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Jackie, Janet & Lee

the Secret Lives of Janet Auchincloss and Her Daughters, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill
Jun 03, 2019GLNovak rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
This book seemed to have only the one theme - money and power. Janet Bouvier Auchincloss taught her two girls well, and probably was instrumental in their tortured love lives. Both moved from man to man searching for something neither of them ever seemed to find. I don't get the sense from this book that either of them really loved any of their husbands. Marrying for money to support a very expensive lifestyle was drummed into their heads, and love was a long distant second, or even fifth or sixth criterion for a suitable husband. Both Jackie and Lee were very aware of this requirement, and were also aware that Mummy played favourites. Lee was feeling always second best, always wanting, always in the wrong, never good enough. I just shuddered as I read through the book at the lives of these people, and thanked providence that my own life with my own parents and family was nothing like those privileged rich people. Of course, since the writer seemed fixated on the power and money aspect, I could have been given only a superficial account of things. Very little sense of the whole personality came through for me.