Too Close to the Sun: Growing Up in the Shadow of my Grandparents, Franklin and Eleanor | 
 enlarge | Author: Curtis Roosevelt
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 31194
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 7.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 1586485547
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.917092
EAN: 9781586485542
ASIN: 1586485547
Publication Date: October 27, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
This vivid, honest memoir of growing up in the Roosevelt White House during the Great Depression is a delicious read for anyone interested in American history or the presidency.Curtis Roosevelt was born five and half months after Black Tuesday, when the New York Stock Exchange crash in October, 1929, paved the way, not only for the Great Depression, but also, for his grandfather's presidency. History had his family in its grip, and he had no choice but to go along for the ride.Just three years old, Curtis arrived at his grandparents' household at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue only a very short time after they themselves had begun to unpack. He and his sister, Eleanor, were the country's 'First Grandchildren', a pint-sized double act, known to the media as "Sistie and Buzzie" (pronounced as one word). "Too Close to the Sun" is his intimate account of growing up in the Roosevelt White House. With nostalgia and candour, Roosevelt describes his role as a tiny planet circling the dual suns of his grandfather and grandmother, known to him as Papa and Grandmere. Blending self-abasement, humour, resentment and affection, Roosevelt describes the emotional impact of living his formative years with two larger-than-life figures, of having little identity beyond being one-half of the "Sistie and Buzzie" show, and of being kept on a short leash by everyone from his grandmother to his bodyguard."Too Close to the Sun" offers a rich chronicle of daily life in the Depression era White House and a moving tale of coming to terms with an untraditional childhood. It is also a fascinating portrait of arguably the most influential and inspirational figure in modern American history. Curtis Roosevelt was there. And he will take readers along with him, into the long-ago world that formed him-for better or for worse.
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 Too Close to the Sun December 29, 2008
wonderful , fairly accurate story. He certainly was a Roosevelt product of his time. None have come even close to FDR, President when I grew up.His story as he probably was allowed to see it, certainly not the whole truth as has been written otherwise.....
Fascinating Look at the Roosevelt Family December 9, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Written by the grandson of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, this memoir is a unique perspective of what it was like to grow up in the bright spotlight (the sun) of the White House. Born Curtis Dall, then Curtis Boettinger after his stepfather, and finally Curtis Roosevelt, he is the son of Franklin and Eleanor's oldest child (and only daughter), Anna. Anna divorced her husband Curtis Dall and moved to the White House when her two children were only six and three years old. Known as "Sistie and Buzzie," the First Grandchildren immediately became the darlings of the press.
Curtis writes that his life in the White House offered "immense and wonderful privilege," yet admits it had a double edge. "Life outside the protection and isolated White House cocoon became hugely distorted, especially for an impressionable youngster like me . . . Intoxicated by the exhilarating environments . . . I created a dream world that protected me and it became a form of addiction."
This is an interesting take on what it was like to grow up in front of the press and in the White House, and it's especially interesting on the verge of the new administration, when once again, young children will be involved. Will the impact be overwhelming as it was for this author? Or will it be like more recent children of Presidents (carefully shielded from the press) and merely be a unique phase of childhood? One can't help but be fascinated by the offspring of our Presidents.
Bottom line: A fascinating inside look at the Roosevelt family with an impressive collection of photos. A great holiday gift idea for those interested in American and Presidential history.
Michele Cozzens is the author of It's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club.
Terrific perspective November 30, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Public glimpses inside the White House (especially from family members) are rare, so when Curtis Roosevelt produced this fine volume, "Too Close to the Sun", it allowed readers not to get just a few snippets of casual observations but a dozen years of day-to-day remembrances. Unusual as it is for a grandchild of a president to inhabit the White House, Roosevelt did just that as he lived on and off with his famous grandparents from the time of FDR's first inauguration until the death of our thirty-second president twelve years later. In "Too Close to the Sun", the author reveals not only his memories of that time but also the often internecine relationships that went with all of the Roosevelts. It's a book worth every page.
