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The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters: The Tragic and Glamorous Lives of Jackie and Lee
A poignant, evocative, and wonderfully gossipy account of the two sisters who represented style and class above all else-Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill-from the authors of Furious Love.
When sixty-four-year-old Jackie Kennedy Onassis died in her Fifth Avenue apartment, her younger sister Lee wept inconsolably. Then Jackie's thirty-eight-page will was read. Lee discovered that substantial cash bequests were left to family members, friends, and employees-but nothing to her. "I have made no provision in this my Will for my sister, Lee B. Radziwill, for whom I have great affection, because I have already done so during my lifetime," read Jackie's final testament. Drawing on the authors' candid interviews with Lee Radziwill, The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters explores their complicated relationship, placing them at the center of twentieth-century fashion, design, and style.
In life, Jackie and Lee were alike in so many ways. Both women had a keen eye for beauty-in fashion, design, painting, music, dance, sculpture, poetry-and both were talented artists. Both loved pre-revolutionary Russian culture, and the blinding sunlight, calm seas, and ancient olive groves of Greece. Both loved the siren call of the Atlantic, sharing sweet, early memories of swimming with the rakish father they adored, Jack Vernou Bouvier, at his East Hampton retreat. But Jackie was her father's favorite, and Lee, her mother's. One would grow to become the most iconic woman of her time, while the other lived in her shadow. As they grew up, the two sisters developed an extremely close relationship threaded with rivalry, jealousy, and competition. Yet it was probably the most important relationship of their lives.
For the first time, Vanity Fair contributing editor Sam Kashner and acclaimed biographer Nancy Schoenberger tell the complete story of these larger-than-life sisters. Drawing on new information and extensive interviews with Lee, now eighty-four, this dual biography sheds light on the public and private lives of two extraordinary women who lived through immense tragedy in enormous glamour.
When sixty-four-year-old Jackie Kennedy Onassis died in her Fifth Avenue apartment, her younger sister Lee wept inconsolably. Then Jackie's thirty-eight-page will was read. Lee discovered that substantial cash bequests were left to family members, friends, and employees-but nothing to her. "I have made no provision in this my Will for my sister, Lee B. Radziwill, for whom I have great affection, because I have already done so during my lifetime," read Jackie's final testament. Drawing on the authors' candid interviews with Lee Radziwill, The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters explores their complicated relationship, placing them at the center of twentieth-century fashion, design, and style.
In life, Jackie and Lee were alike in so many ways. Both women had a keen eye for beauty-in fashion, design, painting, music, dance, sculpture, poetry-and both were talented artists. Both loved pre-revolutionary Russian culture, and the blinding sunlight, calm seas, and ancient olive groves of Greece. Both loved the siren call of the Atlantic, sharing sweet, early memories of swimming with the rakish father they adored, Jack Vernou Bouvier, at his East Hampton retreat. But Jackie was her father's favorite, and Lee, her mother's. One would grow to become the most iconic woman of her time, while the other lived in her shadow. As they grew up, the two sisters developed an extremely close relationship threaded with rivalry, jealousy, and competition. Yet it was probably the most important relationship of their lives.
For the first time, Vanity Fair contributing editor Sam Kashner and acclaimed biographer Nancy Schoenberger tell the complete story of these larger-than-life sisters. Drawing on new information and extensive interviews with Lee, now eighty-four, this dual biography sheds light on the public and private lives of two extraordinary women who lived through immense tragedy in enormous glamour.
Editorial Reviews
"This lavish portrait plumbs the tensions between bookish, regal Jackie and "lady-in-waiting" Lee, who sought the limelight only to be eclipsed by her iconic sister." -- O magazine
"Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger paint a lush picture of the complicated relationship between sisters Jackie Onassis and Lee Radziwill.... Gossipy gems are studded throughout." -- Vanity Fair
"Don't be too put off by the salacious title – though the co-writers definitely don't avoid gossipy material, their book is no hatchet job, and actually draws from extensive interviews with Radziwill, who's now 84 years old. The result is a lively and highly entertaining profile of two dynamic and super-stylish sibling-rivals." -- BBC America
"[A] taut and fascinating work." -- In Style
"The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters is journalism. . . . it is a tale for the curious, with an excellent index allowing readers to retrace their steps as the plot thickens." -- East Hampton Star
"To-be-devoured-like-a-box-of-chocolates, Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberg's juicy page-turner, The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters is. . . . a poignant account." -- Wag Mag
"A complex portrait of Jackie and Lee Bouvier and how their lives and loves defined them and their relationship as sisters." -- Shelf Awareness
"One would think there couldn't be much more to say about Jackie Kennedy and Lee Radziwill, but The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters proves otherwise. So many gossipy stories and recollections fill this breezy and entertaining, yet informative, read." -- Bookreporter.com
"Readers drawn to the Kennedy mystique will savor this intricate chronicle rife with romance, tragedy, and surprising details, such as that Jackie may have helped choose JFK's paramours. The authors provide an intimate view of two sisters, both famous in their own rights." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Suffice it to say, more than 50 years on, explorations of the truths and fictions of Camelot continue to mesmerize." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger paint a lush picture of the complicated relationship between sisters Jackie Onassis and Lee Radziwill.... Gossipy gems are studded throughout." -- Vanity Fair
