Jack

August 6, 2001
Perret (Ulysses S. Grant, etc.) delivers a flawed biography of JFK in which the subject—trapped in the crosshairs of shoddy research and poor prose style—seems unable to come to life. Perret's machine-like, event-driven narrative delivers one well-known fact after another, but the author repeatedly fails to get close to the normally ingratiating Kennedy. Further, Perret's narrative is too often driven by the few new sources he's been able to discover. Thus—due to a recently unearthed travel diary—we get every detail concerning JFK's generally uninteresting 1937 tour of Europe. Other of the book's problems stem from sweeping generalizations and various errors of both fact and interpretation. Discussing Joseph Kennedy Sr.'s Wall Street activities, Perret informs readers that "big stock market speculators" were blamed (by whom? the public? the government? the newspapers?) for the 1929 stock market crash. As regards errors of fact, a few include Perret's misquoting the widely known Catholic prayer "Hail Mary," his references to "Catholic ministers" and his assertion that Jack's bad back did not date from childhood (as medical records clearly show). Perret embarks on yet another arguable sidetrack from reality when he asserts that Kennedy—who always took great pains to separate his public life from his religious life—backed out of a 1948 event involving Protestant ministers after being "ordered" to do so by "the Catholic hierarchy," and then took the unusual step of confessing the same to journalist Drew Pearson. The anecdote, originating with Pearson, deserves scrutiny that Perret does not seem disposed to deliver. And that, sadly, is the story of this book. Photos not seen by PW.(Oct. 30)Forecast: With this title, Laurence Leamer's
The Kennedy Men and a couple of titles on Jacqueline Kennedy, it's another big Kennedy season. But how much more do readers want to know about America's almost-royal family? Perhaps a lot—first serial rights on this have gone to
GQ, and Perret is booked on the
Today Show. He will tour N.Y., D.C. and Boston.

August 1, 2001
The first Catholic and youngest president eve relected, John F. Kennedy has a mystique that continues to fascinate. He captured the imagination of the American public like no other post-World War II political leader and was a generation's hero in life and a nation's icon in death. In this volume, Perret (Eisenhower, Ulysses S. Grant) seeks to understand, rather than praise or condemn, his subject. He argues that JFK embodied for his era the fantasy male and that he skillfully crafted his own stellar legend, which exceeded even the ambitious dreams of his manipulative parents. A romantic at heart, JFK vowed to live fully during what he believed would be an abbreviated life span. His physical ailments (Addison's disease and back problems), his regular reliance on drugs to deal with those ailments, and his immature sexual behavior were significant influences, but despite such impediments, JFK comes across as a competent and flexible leader. Above all else, he showed imagination at times and learned from his political mistakes. Even among the crowded shelf of Kennedy-related books, this is a genuinely worthwhile biography because it is readable and balanced. A paperback edition would be popular for the classroom. Highly recommended for all public and academic libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/01.] William D. Pederson, Louisiana State Univ., Shreveport

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2001
O'Reilly tries to top his best-selling The O'Reilly Factor with more acerbic bons mots on life in America.

Copyright 2001 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2001
Billed as the first complete biography of JFK in 20 years, Perret's book reprises the now-familiar story competently, but the text seems a bit rushed, and there are a number of small errors: Patricia Kennedy was not the family's youngest daughter; Robert Kennedy Jr. was not Bobby and Ethel's first child, nor even their first son. Like many recent books about JFK, this one seems more focused on his sex life than his presidency (each conquest and venereal disease is duly noted); perhaps not surprisingly, among the many sources listed are the "National Enquirer" and "Star "Magazine. Still, there are strengths, too. Perret's narrative style, which makes use of the first person in some chapters, brings an immediacy to the tale that can be compelling. There are pages here, in fact, that are as good as anything in any Kennedy biography. Perret's description of how JFK wrote "Profiles of Courage," for example, is particularly perceptive. Hit-and-miss rather than definitive but certainly worth a look for Kennedy followers. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)