Too Close to the Sun: Growing Up in the Shadow of My Grandparents, Franklin and Eleanor

Curtis Roosevelt was barely three years old when his grandfather FDR became president and he and his older sister, Eleanor, and mother, Anna Roosevelt (recently separated from the children's father), joined Franklin and Eleanor as residents in the White House for much of the next 12 years. Curtis and “Sis” quickly became known through the press as “Sistie and Buzzie,” whose slide and monkey bars adorned the White House lawn. Curtis writes affectionately and beautifully about his grandparents, but he also describes their large, sheltering presence as a double-edged sword. “Life outside the protective—and isolated—White House cocoon,” he writes, “became hugely distorted, especially for an impressionable youngster like me.” Along with relaying a rich and fascinating cornucopia of anecdotes involving family life, Curtis devotes thoughtful discussion to the complex subject of reflected fame and its impact on young people growing up as the scions of celebrity. No one alive today knew Franklin and Eleanor quite as well as Curtis, their eldest grandson, and his sister. Thus this splendid, intimate memoir represents an invaluable addition to the literature of the Roosevelt era. Illus. (Nov.)