The Kennedy Men : 1901 - 1963

Rating:
Summary: New and Shocking Information about the Kennedys
Review: When the next Kennedy tragedy or triumph occurs, make sure this book "The Kennedy Men" is nearby, because it anticipates today what will probably become headlines tomorrow. The author Laurence Leamer tells the real truth about the accomplishments and the failures of the Kennedy family and their charismatic male leaders. This is an accurate and well-researched account of the power-driven Kennedy men, beginning with the Patriach, Joe Kennedy whose leachery and treachery in business, politics, and sex has never been more accurately researched than in this work. Leamer exposes new, shocking and valuable information about John F. Kennedy, his Presidency, and his brothers Joe Jr.,Bobby and Ted. We learn that JFK ordered napalm to be dropped on Cuban citizens during the Bay of Pigs invasion. Few Americans know how extensively JFK taped personal and telephone conversations until Leamer describes them in detail the conversations. This book documents how sorely afflicted JFK was by medication, injury, and emotional stress. By the time the bullets strike JFK in Dallas, the reader sighs with relief that the President is finally out of lifelong physical pain and severe emotional stress, and sexual dysfunction. Leamer shows the bad and the good in the Kennedy clan, much of it unreported or uninterpreted before. Secret files from the CIA, FBI, and Secret Service files are revealed in this book to document both the acheivements and glory of Camelot. Every glamorous accomplishment and detail about JFK, Jackie and Kennedy family members is well researched in these pages, just as are the dirty little secrets of petty jealousies and passions that racked the Kennedy men as they live out their spectacular lives of high drama as America's unofficial royal family. Open this book to any page and be hooked into one of the best told and most fully researched biographical histories about the Kennedy men you can find. You will need it for tomorrow's headlines!

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the time
Review: While I am not a Kennedy fan, I decided to read this book because of a good review I'd read and also because I had really enjoyed the recent Evan Thomas book on Robert Kennedy. I was pretty disappointed. The style is very stilted - Leamer moves between public and personal episodes with poor transition, and there often didn't seem to be a reason for these switches. I guess if you want the gory details of the personal lives of these guys, this is the book for you - but frankly I thought the level of detail was unnecessary and inappropriate. Leamer could easily have made his point about the degree of dysfunction in this family without it. Finally, at some point he began to harp on the transformation of JFK into a man of great vision and sensitivity to the problems of the world, but he did not make his case over the course of the book. if you're looking to have some intellectually challenging reading on the Kennedys, read the Evan Thomas book on Robert - it's only one Kennedy (who certainly had his own foibles), but it is extremely well-written and thought-provoking.