedy is outstanding, and actually makes these underrated ladies seem more interesting than their legendary sister-in-law. But Taraborrelli's little "conversations" should have been saved for a novel.

Told from the viewpoint of Jackie, Joan and Ethel Kennedy, the book is a real page turner. The pressure cooker of politics and grief strained and strengthen relationships between the Kennedy wives. Nasty squabbles, jealousy, infighting interspersed with heartfelt support for each other during times of crisis and tragedy.

Of the three Kennedy women, Joan has been the most mistreated. They din't understand her fragility. The way her husband treated her is very painful to read. She deserved so much better. Ethel is definitely not a role model to say the least. Jackie is the most tragic figure of the three. I admire the fact that she din't let anybody in that family telling her what to do. She din't try to become a Kennedy like Ethel. She was a remarquable woman. That's a very interesting book.

Very interesting. Learned a lot about them that you would never know

Wife loves she can’t wait to read it

Excellent read