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 enlarge | Authors: Natalie Robins, Steven M Aronson
Publisher: Touchstone
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy Used: $5.89
You Save: $10.06 (63%)
New (29) Used (17) from $5.89
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 110203
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 1416572961
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.1
EAN: 9781416572961
ASIN: 1416572961
Publication Date: December 18, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Cover has curl and edging. Cover in sound condition. Pages in good condition. Pages secure. Text unmarked.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Savage Grace July 8, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
An appropriate title for this book. Very interesting indeed--made even more so by the fact that this is true. This is a nightmarish tale of a "Mama's Boy". This story has everything. Insanity, murder, obscession, betrayal, jealousy, wealth, homosexuality, even incest. With parents like these, no wonder Antony Baekeland snapped. I enjoyed it thoroughly, even though it is not written in a traditional way. Taken from slices of interviews, journals, and documents, this book is a great read. Very interesting, however it is not for everyone. If strange family relations are not for you, stay away. If you are of the stereotype that incest only happens in the south (which is untrue anyway), and not to wealthy, "normal" jet-setting families, this is not to you.
"Mommie Dearest" without the eyebrows July 7, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I could not, and didnt want to put this book down. A consistant page turner. The style in which it is presented is easy to grasp and far from confusing as stated by other reviewers. The unique style of presentaion makes the "voices" come to life as if the recollections were taking place with the reader right there. The movie starring Julieanne Moore is not to be missed. "Mommie Dearest" without the eyebrows. rent it on pay perview or IFC-In-Demand until the DVD is released.
Its about the characters July 3, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This was truly a fantastic book. Many will say they dislike the format, and I will agree it can be confusing (a Baekland family tree might have been helpful) but to state that these characters do not matter is an unfair judgment. The characters are absolutely astounding the way they interact. And the format plays to the benefit of the story, because it hints that the real truth will be forever lost, and additionally because all of the characters tell their version of one event so one can see the true motivations of each character. Such as Brooks Baekland (Tony's father) who strives to be a dashing intellectual, at which he arguably succeeds in doing, protects the family name through a blatant yet subtle ostracization (I think thats a word) of his wife and son. Then one can see where the actions and feelings of Tony are coming from. This book was utterly fantastic and I would suggest it to anyone. This is not so much historical True Crime, it is a deep delve into the psychologies of the old-money aristocracy.
"I wanted to kill him with a brick" April 29, 2008
20 out of 21 found this review helpful
I first read this book when it originally came out. I was in high school and like many teenagers I was prepared to see parents as the source of most teenage troubles. After reading this book, I promptly wrote my parents a nice letter about what swell people they were. I was that grateful not to have had Brooks and Barbara Baekeland for parents.
This is the rare book that proved even better than I remembered when I reread it last month. It starts with the murder of Barbara Baekeland by her son then goes back in time to beginnings of the Baekeland fortune through the passionate but ill-fated marriage of Brooks and Barbara until it catches up with the murder and the sad denouement of Tony's life. As one reviewer here has noted, this is not a traditional narrative but an oral history. The transcripts of interviews are presented without comment - very much like Jean Stein's great Edie and Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil - and the speakers reveal far more about themselves than any narrative could.
If there is a villain in this story, for me it wasn't Tony Baekeland, who clearly suffered from serious mental illness but his father Brooks Baekeland. Rarely have I come across a character in fiction or nonfiction who made me want to slap him so hard or so often. Early on one former friend of the Baekelands' talks about wanting to kill Brooks in the street with a brick. By the end of the book you may, like me, find this to be a perfectly reasonable response because Brooks is a piece of work. In fact, he's a complete jerk. If I'd been Tony's lawyer I'd have used the fact that Tony had the opportunity to kill his father yet didn't as Exhibit A in the fact that Tony was insane. Whether he's yammering on about how much he was like his brilliant grandfather, complaining about the fact that Tony couldn't stick with anything (this from a writer who only managed to write one short story and didn't finish his PhD!) or basically abandoning Tony after he's released from Broadmoor, Brooks Baekeland is a loathsome individual. His blatant homophobia and sheer lack of compassion will take your breath away. Other characters come across as clueless or careless but Brooks is downright diabolical in his self-absorption.
As an evocation of a time, a certain type of ultra-privileged couple (the sort with artistic pretensions but little talent or commitment) and a mind boggling selfishness, Savage Grace is a book to read and reread. It's suited for True Crime and biography fans. As noted, if you don't like oral histories you probably won't like it - there is very little narrative holding the interviews together. When the author wants to describe Riker's Island, she presents her description as an interview, for example. If you enjoy hearing the story from the mouths of those who lived it, Savage Grace is a book you won't soon forget.
 book review March 23, 2008
4 out of 9 found this review helpful
Did not like the format of this book at all, would rather it had been
all in present tense. Too much info of no use from people who did not matter. Also not enough family background.
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