Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars | 3,755 ratings

Price: 21.83

Last update: 12-18-2024


Top reviews from the United States

Amandalee D. Wayman
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully Written and Heart-rending.
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2024
This book is so well written and researched and something everyone should read. You will be shaken by the truths finally revealed in this brave book. I felt like I couldn’t put it down, but had to stop periodically because of the pain that oozed out of this book. I have lived my entire life seeing the Kennedy stories and tragedies but never fully understood how much self inflicted pain permeated throughout every generation of this family. And now I realize too how much outward pain they inflicted callously on everyone around them. It is a must read. Poignant and hard, but a must read.
Shawn M. Simmons
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read - important reworking of history!!
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2024
Well written, great details, and a very important revision of the history of the Kennedy family. Should be acknowledged by both scholars and by the family.
DRM
4.0 out of 5 stars spell-binding
Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2024
Like so many others, I had great difficulty putting this book down until read. It is fascinating. I wondered intensely as I read about the nature of the Kennedys’ Catholic faith, how many of them truly knew Jesus of Nazareth. My question applies to the wives as well, not one gave any indication (in this book) of crying out to the Only One who could have truly helped. Well, I have read elsewhere of Rose’s encounter with Jesus, she was furious at a maid who suggested she needed to. Later in life (but I am not sure how much later) she did encounter Him, and spoke of “getting it now”, and being transformed. This was evident in her merciful attitude toward Jackie, I think, when she married Onassis. Also, I believe Eunice was a nice person and a genuine Believer though her advice to Joan, if true, was horrid. Although the men were often absolutely without conscience it seemed, some goodness did shine through, such as JFK’s immense kindness to his sister Rosemary. RFK Sr who except for his horrible treatment of Marilyn was relatively unscathed (well, and his affair with Jackie), I believe honestly tried at times to do what was right. The torture of Rosemary was sickening, the “doctor” deserved capital punishment, and how karmic that Joe himself spent so many years incapacitated in a wheel chair after ordering such viciousness (after instructing the trusting Rosemary not to tell her mother). Vile! (I previously did not know that Rosemary was not actually that bad prior to the “operation”, she herself is another victim of the Kennedy media machine slander, making her sound much worse than she was, to justify what was done to her.). Caroline and her husband are nasty, how they treated the Bessette family was sickening. RFK Jr rightfully called them out in his diary as bullies and so no surprise these Schlossberg creeps supported another bully, Biden (Tara Reade). But Ted was BY FAR the creepiest son, and the “women’s lib” movement proved its emptiness by supporting him to the end. The author is a leftist, and throws in too much of her leftist views, so anyone who thinks this book was somehow an effort to help Trump in an election year is very deluded.
Jay
5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting, carefully researched
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2024
Someone who never bought into the Camelot myth, I still initially felt hesitant about buying this book. My doubts were dispelled as soon as I began reading. The book is riveting and well-researched. I grew up in the JFK era when media and a network of handlers protected his reputation. Certainly, some media and top Kennedy staff were well aware of his sexual relationships with young women who were White House interns - one a teenager - and they were the tip of the iceberg. Not only were the best-known Kennedy men not what I would call “good Catholics,” but they were amoral. Equally disturbing as their treatment of women was/is their entitlement and total disregard for and respect for others. All this is well-documented. It is time our society let this fairytale about the Kennedy family fade into the sunset. If you prefer to hold on to your illusions, this book is not for you. Many of the women didn’t come off that well, either.
Kathi
5.0 out of 5 stars Thank goodness my grandfather died before all this was known
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2024
President Kennedy was idolized in my grandfather's home. Pictures, a small shrine, totally admired. I was 10 when JFK was assassinated, and believed him to be a hero. This book was an eye opener, a horrifying true story of the sugar-coated bill of goods we've all been sold. The blatant disrespect involved in jumping on a young girl in Jackie's bedroom? Horrifying, and only the beginning. JFK Jr. made every careless, thoughtless, illegal maneuver possible to destroy 2 young women, and himself, on the night of the crash. Bobby, who I always thought was the "good" brother, used the same playbook.

My husband told me to do deep breathing before I had a heart attack at the lies I've bought into my entire life.

Beautifully written, horrifying, and so very sad.
REC
5.0 out of 5 stars The wealthy live be their own rules.
Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2024
Maureen is informative, fun and unafraid in the written word and live interviews. This Kennedy book very well may change your opinion of Camelot and the American Royals.
Diana
3.0 out of 5 stars The Kennedy's are a political dynasty, but Ms Callahan should have kept politics out of the book.
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2024
Maureen Callahan has long been one of my favorite journalists. I consistently follow her articles in The New York Post and The Daily Mail of London and have never disagreed with the stances she has taken. Ms Callahan is straight forward, honest and (was) unbiased in her reporting. However, I have to question two issues concerning Ask Not. Firstly, I hate to sound like a “conspiracy theorist,” albeit, the timing with respect to the release of this book is interesting. The race for the White House is on, and the sitting president clearly has neurological issues. Though the former president looks like the favored choice, independent candidate, Robert Kennedy Jr., is a formidable challenger for Biden and Trump. Just as Kennedy’s numbers are climbing, coincidentally Ask Not makes its debut. Additionally, in the Prologue, using 349 words, Callahan overtly makes a political statement to not vote for Kennedy. An example, "As of this writing, Robert Kennedy Jr., a prominent conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer, who has made racist and antisemitic comments is running for President of the United States."

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