this was a well-executed book, but it was all so gross and i'm gross for reading it. ( )

Truth is stranger than fiction & this oral history of Brooks Barbara & Tony Baekeland is strange indeed. Set against a glamorous international background (New York, London, Paris, & Costa Brava) and filled with celebrities of the 1950's and 1960's, the Baekelands, heirs to the Bakelite plastic fortune should have had everything in life to make them happy. Yet as is often the case,money and plenty of free time seemed to lead only to unhappiness & madness (along in this case with incest & matricide). Told in the style of oral history, the reader pieces together the story much as one would do relaying the misfortunes of a well-known friend or colleague. None of these people really matter in the grand scheme of things, but as a juicy guilty pleasure, this book is a great treat to read. ( )

I'm not really a true crime fan, but once I started reading this book I became absolutely gripped and remained gripped right to the end. The reader knows, right from the outset what the bare bones of the 'crime' were, but what is so compelling is the big 'why'? How did a couple with so much going for them, money, charm, looks, intelligence turn out to be such appalling parents to their only child? Was their son born with the seeds of mental illness hard-wired into him, or did his problems stem from the way he was brought up plus the excessive use of dope when in his teens.
The authors have interviewed just about everyone who had any contact with the family, they have read the newspaper reports, psychiatric reports, letters from and to friends and relatived of the family , and the book which is divided into sections, puts extracts from all their researches together in a series of extracts. Through these the reader begins to build up a picture of each of the family members and also of the people with whom they interact. In fact the authors let you make up your own mind as to what each person was like and why things happened.
The whole story is a tragedy, a modern version of Orestes. ( )