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Savage Grace, by Natalie Robins, Steven M. L. Aronson
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A spellbinding tale of money and madness, incest and matricide, Savage Grace is the saga of Brooks and Barbara Baekeland -- beautiful, rich, worldly -- and their handsome, gentle son, Tony. Alternately neglected and smothered by his parents, he was finally driven to destroy the whole family in a violent chain of events. Savage Grace unfolds against a glamorous international background (New York, London, Paris, Italy, Spain); features a nonpareil cast of characters (including Salvador Dal�, James Jones, the Astors, the Vanderbilts, and European nobility); and tells the doomed Baekelands' story through remarkably candid interviews, private letters, and diaries, not to mention confidential hospital, State Department, and prison documents. A true-crime classic, it exposes the envied lives of the rich and beautiful, and brilliantly illuminates the darkest corners of the American Dream.
- Sales Rank: #1506902 in Books
- Brand: Brand: William Morrow n Co
- Published on: 1985-06
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 492 pages
Features
- Used Book in Good Condition
Most helpful customer reviews
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
The Best of Its Kind
By T. Burrows
To be fair about it, I should say that I have not read a lot of true stories of bloodshed and sleaze and incest among the very-very rich, but this is the best that I have ever read. It is very well-written and superbly researched, and paints as full a picture of the glamorous and twisted life of the Baekeland family as one could possibly have hoped for. Grandpa invented the first really useful plastic, and his heirs proceeded to slide into a life of riches, luxury, and moral decay. I liked this book so much that I made a point of visiting the town in Catalunya where much of it takes place. This is truly a poignant and powerful narrative, one that deserves to be reprinted for many years to come.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
REMEMBERING BARBARA: Ode to a Phoenix from a Turtle
By Pippin O' Rohan
Few people will remember today this tragedy of an American family that began in Paris in the late 1960s. A great majority of those, who interviewed for this book on publication in 1985, are now gone.
Securing a copy of the above at the time, it was a first for this reader for non-fiction that falls into the category of high-society crime formatted into an oral history.
It's about a glamorous American couple, Barbara and Brooks Baekeland and only child, their son Tony. Starting in the mid-1950s and earlier, a wave of Americans of different backgrounds, professions and vocations were moving to Paris, and traveled about Europe for a short duration or longer. Some of them were artists, musicians, writers and others, including a large social circle of friends and acquaintances. Many came from New York with a wish to branch out in some way, and some were never to return to live in the States.
The Baekelands, with some others who had the means to do so, fell into the category of those who wanted to enjoy what might be termed as 'La Dolce Vita' or 'The Gentle Life', before settling down to a more grounded environment at a later age.
In 1967 after thirty years of marriage, Brooks left Barbara in Paris, and took off to Italy with Tony's supposedly girlfriend. After Barbara tried to take her life in their small rental on the Ile St. Louis, her heart had stopped beating by the time a young doctor arrived. Persevering, he managed to revive her after five minutes, but she was never quite the same. Always volatile and temperamental, she was now unstable after her serious attempt (her vocal chords took a beating, and there may have been other health repercussions as well). And yet, she courageously tried to regain her footing and balance. This was to prove impossible under the circumstances, as outlined in more detail here.
Barbara and Tony were to travel together in the next few years, mainly about Spain, London and New York, while Tony was suffering from heavy drug addiction. He had begun in 1965 to experiment with what were then known as 'recreational' drugs with his peers, making him eventually psychotic, joining many casualties of these users. Barbara, always fearless, took it upon herself to protect her only child and restore him to health.
All to say, increasingly violent episodes were taking place between mother and son, circulating through the news-wire of their friends from Europe to New York and although a shock, it came as no surprise to any who knew of them, when Tony murdered his mother in November 1972 at their London apartment where he was arrested immediately. Tony spent the next eight years at Broadmoor, an asylum for the criminally insane in England, where many well-wishers were to visit him. A group of his acquaintances made a concerted effort to have him released against the advice of his doctors, and eventually Tony came back to New York to stay in the custody of his elderly maternal grandmother.
Within a week of his arrival, after attacking her violently, he was sent to Rikers Island where shortly afterwards he committed suicide, or was murdered by another inmate. His grandmother was to survive, and outlived him by a few years until her decease a few months prior to the release of this publication.
"Savage Grace" was greeted with great success by many, if not the greater majority. It was on a best-seller's list for awhile and won a prestigious award. Basically the subject matter of this oral history addresses the topics of inherited wealth, marriage, divorce, drugs, mental illness, rumors of incest, matricide and ultimately the destruction of an American family. The only survivor left when the book came out was Brooks, now living with his now second younger wife in Italy, Tony's former friend, where he agreed to be interviewed by the authors.
In an attempt to be objective and never having read an oral history before, this reader has tried to summarize the book as follows:
The first chapter begins as a potentially interesting read on a journalistic novel tone, but falls rapidly into fragments of scattered and agitated comments from people one has never heard of: friends of the family, acquaintances, witnesses, medical experts, detectives and a few notable celebrities of the day. This can make for a somewhat loud and confusing narration with high static energy in the background, or tends to slog along at a tedious pace.
It is important to note that there is no referral page index to be found in this book, making it confusing for some of the readers, while offering at the end some brief biographical notes on the people, who participated in pulling this oral history together in collaboration with the authors. The narrative settles at times into various geographical locations and focuses on specific incidents; only to flare up again with the next introduction of a new, or resurfacing commentator elsewhere.
