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Chargement... The Memoirs of John F. Kennedy: A Novelpar Donald James Lawn
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Very good book - tremendous insight into the Kennedy administration - and what it could have been like if JFK lived. It covers all the highlights of what was going on at that time and how Kennedy handled policy - and how he may have handled it if he could have continued.. Some eye opening stuff about the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuba, Russia, Vietnam, Civil Rights, and of course the assassination... and all presented in a very readable, and understandable format.. I highly recommend this book - and really don't understand why it isn't much more popular. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
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The Memoirs of John F. Kennedy: A Novel brings to life the tantalizing possibilities of -what might have been- had JFK remained president after November 22, 1963. This book imagines an America where progressive leadership takes hold during the 1960s, where President Kennedy, after a grueling fight for his life in a Dallas hospital, survives his chest wounds and returns to the presidency. He is elected for a second term. He does not mount a ground war in Vietnam. Foreign relations with Cuba, the Soviet Union, South America, and our allies and adversaries around the world follow a very different path. This novel interweaves a two-track story. One takes place in 1963 at Parkland Medical Center and follows Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover as they cope with the explosive events of the assassination attempt while the wounded president hovers near death. The other more lighthearted fictional story-line unfolds through the eyes of Patrick Hennessey, the memoirist appointed by JFK during the approaching end of his second term in 1968. Through in-depth talks at the White House, Camp David, Hyannisport, on Air Force One, and golfing on Kennedy's private course at Glen Ora, Patrick gets to know the president as he reviews his decisions regarding the difficult path toward a peaceful resolution of world crises. This well researched alternate history will strike a chord with readers worldwide-those fascinated with the Kennedy mystique and those interested in the potential for politics to be -done right- during challenging times. Considering the current period-and the 50th anniversary of JFK's election-re-imagining a more positive past may enable us to collectively envision a more enlightened future. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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On a lovely day in Dallas, Texas, all that they had worked so hard to achieve over the last three years might have been snuffed out in a few seconds.
I tend to avoid reading 'what if' scenarios about the assassination - especially after Stephen King's overinflated novel 22/11/63 - because the plot is often reduced to 'Kennedy must die!' Lawn is far more sympathetic, however, and reading about the second term of Camelot that never was is bittersweet. Jack, after losing only a week instead of his life and going through some sort of out of body experience, achieves what many claim he planned to do in 1964: pulls of Vietnam, avoids further conflict with Castro, and pushes through the Civil Rights Act (LBJ retains the credit here, working on behalf of a recovering JFK). He becomes a thoughtful, thankful and treasured leader, observed by Lawn's author insert lead character, Hennessy: There was a sense of being in a darkened room because the person with the only lamp had departed, taking it with him. The intrigue, the intensity, the magnetism had just up and left.
I loved the intensity and the wishful thinking of the 1963 chapters, with Caroline waking her father up by reading her favourite bedtime story ('Oh hi, Daddy!') and Bobby filled with guilt for buying Hoover's lies, but Kennedy's memoirs - or Lawn's take on the national and international policies that never were - make for dry reading. The golf didn't help either (I know JFK was skilled at golf, but I'm with Mark Twain: Golf is a good walk spoiled!) There is also a tedious sideplot with Hennessy romancing a librarian, with shades of King which I could have lived without.
Interesting and touching, but could have done with a little less conversation, please! ( )