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Title: A Very Private Woman : The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer by Nina Burleigh ISBN: 0-553-10629-5 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 06 October, 1998 Format: Hardcover List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.42 (19 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: FEMALE FOREST GUMP, BUT WHY THE SUBTITLE?
Comment: A fascinating, detailed account of Mary Pinchot Meyer ... whose connections to other famous personalities made me exclaim about halfway through the book, "She's a female Forest Gump!" I agree with another reviewer who suggested one also read the footnotes ... I found myself doing that almost immediately, marking the first time I recall keeping two bookmarks in a book (one for the "regular" pages and one for the footnote section). My only disappointment is that author Nina Burleigh in her introduction says she "decided early on that (John F.) Kennedy warranted only a single chapter in Mary's life" so a single chapter on Kennedy was "sufficient." Why, then, is the subtitle of this book "The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer" and why is (easy to recognize) JFK pictured with Mary Meyer on the cover? The answer most likely relates to marketing ... the titillating subtitle no doubt helped to sell this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Brings Back the Era of the 60s
Comment: What a great book to escape into. This is a quick read, and a must for anyone who is fascinated with both the Kennedy's and the early 60s. Sure makes you think about what it must have been like to know JFK and be part of his private circle. I definately recommend this book!
Rating: 4
Summary: The Culture That Designed American History
Comment: Mary Pinchot Meyer's life and death occurred within the apex of American old money and power. That power, politically and ideologically was no where more penetrating than within the intelligence community. The'Company,' where her previously idealistic and later reactionary husband worked, has been implicated in nefarious, double dealings since that time and Cord Meyer was at the top of its chain. His was the brainstorm that invented student dissident groups, staffing it with agents and keeping tabs on my generation's protests. His best friend was the infamous James Jesus Angleton. Angleton took posession of Mary's diary hours after she died.
The first part of the book, the graced childhood, Brearley/Vassar educations and the social connections that the beautiful Mary enjoyed was for me the most interesting. This fascination remained steady through the early days of her marriage to Cord Meyer, their relationship to the World Federalists a group of high-minded world- government idealists, and the decline of their affections and left leaning beliefs.
Mary's relations with the Washington Elite were also revelatory. Especially little known facts of the iconic Ben Bradlee's tell all relations with the CIA. Women were marginalized and often depressed- Mary was psychoanalyzed by the famous Dr. Oller, a follower of Wilhelm Reich. These well-educated and often gifted women toyed with art Gurdjieffian mystecism and many divorced after numbing and endless affairs. Mary Meyer was not unique in her adulterous and monied travels; but her relation to Timothy Leary, (also a CIA confidant at times) and her status as JFK's rare female friend as well as occassional mistress casts a different perspective on the otherwise sex-addicted president.
There is no clear evidence that Mary Meyer was taken out by the CIA for knowing too much about Kennedy's death, but the author spends the latter third of the book sifting through the evidence. That section unearthed and mainly debunked any theories that previous writers have put forth. Indeed, that was where the pace of the otherwise compelling story slowed.
Whereas some reviewers found the tale too spare a study of this debutantte turned psychedelic artist; I found the book essential to coming to terms with the human personalities that directed our lives in the Cold War. American operatives hobnobbed with the mafia and ex-Cuban mercenaries as well as drank, played around not much differently from how they and their fathers had famously done at Harvard and Yale.
There are several portraits of Jackie and Jack that give some further insight into that complicated relationship but mainly this is a tale of men who were, as their wives, patricians all- despite a forced street guy bravado, men who believed strongly in first their entitlement to lead the world, second, to protect the nation from communism with whatever means possible and third, to use the constitution to defend their actions.
The Washington set was a social club that led the world- it was a collusion of media and government men and politicians.
Perhaps most telling, is the depiction of the nature of power, the manner by which it is bestowed and what occurs when so few checks and balances are secured to manage its shadow side.
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Title: The Georgetown Ladies' Social Club: Power, Passion, and Politics in the Nation's Capital by C. David Heymann ISBN: 0743428560 Publisher: Atria Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House by Sally Bedell Smith ISBN: 0375504494 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 01 May, 2004 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Katharine the Great: Katharine Graham and Her Washington Post Empire by Deborah Davis ISBN: 0941781135 Publisher: Sheridan Square Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1991 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Sweet Caroline: Last Child of Camelot by Christopher Andersen ISBN: 006621369X Publisher: William Morrow & Company Pub. Date: 21 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Flashbacks: A Personal and Cultural History of an Era by Timothy Leary ISBN: 0874778700 Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Pub. Date: 01 March, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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