The Kennedys: The Third Generation

Perhaps emblematic of their stature within the family, the third generation of Kennedys receives concentrated attention in just the final third of this memoir, with Joseph, Rose and their offspring dominating the rest of the book. And at that, the scuttlebutt here is familiar. Even the insider info that Gibson, who was Rose's secretary from 1968-1978, offers is hardly news: Rose punished her children by wacking them with a wooden coat hanger; Joseph purchased some 40,000 copies of his son John's treatise Why England Slept to make it a bestseller in 1940. And if Rose and Joe were rotten parents, the second generation was even lousier, according to Gibson, who takes them to task for their indifference to their children. After parading a gang of brats, Gibson, writing with freelancer Schwarz, ultimately grants her imprimatur to a few of the 29 grandchildren who as adults she praises for giving substance to the notion of public service that to their parents was only a matter of image-making. Among them are Mary Kerry Cuomo, Bobby Kennedy Jr. and his brother Michael. There are good marks also for JFK's two offspring and Maria Shriver. Photos not seen by PW . (Nov.)