Ben Wiseman In The New York Times Book Review, Judith Newman reviews “Alone Together,†the new memoir by Teddy Getty Gaston, the fifth and final wife of the billionaire J. Paul Getty. Ms. Newman writes:
“Alone Together†is a private memoir of a public man, and a very whitewashed one. We hear about the little Donald Duck stuffed toys they exchanged, but nothing substantive about his business, his relationships with world leaders, his other wives and children, or the famous kidnapping and mutilation of his grandson and the ransom Getty bargained down before finally paying. (From about $17 million to $2.2 million â€" just the amount that would be tax-deductible.) Much here reflects the fond, and I suspect unreliable, memories of a lovely and loving, now 99-year-old woman. But then, perhaps we shouldn’t always read memoirs for facts; we should sometimes read them to get closer to the subject.
On this week’s podcast, Ms. Newman discusses “Alone Togetherâ€; Julie Bosman has notes from the field; Evan J. Mandery talks about “A Wild Justice,†his new book about the death penalty in the U.S.; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.
