Archivo

“Nancy Reagan, Ugly Duckling”

Leonard’s sort-of-review of Kitty Kelley’s 1991 biography of Nancy Reagan. Some, including the NY Times, considered the book to be no more than a long gossip column. Leonard takes the opportunity to make some very interesting observations about Nancy, her role in the Reagan White House and the state of powerful women in the American psyche. He summarizes the book, “We bought into the notion of King Babar and Queen Celeste. Kitty Kelley suggests, instead, something like Rip Van Winkle and sort of an Ugly Duckling, who really wanted to be a czarina, with her very own Rasputin.” [I just noticed the connection between Rasputin and Putin.]

…but goes on (only part facetiously) to make apologies for Nancy, “So what if she was greedy and stingy? Wasn’t the Reagan revolution all about deregulating greed?”

…and then gets to his point, “What bothers people is that Nancy had some White House clout, as if Betty Ford and Rosalynn Carter didn’t, nor Eleanor Roosevelt, nor Abigail Adams!”

…then brings it home, “She opposed aid for the contras. She was against a pardon for Ollie North. She also pushed Babar into the arms treaty with the Russians…we ought to be glad that he listened to her more than he did the fastbuck Thugees.” [I wonder if he meant to use “Thuggee”?]

Just say no Ronnie...

New phrase: “lynching bees” = like quilting bee or spelling bee, only for a lynching.

New learning: Leonard mentions that, to read the Reagan bio, he had to put down the new novel by Milan Kundera (Czech writer who insisted on being considered French). Since the essay was written in 1991, Leonard is referring to Immortality. Kundera also wrote The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which was made into a film starring Daniel Day-Lewis. I need to read the book and see the movie.