"Don't be too put off by the salacious title – though the co-writers definitely don't avoid gossipy material, their book is no hatchet job, and actually draws from extensive interviews with Radziwill, who's now 84 years old. The result is a lively and highly entertaining profile of two dynamic and super-stylish sibling-rivals." -- BBC America
"[A] taut and fascinating work." -- In Style
"The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters is journalism. . . . it is a tale for the curious, with an excellent index allowing readers to retrace their steps as the plot thickens." -- East Hampton Star
"To-be-devoured-like-a-box-of-chocolates, Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberg's juicy page-turner, The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters is. . . . a poignant account." -- Wag Mag
"A complex portrait of Jackie and Lee Bouvier and how their lives and loves defined them and their relationship as sisters." -- Shelf Awareness
"One would think there couldn't be much more to say about Jackie Kennedy and Lee Radziwill, but The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters proves otherwise. So many gossipy stories and recollections fill this breezy and entertaining, yet informative, read." -- Bookreporter.com
"Readers drawn to the Kennedy mystique will savor this intricate chronicle rife with romance, tragedy, and surprising details, such as that Jackie may have helped choose JFK's paramours. The authors provide an intimate view of two sisters, both famous in their own rights." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Suffice it to say, more than 50 years on, explorations of the truths and fictions of Camelot continue to mesmerize." -- Kirkus Reviews
Readers Top Reviews
dogonaki78Louise Boy
It is a good book and well written. If someone has read other biographies o JK, you are not going to get a lot of new information, but was interesting to get to learn things about her sister.
BCAndrew L-SMiss Zoe
I found this book underwhelming. I had read an excerpt from the book in the Sunday Times magazine and liked the article. On the strength of the article I bought the book. There was not enough information in it. I didn't begin to know either woman and still don't understand why Jackie left Lee out of her will. I don't know much about Lee but I believe she merits a biography.
Astrida M
This is the first biographical book I have read about the sisters and it seemed thorough enough for me. I was shocked to learn that Lee may have slept with Jack. I always followed what Jackie was doing but not Lee. It was good to learn more about Lee , who seems to be the most interesting one of the two sisters. I don't think there is a man out there from her era that she didn't sleep with! I wish Lee would write her own story.
Kirsten
One of the impressive elements of this book was how the Kennedys didn't dominate the story - there were only fleeting mentions of the extended Kennedy clan, so the book could focus on Jackie and her sister Lee as talented and artistic women in their right. I loved reading about their travels, international home-making on a millionaire budget, their interactions with famous artists and writers, and their creative achievements, as well as the more familiar parts of their story. It was also a story of growth and coming-of-age from a privileged perspective, as both women reach a point where they realise that marrying for money isn't the only way to generate income, so they go to work - Jackie as an editor, employed part-time at $10,000 a year (she didn't even have a very good view from her office window, and she had to make coffee for her colleagues!) and Lee starting her own interior design business (until she got tired of all the paperwork involved, sending invoices etc). Like any book connected to the Kennedy or Onassis family, there is a strong thread of tragedy and unfulfilled potential... a strong argument that there might be a "curse" on the extended family. In Lee's case, we can see that some of her tragedy was of her own making, as she struggled to escape the shadow of her older sister. What kind of person would she have been, if history had not seen her as Jackie's "lady in waiting"? Personally, I don't think her life would have unfolded much differently, while Jackie's would certainly have been very different if she hadn't married those two iconic men. For anyone reading it on a Kindle, it's not as long as you think! The last 15% of the book covers the acknowledgements, bibliography and index of quotes.
carilynp
What started off as all the similar tales and gossip about two of the most famous sisters, I thought I was going to be disappointed. Well, that changed once I delved further into Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger’s book THE FABULOUS BOUVIER SISTERS: THE TRAGIC AND GLAMOROUS LIVES OF JACKIE AND LEE. It was filled with anecdotes, interviews, and even photographs that I hadn't seen before and given that I have pretty much read every book that I could get my ever-loving Jackie hands on, it takes a lot to impress me when it comes to new facts about Mrs. O. If you have followed Jackie and Lee since they were young girls, you probably know they had something of a rivalry. For their father Black Jack’s affections, for men whom they were pursuing romantic love, sometimes the same one, for a title (Princess versus First Lady), friendships, real estate, and even the size of their bank accounts. The book is not just about their competition with each other. Both women lead spectacularly interesting lives, charmed, glamorous, and unfortunately, each, had more than their fair share of tragedy. The authors interviewed numerous friends and family members and exposed backstabbing and digs that went deep from Truman Capote to Gore Vidal. If this were a competition, I would have to say that Lee does not come out the winner. But I’ll let you read it and decide.