Curtis Roosevelt, the oldest grandson of FDR, was just three years old when his famous grandfather became president. It was a privileged upbringing, to say the least. This sheltering led to a fearful childhood as the elder Roosevelts made sure their children "knew their place" and behaved in a manner becoming of their family. Without much social contact with other children, Roosevelt developed a fantasy world for himself, all the while maintaining an average student's comportment while not partaking in activities in which most children grow and thrive. How could he? FDR's and Eleanor's children, themselves, hardly led a routine life. All were married more than once and some four times...including (a generation later) Curtis, himself. His parents' divorce, his mother's remarriage (she, Anna, was the president's only daughter) and his moves in and out of a succession of schools left the author with a weak footing, as he freely admits. Home was the White House or Hyde Park, period.
What's fascinating about this book is that it strikes a nice balance between the personalities of the Roosevelts and the author's own challenged upbringing. It is his views on the president, First Lady and Franklin's mother that are the best as he tells us of his abiding love for "Granny" (FDR's mother, Sara) his gradual understanding of his "grandmere" (Eleanor) and his adoration of "Papa" (the president).
The book serves as a tour of the Roosevelt White House, complete with nannies, secret service agents, secretaries, and of course, those rambunctious Roosevelt uncles, who all did pretty much as they wanted.
One can understand the childhood that Curtis Roosevelt led and empathize with him, but his charm is never making the reader sympathize for him. That's a pretty good trick, and Roosevelt succeeds. "Too Close to the Sun" is full of rich detail and given the perspective that the author has, a much welcome addition to the lore of the FDR years. I highly recommend it.
How Youth is Bruised By the Mighty November 24, 2008
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Curtis Roosevelt was a child star. The oldest grandson of FDR, he and his sister became media celebrities before the term existed. In the case of Curtis (Buzzie) his childhood was swallowed by it.
His family insisted on propriety and tradition. Children apparently were accepted and graded according to a cultural template emphasizing the outcome as an adult rather than the process of becoming one. In a world where the governess or the nanny or the hired person became the substitute parent, childhood seemed to be tolerated by the family more than enjoyed by the child.
This lovely yet discomfiting book turns out to be about bewilderment and disappointment in a seductive world sadly short on adults warm enough, open enough or patient enough to make a child feel truly loved and secure. The author explains rather than complains while recounting childhood with a grandmother (Eleanor) with problems of her own and a mother (Anna) who appears more interested in satisfying her parents than understanding her children. Glitter and privilege rub hard on the boy. He notes that among his mother and four uncles (the FDR children) there were 16 divorces. His biological father was slowly walled off from him. His step father committed suicide not long after he joined the list of Roosevelt marriages gone wrong.
What fascinates most in this book is that these are the words of one of the very last who were actually there to witness the Roosevelt years first hand from inside the family. The boy was barely more than a toddler when his grandfather was elected president. The author's recollections are bolstered by a huge list in the acknowledgement section, people who evidently provided added perspective, and letters, and reminders. You get the sense that this is something of a reconstruction, difficult to write, likely a product of many painful revisions. The result is a book of memoirs, a man trying very hard to record what it was like to be a boy in a world of Depression and War that baffled even the most experienced adults.
A glimpse into life in the White House November 24, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book very much, and finished it in only a few sittings. I appreciated Mr. Roosevelt's impressions of living in the White House and sharing events with FDR. His disappointment over his parents' divorce and his longing to spend more time with each of them is touching and relevant to children today, even to those who don't have the additional stress of living in the public eye. He is not asking for the reader's pity, but instead describes how growing up in a wealthy and famous family has many benefits, but is no more perfect than any of our ordinary lives.
I would be interested in reading a sequel. I'd like to learn Mr. Roosevelt's impressions of the United Nations, considering how it seems to be less effective today than it was when it was founded.
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