Jess Owens's Reviews > Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty

Review copy provided by Harper Audio in exchange for review.

I was really excited about this one. I like Anderson Cooper and found it intriguing that his mother is a Vanderbilt. This started our stronger than it finished. I did learn many things about the family than I knew before but not as much as I wanted. He covers a lot of events that were considered newsworthy and sometimes salacious. I wanted to know the details of how this empire started but it was very quick on that information and then on to more “drama” surrounding the family. I found that some portions of the
book where I wanted more details were only a few sentences or paragraphs and then other sections - Alva, Truman Capote, the Lusitania- were so drawn out, he spent sooo much time on them and I became very uninterested in these sections and couldn’t wait for them to be over. Overall, it was mostly enjoyable. I also like Anderson’s voice, so that didn’t bother me. But I wanted more on the business dealings, plans, plotting and scheming that built the Vanderbilt fortune. There are still some juicy bits about members of the family that are interesting but it just wasn’t what I expected.