The Kennedy Heirs: John, Caroline, and the New Generation

March 18, 2019
The offspring of the Camelot generation wallow in melodrama without much compensating achievement according to this dishy group portrait. Kennedy biographer Taraborrelli (After Camelot) styles the children of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Ted Kennedy, and their cousins, as sensitive souls shadowed by their elders’ assassinations and other misfortunes that “caus our hearts to ache unbearably for them.” The narrative, however, depicts a clan of overentitled mediocrities with unimportant careers whose only interesting characteristic is bad judgment: RFK Jr. moves from drug addiction to relentless womanizing to antivaccine lobbying; his brother Michael sleeps with his kids’ 16-year-old babysitter and dies in a skiing accident; JFK Jr. leads a feckless life, then dies along with his wife and his sister-in-law when the Cessna he was piloting crashes. Presiding over Taraborelli’s account, and the lavishly described Hyannisport rigmarole of clambakes and touch football, is RFK’s widow, Ethel, an imperious matriarch and the book’s liveliest figure, forever slapping people and lecturing everyone on the Kennedy mystique. Padding out the chapters is much tabloid-grade gossip about small-bore marital squabbles, infidelities, and catfights sourced to servants and anonymous friends. Some readers may find this material unengaging, but Kennedy worshippers—and haters—will feast on the juicy details in Taraborrelli’s soap opera.

May 1, 2019
The prolific celebrity biographer delivers another Kennedy family saga, this time focusing on the 29 individuals comprising the "third generation" of the famed clan. In this sprawling post-Camelot account, Taraborrelli (Jackie, Janet & Lee: The Secret Lives of Janet Auchincloss and Her Daughters Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill, 2018, etc.) details the lives of the third generation--the grandchildren of Joe and Rose Kennedy--as they have tried to live up to Kennedy values (honor, family, loyalty) while failing to cope with the murders of John F. (1963) and Bobby (1968). Growing up in families that never discussed the assassinations among themselves and offered few healing mechanisms to their children, the young heirs often self-medicated with alcohol and drugs. Innumerable infidelities, confrontations, and divorces run through this soap opera, which teems with intimate views of angry, heavy-drinking matriarch Ethel, mother of Bobby's 11 children; Ted, who kept the family together, and his wife, Joan, both "unpredictable, alcoholic parents"; and the smiling, seemingly happy children, who struggled inside, some wanting "anything other than to be Kennedys." Taraborrelli rehashes Bobby's son Michael's affair with a 16-year-old babysitter; the murder conviction of Ethel's nephew Michael Skakel; David Kennedy's death by cocaine overdose; JFK Jr.'s death in a plane crash, and so on. "Terrible things have happened to the Kennedys," writes the author, "sometimes by fate and circumstance, sometimes by their own volition." Taraborrelli's depictions of Caroline's therapy as a child and the family's expectation that Bobby Jr., who made drug runs to Harlem, would run for president, are unsettling. All of this is recounted against the glitz, wealth, and historical role of the family, the ever present paparazzi, the family pressure to excel, and the children's careers in politics and other fields. No scandal or luxurious dining room goes overlooked. A doorstop of a melodrama. Kennedy die-hards will love it.

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Starred review from May 1, 2019

The children of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Senator Robert Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy, Senator Ted Kennedy and Joan Kennedy, and their siblings comprise the clan's third generation, according to Taraborrelli (Jackie, Janet and Lee). This account, the author's fourth on the Kennedys, based on 400 interviews conducted over the last 20 years, describes the glamour, advantages, and sorrow experienced by the Kennedy heirs. Although portrayed as arrogant and entitled, their lives were also darkened by the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, which Taraborrelli argues drove some family members to drug and alcohol addiction and might have contributed to six untimely deaths. Also included are the stories of Patrick Kennedy, Joseph Patrick Kennedy II, Kathleen Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, and others who carved out successful political careers or advocated for mental health and environmental issues. Readers will be fascinated by the relationship between Senator Ted Kennedy and members of the third generation, stories about matriarch Ethel, and life inside the family compound. VERDICT Kennedy followers will be intrigued by this absorbing narrative of the dynasty's continuing hold on American life.--Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

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