Tuesday Book Review -Family Circle

 Mayhaps review this week:

 I just finished Family Circle by Susan Braudy. It has left me feeling quite disturbed. It is the story of the Boudin family. I suppose the most notorious member is Kathy Boudin. The entire family seemed difficult and selfish to me. It left me saying increasingly toward the end of the book, “What a bunch!”.

The book, which is quite well written, is about the rise of the Boudin family and their devotion to leftist causes. The question that comes up every once in awhile in the book is: “If a man is good to society but not to his family, is he a good man?” After reading this book, I'd have to say that most of this family aren't very good to each other.

Kathy's father , Leonard Boudin, was very talented at getting liberals out of a variety of legal jams. I loved it that Herbert Hoover was always getting his legal butt kicked by Leonard Boudin. That Herbert Hoover – we are well rid of him, anyway! Luckily, he's dead or George Bush would probably bring him back.

Unfortunately, Leonard Boudin was a philanderer of the worst kind. He was obvious and did very serious damage to his family. His wife Jean, who sounds like she had real potential, felt so terrible that she tried to kill herself. Leonard got her to Silver Hill for electroshock and promptly began an affair with the psychologist brought into the Boudin home to counsel the children, Kathy and Michael.

Okay, that's bad but the book really engaged my attention when it started on the life of Kathy Boudin in college and after. I can't imagine under what circumstances I could have ever become like Kathy Boudin. I just couldn't put myself in her shoes. When I read a biography, or memoir, I find myself constantly looking for the similarities. The part where I can grapple with someone else's life as if I were living it. In Kathy Boudin's case, I just couldn't do it.

It isn't that she is too terrible to understand, like Hitler. It just seemed like she lived her life in a strangely self righteous and isolated way. Kind of like a ninja warrior but without the talent. Strangely, it is when she goes to prison that she seems to take some sort of look at herself. And, sadly, all this leads back to her father. At least that is what Susan Braudy seems to be saying. Those two people, forever rejecting one another and yet hanging on for dear life.

This book is quite well done. I have never been especially interested in the radicals of the 1960's, especially the Weathermen. I mean, look at Tom Hayden. What a sell out! I really do think that you need to be very articulate and charismatic if you're going to overthrow the government. I'll never believe it can be accomplished by not bathing. I'll never believe that in denying oneself and others love that we can ever get what we need. Clearly this book demonstrates the damage that accumulates if we think these methods will work.

There were several points where I could hardly bear to continue with this book. It had all the inevitability of a Greek tragedy. The daughter that both loves and loathes her father. The clues along the way that her father misses or discards. As though Zeus gave him shortsightedness to punish him for his hubris.

This book reminded of a time, long ago, when Richard Nixon was resigning after a long summer of Watergate hearings. My father hated Nixon At dinner he was (as usual) going through his litany about Richard Nixon. His favorite was to imitate Nixon saying some of his less brilliant lines. “I am NOT a crook.”, my father would simper. My parents were and are liberals and I felt like I needed to say something shocking. Even more shocking than when I came home from a Republican friend's house wearing my “Reelect the President” button.

Where can you really go with liberal parents? So, I piped up with, “I'm a communist.”. I'll never forget the silence that followed. My Dad's face got red and he said, “You're a WHAT?”. My mother threw herself into the breach and said, “She can't be a communist, Larry. Look at her. She likes nice things too much.”. Well, Mom was absolutely right. I just happen to think that everyone deserves nice things. Just for being born. Just for getting up, washing their hair and not making bombs.

So I read this book and it bothered me that innocent people die because someone else believes their political ideology is worth killing for, worth living without pets. Personally, I think it is brave of Susan Braudy to write this book. Some of the people in it seemed way too devoted to their cause. I found it difficult (if not impossible)to understand people who would deliberately go to such a chilly ideological place. Kathy Boudin lost twenty two years with her son because of this. People died because of this.

So, in spite of being disturbed, you can see this book has me thinking and pondering. It is a riveting tale. I read it in a day – I couldn't put it down – and its a big book. I was supposed to go shopping but I couldn't leave the book. I had to find out if anyone ever came to their senses. They didn't, but by then I didn't care.

This is a fascinating book. I highly recommend it.

Family Circle  The Boudins and the Artistocracy of the Left

Susan Braudy

Knopf/ Random House