While reading Peter Janney's turgid theory about the death of Mary Pinchot Meyer, JFK's last mistress, I was distracted by mention of Mary's sister, the beautiful and otherworldly Rosamund Pinchot - actually her half-sister, and twenty years older - who tried to break away from her wealthy family by becoming an actress. After reading her granddaughter's biography, I discovered that all Rosamund actually achieved was to marry a cheat and a bully who was obsessed with losing his own family money, give birth to two neglected young boys and then take her own life, but her short time on earth still reads like an Agatha Christie novel from the 1930s, full of self-destructive bluebloods who are quick to bury their secrets to preserve the family name.

Bibi Gaston grew up knowing nothing of her grandmother Rosamund, who was discovered by director Max Reinhardt, lunched with Eleanor Roosevelt and was chased around Hollywood parties by David O Selznick, because the scandal of her death had sealed the family's lips and wounded her youngest son, Bibi's father. After his death, Bibi inherited her grandmother's 'lost' diaries from her uncle, and started a personal voyage of discovery to get to know not only Rosamund but also Mary and their equally tragic cousin Edie Sedgwick. Hopping back and forth along the family timeline - 'The author requests the reader's patience', the author's note pleads, 'chapters rotate between the three main characters, and time, like life, is sometimes cut short' - Bibi explores her grandmother's diaries and recounts her own troubled childhood with Rosamund's equally feckless son and her downtrodden mother. A summary of the three generations is provided towards the end of the book:

What I came to realise was that the women in my family had self-destructed over men for three generations. They had imploded rather than exploded, and implosions hadn't just taken them out to sea for a few months; they had killed them or otherwise driven them from their brilliant and beautiful lives.

Bibi's take on her family history is cynical, philosophical and refreshingly honest, but also occasionally repetitive and disjointed. Starting with Rosamund's death, which was all Bibi knew about her grandmother for much of her life, would have immediately captured the reader's sympathy, however morbid an introduction that would have made!

Fascinating in all their dysfunctional glory, the lives of the Pinchots and the Gastons would make a fabulous novel or a film! ( )

The sobriquet of loveliest woman in America was bestowed by the press on Rosamund Pinchot, grandmother of the author. A member of a wealthy family, she was discovered by a Broadway producer onboard a luxury liner when she was 19 and became a star in 1923. Pretty, outgoing, with plenty of money, she seemed to have it all. But in 1938 she went into her garage, ran a hose from the tailpipe of her car in through the window, started the car and lay down in the back seat to await death.

Bibi Gaston is Rosamund’s granddaughter. Gaston never met her grandmother and really knew nothing of her; her father, only 9 when his mother died, did not wish to speak of her. Gaston didn’t really begin to find out things about Rosamund until after her father died and she got hold of Rosamund’s diaries.

This is not just the story of Rosamund; it’s the story of Rosamund’s family, her marriage, her sons, and Gaston herself. The actions of one family member can affect the other members for years, and this is an examination of that. Rosamund married a man who was constantly sleeping around and was emotionally abusive and controlling. While she separated from him, she never divorced him and continued to try and get him back all her life. Her older son grew up to be equally unable to commit to a woman- he left Gaston’s mother because she put on weight and he couldn’t abide that. He didn’t like his father; his children (with the exception of Bibi, who didn’t like the things he did but forgave him) didn’t like him.

I expected a simple biography and was disappointed in how little of the book is actually about Rosamund. While her suicide greatly affected the family, I feel that her husband, William Gaston senior was more influential in forming their son’s personalities. His narcissism was handed straight down to William Jr, Bibi’s father. William Jr. in turn produced children who refused to help their sister Bibi care for him as he died, yet when she was out of town right after the death, came in and ransacked the house, helping themselves to whatever they wanted. One can only hope that they haven’t had children. William Jr’s brother managed to gain sole control of the property and money that was their mother’s. That branch of the family seems to be marked by greed and self centeredness.

The book is uneven and slow. I almost gave up on it a couple of times, both because of this slowness and because so many of the people were so unpleasant. Rosamund herself was interesting, as was her uncle Gifford Pinchot (the first chief of the US Forest Service). But most of the rest are pretty pathetic. ( )

A sad story for all the participants in her life, but is it biography fodder? I don't think so. ( )