There are earlier memories relayed before the onset of this tragedy from some of the interviewees, or witnesses during the darkening years leading up to the final days. These commentaries fluctuate between the past and present, and can be disruptive, throwing some of the readers off course. Some are lengthy; some offer a line; some are remarks taken from the original recordings and exchanges with the authors.
On the last page of "Savage Grace", the reader will find Brooks Baekeland's closing statement: 'We were linked all three of us, Tony, Barbara and I; linked__ to the death. I mean unto Death, of course'.
"Savage Grace" has a notable imbalance from this reader's vantage point. It can be interpreted only through the 'voices' of Brooks and Tony, the latter in his letters, and their friends or detractors coming to the fore of this saga. It can serve, however, as an example of how people in general, whether friends, acquaintances and strangers might make an erroneous judgement about individuals without knowing them well, on a casual basis, or mere hearsay.
As for Barbara, a fundamental and essential figure in this story, she remains somewhat invisible in this scenario, and we learn little about her, leaving some of the readers wanting to hear her 'voice' in some shape, or another. We are left only with some of her brief private correspondence inserted here and there throughout the book. This does not help in the telling of her life story. Allusions are made at time to her middle-class background without anything substantive, or informative to lend further insight to the readers, and there appears to be no paternal figure in her family background.
I kept a copy of the book for some of the earlier photos of the Baekelands; ones already familiar to my eye in happier days, to add to my own collection of them, and to the comments in the young diary I kept when staying with them in Paris (Barbara and Brooks were to pay for my schooling in the country, and for much of my upbringing). The book contains interviews of nearly everybody I have met in my life, along with anecdotes from some of my own family relations, and mutual friends of theirs.
In summary, "Savage Grace" can make for a somewhat bumpy cut-and-dry read; a desultory one, to give possibly to someone who follows true crime stories for their own input on the above. It also helps to check the other readers' reviews for their comments and feedback of this history. It did bring to mind how often we are ready to pick up stones and throw them at unknown victims, not realizing that we are throwing stones at ourselves in some way.
I did meet along with many others at the time, one of the authors, Steve Aronson, while he was researching this tragedy. Our encounter took place at a casual brunch given by a relative of mine, and he was placed next to my right at the small round table. When he asked eventually for my thoughts of Barbara, I told him with a genuine note, that one day I might write a book of my own about her, and that was really the end of the affair. I never did, of course, and for those of you who are still reading this, here are some reflections on Barbara, the most beautiful, warm and lively personality I have known. She had the most extraordinary zest and love for Life, and she was once a friend of mine.
* * *
A French poem was made into a beautiful lyrical song that Barbara and I used to enjoy on overcast weekends when together in Paris on the Quai de Bourbon; one that I have somewhat forgotten today, it goes along these lines: "Remember, Barbara, it was raining relentlessly in the City and you were walking, smiling, looking ravishing under the pouring rain. A man was sheltered under a porch and he caught you in his arms. Remember that, Barbara. But what has become of you now since that day? And the one who was holding you in his arms so tenderly, did he disappear, or is he still living? Oh, Barbara, it is raining unceasingly as it rained before. But it's not the same today and everything now is a sea of desolate mourning".
And why now when so many years have passed, a lifetime really, would you speak about her today? Some might ask. Because it rains a little in my heart when I think of her', I might reply, or because the time feels right, now in hindsight. She looked after me so well and in so many important ways when I was growing up. Her generosity and warmth of spirit knew no bounds and she brought out the best in me. I was to remember some of the things she told me about life's important lessons. Perhaps in the end the simple explanation is the best - 'I loved her'.
As I look today at a small copper bird that she gave me in 1971 before we finally parted after my early childhood until young adulthood, I have a broader scope today of her rich character and personality, and in the early twilight dusk of this evening I sense that Barbara is where she belongs and meant to be. She is dancing at the Royal Court of Versailles with Louis XIV 'The Sun King', and they look like a perfect match and a heavenly couple. She is at her happiest, smiling and most beautiful, and it just goes to show that one can always find a remembrance of joy somewhere in the midst of sorrow, if one tries to use one's heart in such very sad matters.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Fascinating Story--TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION
By saule kliore
JUICY AND HISTORICALLY TRUE TALE about the globe-trotting, name-dropping, substance-abusing, delusional, felony-committing, social-climbing, incestuous relationship-having, blind to many of their own problem-inducing descendants (some of them, anyway) of the sober, extremely intellectual Dr.Baekeland, creator of the original multi-use plastic Bakelite, who must still be spinning in his grave in regards to this saga, many years though it's been. Written as an oral history, with multiple, oft-contradictory commentary from friends/insiders/supporters/horrified (or strangely blas�) on-lookers/family members/authorities (physicians, police)/afore-mentioned globe-trotters and socialites, as well as members of the class "serving" them, all telling their own side of the story, interspersed deliciously with letters from same and, even better, from the protagonists/antagonists themselves, this is truly a fascinating read on many accounts. If nothing else, it's fascinating to see how one could address a letter to "Msr. Joe Blow, Grand Hotel, St. Moritz" from anywhere in Europe, The U.S.. India, etc., and have it arrive intact and on time. Highly recommended by me for the drama, authentic mise-en-scene reflection of time(s) and place(s), hubris of the actors, tone and pace of story, and seemingly exacting detail with which the authors/editors have reported on such a sordid, subjective, tragic life story.
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