This was a lovely jaunt of a book. I enjoyed my journey through her life thanks to the painstakingly researched but highly sensitive narrative of the author. From Philadelphia upper middle class family life to a film star and then princess are the ingredients of a fairy tale. However, played out on the world stage she learned quite soon about "the devil's pact with celebrity that famous people can never hope to be 'just a person' again".Lacey manages to tread that fine line between salacious interest and truth. What comes across is a complicated life brilliantly held together by the immaculate Grace. I had always thought her to be a beautiful woman and remain captivated by the stills that remain of her but I also now have a sense of the woman behind who was considered to be a fairy-tale princess. She was also a product of her time and much of her activities "provided a major stimulus to the modern, mass-market addiction to celebrity" I also learned a lot about Monaco and the role that Aristotle Onassis played in Monaco's history and fortunes.I found it to be a bit of a tragedy. There was a time in her life as a princess when it all was too much for her vulnerable self. "it was like having dinner with two different people. Grace seemed to be losing her centre. Her natural, human impulses, the old frank and fallible Grace, would not be suppressed, but she seemed confused and wandering, unable to bring the conflicting components of her spirit together"She chose to make many compromises in her life, some to please her parents, some to please the prince. In the end these compromises led her to lead quite an isolated and somewhat sterile life on the rock of Monaco. However, she managed to weave her own delights into her life and the shame is, I got the sense that she was truly maturing into a less vulnerable, more independent adult woman when she had the terrible car crash and horrific end of life.I imagine that the experience for her daughter Stephanie who was in the car with her has proved devastating. Evidence would suggest that Grace's wild child was rebelling against Grace's wishes at the time and they may have even been having an argument at the time of the accident.A grisly ending to a mythical fairy tale.
As should be evident by the fact that this is the fifth book of his I have read, I have such affection for Robert Lacey. He is a skilled wordsmith, painting portraits of his subjects (both the titular ones and the supporting characters) with a wonderful mix of deference and levity, beauty and skepticism, intrigue and self-awareness.And, of course, Grace continues in this fine literary tradition of Mr Lacey's. He is at his best when presenting royalty with a fair deal of frankness, and this subject allows him to once again showcase his abilities. At the same time, his usual routine in this regard is, naturally, disrupted by the fact that Grace was not always an aristocrat (in the true sense of the word), and it is when describing her life pre-Monaco that the book truly shines.In fact, the more brilliant passages come from the first half, which deals with Philadelphia and the Kelly family, with Hollywood and Alfred Hitchcock. It seems that Grace The Actress was a more interesting subject for Mr Lacey than was Grace The Princess, because the first half of the book is more detailed, better-structured, and overall more indicative of the admirable style of his which melds together reverence and realism. Once the USS Constitution docks in Monte Carlo for the Wedding of the Century, however, the story becomes far more shallow and ridiculously un-selfaware. The straightforward, linear thread of the first half becomes a tangled mess of yarn with which a kitten must have played, because the book loses something once Grace becomes royal. Which, if it were a novel, would probably be a very clever, Virginia Woolf-esque stylistic choice (in which the writing style mirrors the aimless feeling of the protagonist), but instead serves only to weaken this Robert Lacey Biography.But overall, it is a beautifully-written text, a fairly objective survey of a great and shining life. It is delicate, and detailed, and a delight to read - just another example of why Mr Lacey is one of the more excellent royal biographers.
What do You think about Grace (1994)?
This book is about Grace Kelly. Firts she was a movie sat, she had reckless love affairs before becoming the Princess of Monaco. She did a lot of good calling attention to a bankrupt Monaco, and her charity work was well known. She gave status to Monaco which made the country flourish. I think she thought she would have the perfect marriage which she did not. She paid a high price to marry the Prince of Monaco. She thought of divorce but she could do that. I was so surprise she had affairs with young men. I really feel she was put into an arranged marriage which she came to regret. She still wanted to make movies but told no. We lost her way too soon.
—Roxanne
In my 1984 review I make mention of wishing I had today's internet when I was young; but here I'll add that in the 1980's the publishing world finally started coming out with no-nonsense biographies like this one and The Love You Make (a Beatles bio I also recommend). GRACE seems to tell it like it was and keeps no secrets nor false appearances. Biographies like these are in a class by themselves and the subject may only get one like it outside of perhaps later rehash imitations. Here it is : the genuine life of a genuine celebrity. Carol (qv. review) is correct in that this is a longer book, as bios typically are, but it is far from slow.The Kirkus (website) has an insightful review of this book, the only specifically negative comment being that the author is overly psychoanalytical about Grace. But if the author's analysis was given as careful attention as everything else in the book - and there is no reason to assume it was not - then we can presume at least some of this analysis is accurate to life.
—Moejoo
