The Family: The Real Story Of The Bush Dynasty: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty. Kitty Kelley - Softcover

Kitty Kelley, author of exhaustive and highly unflattering biographies of Frank Sinatra, Jackie Onassis, and the royal family, amongst others, has never received much cooperation from her subjects. Likewise, none was given for The Family: The Real History of the Bush Dynasty, and it's not hard to understand why. In the book, the family that has produced two presidents as well as an assortment of other politicians, businesspeople, and a number of lesser-known black sheep is portrayed as a powerful empire that leverages wealth and influence to grow ever stronger while stringently covering up numerous instances of drug abuse, infidelity, poor judgment, and scandal. While charges about George W Bush, including that he snorted cocaine at Camp David while his father was president, garnered the most attention upon the book's release, Kelley's history goes back several generations, detailing the rise to power of Senator Prescott Bush and his son, the first President Bush. Those seeking a salacious peak at the inner sanctum of a wealthy and powerful family will not be disappointed by The Family--Kelley always delivers on that count--and will likely devour allegations of Barbara Bush's sour temperament, George H.W. Bush's long-standing affair with aide Jennifer Fitzgerald, and George W Bush's obnoxious drunken frat boy days that stretched, according to Kelley, well into adulthood. Those seeking a rock-solid and airtight indictment of the Bushes, however, will be disappointed, since Kelley leans on anonymous sources and rumors for some of the juicier bits. Interestingly, although it tells the stories of a family built on politics, The Family mostly avoids the subject, clearing the decks of all political substance in order to put the style on wider display. --John Moe--from Amazon.com

"This is a story of power, sex and betrayal--but mostly of power." -"The New York Times Book Review" "A thoroughly researched piece of work. Ms. Kelley clearly devoured and digested the extant literature on the family." -"The New York Times" "Kelley's account of the rise and fall of the Bush family is both inspirational and cautionary. She convincingly shows that good looks, energy, athleticism, ambition, felicitous marriages and social networking can compensate for intellectual ordinariness." -"The Washington Post Book World" "The Family . . . has left few stones unturned. . . . Kelley has brought new information to bear on a family that, for better or worse, deserves her kind of royal treatment." -"The New York Times Book Review" "A sweeping indictment of the mind-set of the [Bush] family, that they grew up feeling that this was their due." -Garry Trudeau," The Charlie Rose Show" "Despite the best efforts of the media, the public is gaining insight into their president as the facts leak out and as Kitty Kelley's The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty, tops the sales chart." -"Newsday" "Kelley nails the evidence and, although the secretive Bush family will not like it, demonstrates beyond doubt what the American press dared not print." -"The Guardian"