Review by Choice Review
An enormous body of literature exists concerning the Kennedy family. Ranging from Arthur Schlesinger's laudatory chronicles to David Horowitz and Peter Collier's jaundiced account, the literature has rarely been marked by objectivity. Kearns's book is, on the whole, a well-researched and dispassionate work. Her treatment, however, of the Kennedy brothers and Joseph P. Kennedy reveals very little original information or insight. Where Kearns breaks new ground is in her interpretation of the role played by Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy within the family. Kearns departs from the standard portrayal of Rose as the living icon who is too lofty for this world. She takes issues with Rose's critics, such as Herbert Parmet, who claimed that she gloried in her children's successes while taking little interest in their intellectual or personal development. Rather, Kearns describes a woman who possesses firm religious and moral convictions-something conspicuously absent in her son John, her husband, and, indeed, her father John Fitzgerald. ``Over a long lifetime she had known betrayal'' states Kearns, ``defeat, unhappiness and despair.'' If Rose appeared like a symbol of martyrdom it was because her feelings and opinions were so frequently disregarded by her family. A good book and a considerable contribution to the Kennedy literature. Public and academic libraries.-D.R. Turner, Davis and Elkins College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
A sharply focused portrayal, based on exacting research, provides a compassionate family history of one of America's most fascinating political dynasties. (D 15 86)
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Four years ago ABC-TV bought this book for a 10-part miniseries. No wonder. This may be the ultimate family saga, the stuff of which producers' dreams are made. Beginning with the baptism of John Francis Fitzgerald (Rose's father) in 1863 and ending with a stirring account of JFK's inauguration in 1961, the story sweeps from the immigrant ghetto of Boston's North End to Camelot and takes in just about everything along the way: the rowdy heyday of ``last hurrah'' ward politics (in some ways, the best part of the book); Wall Street speculation in the 1920s; Hollywood and Joe's affair with Gloria Swanson; the New Deal; London society on the brink of war; the tragic loss of Joe Jr., the golden favored son; the exhausting political campaigns that finally catapulted an entire family to the pinnacle of international celebrity. With material like this, any writer would be tempted toward melodrama. Goodwin (Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream avoids this pitfall admirably, tones down the technicolor and serves up the wealth of incident with a pacing that doesn't let the reader's interest flag. She has made this more-than-twice-told tale fresh. Drawing on previously unavailable papersincluding Joe Kennedy's unpublished autobiographyshe makes the family, with all its contradictory interplay and immutable bonds, the focus of her story, and the result is personal and fascinating. No muckraking or scandalmongering here. This is an evenhanded, usually sympathetic treatment with very few skeletons poking out of the closet. Joe Sr., so often vilified, emerges as the most complex figure in the dynasty and the true driving force of the family. Rose, on the other hand, is aloof and rigid, displaying a piety that non-Catholic readers may see as fanaticism (even as her son was proclaiming his secularism to the electorate, Rose was consulting a priest about removing Hugo's Les Miserables from her personalthe local, or her personal? library). One shocker: Joe ordered a lobotomy performed on retarded daughter Rosemary without telling Rose. The operation failed, and Rosemary was sent to an institution. Rose only learned the truth 20 years later, when she finally went to visit her daughter. Given the tragic family events that were to follow, one almost wishes Goodwin hadn't stopped in 1961, but her story is really about the triumph of the immigrant experience in America; and the inauguration, with JFK tipping his top hat to his proud father, certainly makes a dramaticok? finish. Unless the reading public's interest in the Kennedy clan has waned, this should be an immensely popular book. Photos not seen by PW. Literary Guild main selection. (February 15) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Opening with the 1863 baptism of John F. Fitzgerald, and closing with his grandson's presidential inaugural a century later, this is the richest history yet of two much-chronicled families. Unprecedented access to papers and persons has allowed Goodwin ( Lyndon Johnson and the A mer i can Dream ) to present fresh material throughout, including an especially full treatment of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Essentially sympathetic, but above all balanced, her book measures the ``moral lapse'' dwelt upon by otherssuch as Peter Collier and David Horowitz in The Kennedys ( LJ 9/15/84)alongside epic tragedy and success. In becoming president John Kennedy forged himself from the ambition of his father and the piety of his mother, and drew upon the lives portrayed here across three generations in milieus ranging from the wards of Irish Boston to royal London, to Hollywood, to Washington. An essential purchase. Literary Guild main selection. Robert F. Nardini, M.L.S., Chichester, N.H. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
What, at this late date, could possibly be added to the oft-told story of the Kennedy clan? Quite a lot it develops. Indeed, Goodwin's lengthy but unfailingly engrossing version provides fresh insights on the family's three-generation rise from the mean streets of Boston's North End to the White House--and the struggle of 19th-century immigrants to make their way in a not altogether hospitable land of opportunity. Herself the granddaughter of Irish immigrants, the author (an LBJ biographer and sometime Harvard historian) had access to a wealth of previously unexamined source material, notably 150-odd cartons of personal papers belonging to Joe and Rose Kennedy. She also had the cooperation of the family and friends, including matriarch Rose, whose memories were refreshed by the long-lost records, which ranged from her own diaries through business documents and report cards for the nine Kennedy kids. Happily, Goodwin's familiarity breeds neither contempt nor blarney. She offers and interprets the facts of a peculiarly American saga in commendably evenhanded fashion. Her three-part narrative opens with the 1863 baptism of John Francis (Honey Fitz) Fitzgerald, who gained local fame and fortune as a Bay State poi; it closes with the inauguration of his grandson, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, as the 35th President of the US. At stage center, though, are Rose, Honey Fitz's first and favorite daughter (a deeply religious but, by Goodwin's account, worldly-wise woman), and her husband, Joseph Patrick Kennedy. The founding father, who amassed a considerable fortune as an archetypal outsider, earned a reputation for ruthlessness and philandering. But to his children, the author shows, this tough-minded man was an unstintingly devoted and proud parent. The final section of the text focuses on the golden girl and two sons who were reaching adulthood as their father transcended the establishment that never wholly accepted him by becoming FDR's ill-starred ambassador to the Court of St. James. Joe Jr., bearer of the family's aspirations, was killed in action toward the end of WW II, and the beloved Kathleen, who against parental wishes married out of her Catholic faith, died in a plane crash a few years after the war. The torch was thus passed to JFK, who accepted it, albeit with some misgivings, and tacitly assented to a new bond with his demanding father. An obvious must for Kennedy buffs. But also an evocatively detailed account of great achievement and dashed hopes, which supports Hardy's bleak conclusion that character is fate. There are scores of illustrations, many of which look to be candids from family photo albums. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
