The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty
Taraborrelli is a journalist and celebrity biographer. His family saga of the Hiltons is filled with enticing gossip as well as well-­documented, if sometimes tawdry, facts about various members. The founder of the hotel empire, Conrad Hilton, was certainly an interesting, in some ways admirable, but enigmatic character. Taraborrelli portrays him as a true visionary capable of thinking and dreaming on a large scale while keeping a firm hold upon economic realities. Yet he seems to have been a tortured soul who lacked a personal touch and, consequently, could not win affection or loyalty from business associates or family members. His successors, however, were not particularly interesting, and the author seems to be straining to make them worthy of his attention. Son Nicky, for example, best known as the first husband of Elizabeth Taylor, was a shallow, self-absorbed alcoholic; the current celebrity Hilton, Paris, seems both the perpetrator and the victim of her thirst for public attention. Taraborrelli is a good writer, who, in this case, would have benefited from more compelling subjects. --Jay Freeman