The Other Mrs. Kennedy: Ethel Skakel Kennedy: An American Drama of Power, Privilege, and Politics

Oppenheimer relentlessly chips away at the veneer of the Kennedy mystique in this gossipy, sometimes shocking biography of Ethel Skakel Kennedy (born in 1928), widow of Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Daughter of a driven, alcoholic coal magnate and a borderline-alcoholic mother, Ethel Kennedy is portrayed as an arrogant, abusive, highly erratic woman who spent her married life trying to prove herself as competitive and shrewd as the Kennedys. At the same time, she devoted considerable energy to covering up the scandals of some of her 11 children and relatives that included arson, drug addiction, even two murders. A Skakel relative allegedly killed somebody in 1958; another Skakel was one of two suspects in a 1975 murder case. Oppenheimer ( Barbara Walters: An Unauthorized Biography ) pries loose a raft of such family secrets, also drawing heavily on published accounts. With all his cataloguing of dirt, this ultimately depressing biography proves to be biased and mean-spirited. Photos not seen by PW. $150,000 ad/promo; first serial to New York magazine; Literary Guild featured alternate. (Sept.)