The fate of Brooke Astor, the endearing philanthropist with the storied name, has generated worlldwide headlines since her grandson Philip sued his father in 2006 alleging mistreatment of Brooke. And shortly after her death in 2007, Anthony Marshal, Mrs. Astor's only child, was indicted on charges of looting her estate. ( )

Mrs Astor Regrets
The Hidden Betrayals of a Family Beyond Reproach
By
Meryl Gordon
Hardcover; 336 pages
Published by Houghton Mifflin: 12/03/2008 @ $28.00

Biographical family stories are usually written long after the principals are dead. In this case, Ms Gordon has been blessed with the longevity of her subjects, and a current court case which is the raison dêtre of her book. One can read the book and follow the case in court. An opportunity not to be missed.

Hell has three gates: lust, anger, and greed, and Ms Gordon touches them all in her book. A lady who is no stranger to affluence herself, Gordon covers this saga with balance and sympathy. She does not succumb to the ‘Everyone hates Anthony Marshall’ school of condemnation, even though it is difficult not to. She uses her significant journalistic experience to describe the facts as she uncovered them.

All of the participants are contemptible in equal measure. They all have a pecuniary interest in one side or the other succeeding. As I progressed through this litany of greed, I could not find one person who convinced me of altruistic intentions.
Someone once said ‘Show me a large fortune, and I will show you a large crime’. Never was a truer word spoken in this case.
The story starts with a summary of Brook Aster’s life and times. Her three marriages were love at first sight. That is first sight of the potential hubby’s bank account. Husband number one was father of Anthony and wife beater in that order. He didn’t have a long life so Anthony had to fill-in as whipping boy. This lasted all his life and still does. None of the cast of thousands, who are using their best endeavours to put Marshall behind bars, and leech cash from the Astor Estate, pay any regard to the fact that Anthony Marshall is a decorated Marine officer wounded in action in the South Pacific during WWII. He also had an important job with the CIA and the government. I mention this only to highlight the fact that none of his accusers have the slightest understanding of the word ‘JOB’. For them, working could be a city in China.

The revolving bride finally snared an Astor, and when he shook off his mortal coil left an obscenely wealthy widow, who used his money to manipulate and dominate anyone who got in her cross-hairs. She kept everyone on their toes by changing her will every week. This lasted until senility overcame her, and her only son took control of the estate under the guidance and advice of an attorney. All the players who had encouraged the old lady to dole out money, favours and property, where discombobulated when her son introduced prudent fiscal measures which impacted them negatively. The most aggrieved was a grandson who recruited some willing executioners to instigate a witch-hunt against Anthony Marshall. The plan was to use the courts to wrest guardianship of the senile Mrs Astor away from her son into the hands of a more amenable chum. The court did not accept the basic accusation of cruelty, but the furore did attract the attention of the District Attorney.

The case against Anthony Marshall is before the courts as we speak, and could see him in jail for the remainder of his life unless wiser heads prevail. His accusers (including his sons), vehemently profess to not wanting him in jail, but that has not inhibited them from roundly condemning him from the witness box on charges far removed from those they instigated.

Ms Gordon’s (the first – I think), book is an excellent read. In places it reads more like a court brief than a work of literature, but it is non-the-worse for that. More than an excellent read, it is an important work of non-fiction. People should learn how the mighty are fallen, and when the going gets tough, they tear each other to pieces.

if you like long Vanity Fair articles ( )

I very much enjoyed this accounting of the last years of Mrs Astor's life and the turmoil in her family surrounding her care, and her estate. I thought the author did a credible job of being fair to all the parties and she, I believe, makes a good case that every player in this tragic drama has both virtues and faults. This is not a story for simple solutions: no heroes and no villians, just a very sad story. The one lesson one might take away is that money does complicate motives and it is best to be very careful in creating a legacy if there is much money involved. ( )

After finishing Mrs. Astor Regrets, my feelings about the book are still unclear. On the one hand, the story of Brooke Astor, one of America’s most generous philanthropists, is fascinating, but the book itself had far too much name dropping. This is the story of a family consumed with social standing and wealth. As Brooke Astor aged, her son Tony Marshall took over more and more of her financial details, to the point that his son Phillip felt his father was taking advantage of the situation and not really caring for Mrs. Astor. He brought suit against his father, claiming that Mrs. Astor was living in near squalor in her Park Avenue apartment. What ensues is a story of greed and a family torn apart by avarice. All families have their problems, most of which we keep out of the tabloids. Unfortunately for the Astor family, all this was played out on the front page of many newspapers and talked about on television.

While Mrs. Astor was extremely generous with the Astor Foundation money, giving money to not only the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but funding after school programs in less fortunate neighborhoods, she was not a particularly generous mother with her time and affection for her only child. Although her son had a number of different careers, the Marines, as an ambassador, working for the CIA, he never achieved the star power that his mother did and never felt that he was accepted by her.

This book is well researched, the author having spoken to all parties involved with the exception of Mrs. Astor. I felt at times I was reading the Social Register rather than the story of Brooke Astor. I would have liked more history of the Astor family than was given. In a time of economic crisis, it is instructive to read the history of a family that kept its wealth for over three centuries. Meryl Gordon’s writing is fairly fluid, but could have been much better if she had not explained each person’s social standing in such detail. ( )