When I initially saw this book, I was very intrigued about Rosemary Kennedy and her life. I had never even known that she was hidden from the world or that she even existed. The beginning of the book was very interesting and talks a lot about Rosemary’s early life through her teen years. The author talks about the extravagant trips and places that the family went to because of Joe Kennedy Sr. and his job. She describes how Rosemary changed from a happy, slow-learning child to one who threw tantrums and whose behavior was at times uncontrollable. This led Rosemary’s father to have her undergo a lobotomy, a common procedure at the time.
The story loses its flow and jumps around a lot when the author begins to talk about Stella Koehler, who later became Sister Paulus, and was Rosemary’s caregiver after her lobotomy. The author talks a lot about Stella’s life growing up on a farm in Wisconsin and her Catholic upbringing as well as how she became Rosemary’s primary caregiver. For the most part, it stayed chronological with Rosemary’s life, however the author talked a lot about her family and not so much about Rosemary. With only 211 pages in the book, and most of them filled with pictures, it was a fairly quick read and the non-picture filled pages contained part Rosemary’s life and part those who cared for her.
I loved reading about Rosemary’s life and what she had to endure because of her mental disability in that time period, as well as how her family started organizations and camps to help spread awareness about this topic later on in her life. It was eye-opening to see how we as a society have come a long way with our views on mental disability from the 1960s to now. The amount of secrecy that surrounded the Kennedys because of Rosemary’s disability was one of epic proportions because of the fame that surrounded them. It is amazing how Joe Sr. hid his daughter away for 20 years and no one thought to question it.
My only negative about this book is the lack of flow, and it was difficult to follow who the author was talking about and how they related to Rosemary.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in mental disability in the 1950s and 60s and the stigmatism that came with it, as well as those interested in Rosemary Kennedy’s life.
Koehler-Pentacoff, Elizabeth. The Missing Kennedy: Rosemary Kennedy and the Secret Bonds of Four Women. Baltimore, MD: Bancroft, 2015. Print.
The story loses its flow and jumps around a lot when the author begins to talk about Stella Koehler, who later became Sister Paulus, and was Rosemary’s caregiver after her lobotomy. The author talks a lot about Stella’s life growing up on a farm in Wisconsin and her Catholic upbringing as well as how she became Rosemary’s primary caregiver. For the most part, it stayed chronological with Rosemary’s life, however the author talked a lot about her family and not so much about Rosemary. With only 211 pages in the book, and most of them filled with pictures, it was a fairly quick read and the non-picture filled pages contained part Rosemary’s life and part those who cared for her.
I loved reading about Rosemary’s life and what she had to endure because of her mental disability in that time period, as well as how her family started organizations and camps to help spread awareness about this topic later on in her life. It was eye-opening to see how we as a society have come a long way with our views on mental disability from the 1960s to now. The amount of secrecy that surrounded the Kennedys because of Rosemary’s disability was one of epic proportions because of the fame that surrounded them. It is amazing how Joe Sr. hid his daughter away for 20 years and no one thought to question it.
My only negative about this book is the lack of flow, and it was difficult to follow who the author was talking about and how they related to Rosemary.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in mental disability in the 1950s and 60s and the stigmatism that came with it, as well as those interested in Rosemary Kennedy’s life.
Koehler-Pentacoff, Elizabeth. The Missing Kennedy: Rosemary Kennedy and the Secret Bonds of Four Women. Baltimore, MD: Bancroft, 2015. Print.