The Hiltons

January 27, 2014
While the many players and the long timeline of this family saga could potentially have been confusing, best-selling biographer Taraborrelli (After Camelot) has given the story clarity by focusing on a few key figures. Readers will appreciate the life story of hotel baron Conrad Hilton, with heavy emphasis on his relationship with glamorous Zsa Zsa Gabor and his son Nicky. Less attention is paid to his other two sons, Barron and Eric, and his daughter Francesca, and a final curtain call is given to Paris Hilton, which will satisfy those who may only recognize her name. Two things stand out in this rags-to-riches tale: the driven work ethic and astute business sense of the patriarch, and the glamour and opulence of a well-rewarded life. There is drama, surely—court cases and break-ups abound—but those that wonder how the Hilton hotel empire came to be will get their answer: hard work. The story is full of celebrities—including Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald Trump—and it’s a paean to a bygone era that also contains a few nuggets on how best to conduct oneself en route to the high life.

April 15, 2014
A best-selling celebrity biographer chronicles the epic saga of a family as well known for its business empire as for its role as tabloid fodder. Today, the Hilton name might be more synonymous with gossip magazine headlines than the now-ubiquitous hotel chain that has outposts in every major city across the world. No longer is there a charismatic figurehead to act as the family's anchor or face of the company, as founder and family patriarch Conrad Hilton (1887-1979) once had been. We can only speculate how Conrad, a man of deep Catholic conviction and faith who was known to openly resent freeloading relatives, would react to the unseemly behavior of some of his heirs. Nevertheless, Taraborrelli (After Camelot: A Personal History of the Kennedy Family--1968 to the Present, 2012, etc.) gives each Hilton family member his or her due. From Conrad's tempestuous marriage to Zsa Zsa Gabor to son Nicky's ill-fated and abusive marriage to a nubile Elizabeth Taylor, the Hilton name has often found itself mired in social controversy. All the while, the Hilton brand of hotels continued to grow exponentially, developing into an international juggernaut. When Conrad's son Barron retired as CEO of the Hilton Hotel Corporation in 1996, the family's control of the company remained mostly symbolic until Blackstone Group, a private equity group, purchased the entire corporation in 2007 for $20.1 billion. No longer is a Hilton family member steering the empire built by Conrad. Instead, the family controls the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to support various charitable causes and missions to fulfill Conrad's vision of building a better world. More than fluff, Taraborrelli has written the definitive biography of a family whose glory days may have passed but which simply refuses to recede into the background.

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2014
Taraborrelli is a journalist and celebrity biographer. His family saga of the Hiltons is filled with enticing gossip as well as well-documented, if sometimes tawdry, facts about various members. The founder of the hotel empire, Conrad Hilton, was certainly an interesting, in some ways admirable, but enigmatic character. Taraborrelli portrays him as a true visionary capable of thinking and dreaming on a large scale while keeping a firm hold upon economic realities. Yet he seems to have been a tortured soul who lacked a personal touch and, consequently, could not win affection or loyalty from business associates or family members. His successors, however, were not particularly interesting, and the author seems to be straining to make them worthy of his attention. Son Nicky, for example, best known as the first husband of Elizabeth Taylor, was a shallow, self-absorbed alcoholic; the current celebrity Hilton, Paris, seems both the perpetrator and the victim of her thirst for public attention. Taraborrelli is a good writer, who, in this case, would have benefited from more compelling subjects.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

November 15, 2013

Having taken on everyone from the Kennedys to Diana Ross, New York Times best-selling author Taraborrelli profiles the glitter and excess that defines the Hiltons. With a 100,000-copy first printing.The latest Duncan Kincaid-Gemma James outing and a new series from RollinsInsider views on the fight for marriage equality and the postcollege life

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.