Every Day Is Extra

Starred review from August 13, 2018
In this fine memoir, retired politician Kerry, descended from a wealthy Boston Brahmin family on his mother’s side, details a remarkable five-decade-long career in public service: decorated Vietnam veteran, antiwar leader, lieutenant governor and five-term senator from Massachusetts, 2004 presidential candidate, and secretary of state (2013–2017). He primarily discusses the joys and challenges of leadership roles in the political and diplomatic arenas; Kerry barely mentions his two marriages and two daughters, but recounts many close friendships, reflects on his political values, and writes movingly on issues of faith. He is particularly strong on the culture of the Senate, which “runs on relationships”—among those he befriended across the aisle was John McCain, who briefly considered joining him on the 2004 ticket—but lately has been corroded by the “spectacle and circus” of hyperpartisanship and showboating. Kerry also reveals his personable approach to diplomacy, as when he wooed China’s then–foreign minister Yang Jiechi at a restaurant overlooking Boston Harbor as part of a successful effort to obtain a U.S.-China agreement on emissions reductions. In recounting encounters with foreign leaders, he often takes the measured, understated, and sometimes euphemistic tone of the elder statesman, as when he describes incendiary remarks by Afghan president Hamid Karzai as “quite unhelpful.” This book reveals a man of quiet, passionate patriotism, immense intelligence, and thoughtfulness. Agent: Bob Barnett, Williams & Connolly.

September 1, 2018
Diplomat, activist, and former presidential candidate Kerry (A Call to Service: My Vision for a Better America, 2003, etc.) recounts a long life of national service.First came the Swift boat, then the swift boating. The author explains the title, in relation to his service in Vietnam, as "an expression of gratitude for survival where others did not make it." Of that experience, Kerry quietly notes, "I can't say it was a process devoid of moral hazards." Those hazards, in turn, prompted Kerry to turn against the war, running for Congress as an anti-war candidate even as he was still in uniform, helped along by an understanding admiral. The author evinces some bitterness on the whole matter of the war, and especially Robert McNamara, one of its architects, who "left the battlefield to slink off to the World Bank" and was never adequately called to task for his crimes. Kerry writes ably of the sausage-making aspects of politics, noting the importance of crossing the aisle to actually get things done, as when he and John McCain fought against bète noire Ted Sampley, "a self-appointed POW activist who sold T-shirts, flags, and newsletters on the Mall...[and who] profited grossly from the myth that prisoners were still being held in tiger cages in Vietnam." Sampley would return in the swift boating business that cost Kerry votes in the presidential run of 2004--but less so, the author suggests, than voter fraud in Ohio: "I wonder how many countries have elections in which machines are privately owned and controlled," he writes, "where the coding for tallying cannot be inspected or verified because it is 'proprietary information.' " Given that such books often signal a political campaign in the offing, one wonders whether Kerry is contemplating another run for office--despite protestations to the contrary. Whatever the case, this memoir makes for fine reading for politics junkies, especially those with an interest in how policy is made.Wonky, as befits the author, but a smart look at not just his life, but also our times.

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September 1, 2018
With a pedigree that reaches back to the Founding Fathers, Kerry may well have been destined to lead a life of public service. His father was in the U.S. Foreign Service after WWII, which started Kerry on a peripatetic life that would include Swiss boarding schools and jaunts around Europe. After serving with distinction in Vietnam, Kerry returned to the U.S. feeling conflicted about the honor of serving his country, given the duplicity of politicians who prolonged an unjust war. He channeled his passion for good governance into a career in Massachusetts politics that included five terms as U.S. Senator and the chairmanship of the influential Foreign Relations Committee. Kerry ran for the presidency in 2004 and served as President Obama's second secretary of state. Kerry's astonishing level of recall of the resonant moments of his life both in and out of politics turns his memoir into a rich and revealing look at signature public events during the last seven decades. Gracious and dedicated, Kerry epitomizes the term statesman, the embodiment of which may soon land on the endangered species list.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)