September 1, 2004
Although hardly the most authoritative or the most carefully written, Kelley's history of the Bush family nonetheless ranks among the most important books of the 2004 political season. A large part of Kelley's influence comes, of course, from the success of her previous celebrity biographies, among them Jackie Oh!, The Royals and Elizabeth Taylor. But another part comes from her willingness to commit rumors to paper--in other words, to share DC cocktail-party gossip with the masses. Her book will come under a lot of fire for this practice, and with some reason. Many of her most incendiary comments--that Laura Bush was once a "go-to girl for dime bags," that George W. Bush snorted cocaine at Camp David--do appear to be poorly sourced. And as the book progresses from the 1860s to the 2000s, her moderate tone often rises with vividly expressed disgust and indignation. But readers who take Kelley's dishy allegations with a grain of salt will still find plenty of hard evidence to support her portrayal of the Bush family's political opportunism, economic privilege and shrewd flip-flopping. Case in point: when George H.W. Bush was chosen as Reagan's running mate in 1980, he suddenly "dropped his support of the Equal Rights Amendment and vehemently changed his position on abortion." Kelley also takes shots at Democrats Edward Kennedy, Lloyd Bentsen and Lyndon Johnson, and generally laments what she sees as the Republican Party's turn to the far right. But, overall, her real issues appear to be the same as in her previous books: the abuse of power, the adoption of a false public image, the secreting away of sexual and pharmaceutical peccadilloes. With its focus on these juicy issues, and its occasional nuggets of serious political history, Kelley's book is sure to gratify her many fans.
October 11, 2004
Although hardly the most authoritative or the most carefully written, Kelley's history of the Bush family nonetheless ranks among the most important books of the 2004 political season. A large part of Kelley's influence comes, of course, from the success of her previous celebrity biographies, among them Jackie Oh!, The Royals and Elizabeth Taylor. But another part comes from her willingness to commit rumors to paper--in other words, to share DC cocktail-party gossip with the masses. Her book will come under a lot of fire for this practice, and with some reason. Many of her most incendiary comments--that Laura Bush was once a "go-to girl for dime bags," that George W. Bush snorted cocaine at Camp David--do appear to be poorly sourced. And as the book progresses from the 1860s to the 2000s, her moderate tone often rises with vividly expressed disgust and indignation. But readers who take Kelley's dishy allegations with a grain of salt will still find plenty of hard evidence to support her portrayal of the Bush family's political opportunism, economic privilege and shrewd flip-flopping. Case in point: when George H.W. Bush was chosen as Reagan's running mate in 1980, he suddenly "dropped his support of the Equal Rights Amendment and vehemently changed his position on abortion." Kelley also takes shots at Democrats Edward Kennedy, Lloyd Bentsen and Lyndon Johnson, and generally laments what she sees as the Republican Party's turn to the far right. But, overall, her real issues appear to be the same as in her previous books: the abuse of power, the adoption of a false public image, the secreting away of sexual and pharmaceutical peccadilloes. With its focus on these juicy issues, and its occasional nuggets of serious political history, Kelley's book is sure to gratify her many fans.
Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
October 15, 2004
Anyone who has ever read Kitty Kelley knows what to expect: a dishy story, poorly sourced, but with a definite point of view. No surprises here. Kelley's premise is that the Bush clan has succeeded in portraying themselves as an all-American family when they are actually snooty, snotty, vindictive, and petty (dishy enough?). In making her point, Kelley provides a wealth of anecdotes, most from secondary sources, some from anonymous sources, and a few from people brave enough to admit they don't like the Bushes. Most of the book, surprisingly, focuses not on George W. Bush but on his parents--with plenty of attention also given to George H. W.'s parents, Senator Prescott Bush and his wife, Dorothy. The most explosive of the charges (drug use by both Laura and George W.) already has received plenty of play in the press (no advance galleys were distributed for this book), but none of the reviews thus far have bothered to notice that Kelley does the most damage with a thousand smaller but more telling cuts--everything from George W.'s foul mouth to Barbara's abrasiveness (her sons apparently call her "the nutcracker") to Laura's obliviousness. The book is compulsively readable, although if one pauses for breath, it's quickly apparent that Kelley is no stylist: she jumps from one subject to another with sentences that lack even a hint of connective tissue. Moreover, even the identified quotes are impossible to trace because, for each chapter, Kelley only offers a massive list of books and magazines. The book ends abruptly, too, as if the author couldn't write one more insulting word about the Bushes. Even Bush haters should stick with Schweizer's " The Bushes: A Portrait of a Dynasty" [BKL F 1 04], a much better and more solidly sourced book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)