The Beneficiary: Fortune, Misfortune, and the Story of My Father

Pulitzer Prize­­–winner Scott (A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother) mines her own rich and privileged family history in this insightful memoir. The descendant of generations of blue-blooded Main Line Philadelphians—Scott’s grandmother is said to be the inspiration for the character of socialite Tracy Lord in Philip Barry’s play The Philadelphia Story—Scott recounts the fun times of her life growing up in the 1960s (“We haul a five- or six- seater wooden toboggan from the garage, and [our father] arranges to meet a few beaglers, ” who release the dogs to playfully race the children downhill), as well as the tough moments and the lives of her family members. Scott pulls no punches when revealing the vulnerabilities of her family, particularly her father, a longtime president of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, who battled depression and whose excessive alcohol consumption led to his death in 2005 from complications of cirrhosis. She also provides a tantalizing glimpse into Main Line opulence via remembrances of life on her family’s estate, Ardrossan, which once encompassed nearly 800 acres, had a working farm, and was visited by such notables as publishing magnate Walter Annenberg and Vogue photographer Horst P. Horst. Told without false modesty or overweening privilege, Scott’s story is a well-paced narrative punctuated with lyrical prose. This is a fascinating glimpse into a rarefied world. (Apr.)