CBR16 Bingo: Golden – Callahan attacks the golden myth of Camelot and the Kennedy family, revealing the dark and dangerous truth underneath.
Lurking in the darker corners of the Kennedy family legacy are the many women whose lives turned out worse for the association. In this book, Maureen Callahan tries to bring them to light.
I’m familiar with many of the people and stories in this book, but Callahan does an excellent job of placing them in context of each other, weaving across generations and decades to show how they fit a larger pattern of mistreatment and misogyny on the part of the Kennedys.
I appreciated that Callahan presented the women in all their complicated glory, centering their stories around them and not the Kennedy men they were in association with, which I imagine would have been a difficult balance to strike. Her writing is incisive and does not wince words.
Did the writing lean into sensationalism at times? Certainly some details are included that seem to be there only for the shock value. Coincidentally, they’re the ones I’ve seen quoted around the Internet, which could be the point. I found myself reading through the notes at the end of the book with more attention than usual. Then again, after reading this book it really does feel like nothing’s a stretch with the Kennedys. Also, while I loved Jackie O, I’d have been happy with a bit less about her and a bit more about the others.
This was a fascinating read to contrast with the very milquetoast White House by the Sea: A Century of the Kennedys at Hyannis Port, especially where the books look at the same incidents and people from very different angles.