European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 22, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse Kin ii us by Ronald Brownstein new Day Juk Fec toss youth by Nigel Hamilton random House. At this Point it May seem that the world needs another biography of John f. Kennedy about As much As it needs another political commercial. But wait. In the first of a projected three volume work British author Nigel Hamilton has produced an exhaustive examination of Kennedy a Early years that is fresh fair gripping and timely. After a presidential Campaign suffused with arguments about character Hamiltons account reminds us that no moral accounting can reduce a Many a character to a Ledger of temptations indulged and resisted. In his portrayal of Juk Hamilton does no to scrimp on the temptations indulged. In these pages Young Kennedy is Callow profane and irresponsible a a Breezy Rake who seemed to spend most of his adolescence chasing debutantes and starlets and worrying about contracting a a dose of venereal disease. Eventually Hamilton writes his Luck ran out at Harvard but these Early years a the Book tracks Kennedy from childhood to his election to Congress in 1946 a show Kennedy As More than Only that. In Hamiltons telling its remarkable that Kennedy _ for All his difficulty in establishing lasting emotional connections with men or women a turned out As Well As he did. Readers of Kennedy lore will be familiar with Hamiltons caustic portrait of Joseph p. Kennedy a though the author manages a sustained pitch of uniquely British disdain for the old Man and his defeatist conviction that England was doomed to fall to Hitler in world War ii. Though often Remote Joseph Kennedy was an overwhelming presence in his children a lives a whether shaping their educations exhorting them toward frenzied Competition in All activities a a we done to want any losers around Here. In this family we want winners a he would constantly declare a or making passes at the girlfriends his sons brought Home on vacation. One Friend reports that the father a constantly tried to bribe or bully these girls into sleeping with him when they stayed at Hyannis port or Palm these were the markers that the father set out for his sons a lifetime of adultery including a celebrated match with film Star Gloria Swanson an amorality that inspired a career of Wall Street manipulation capped Hamilton suggests by speculation on the basis of inside information that he obtained while serving As Franklin Roosevelt a ambassador to great Britain and a myopic nativism that led him to agitate for policies that amounted to appeasing Hitler and abandoning Europe to the nazis. Young Kennedy received Little More support from his Mother. Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy comes across Here As nothing like the Noble and stoic figure whom other biographers have portrayed. In this tumultuous environment Young Jack Kennedy adopted a studied insouciance that set him apart from the earnestness of the family a firstborn Joe or. From his aggressive manner to his admiring assessment of hitlers Germany Joe or. Seemed Cut from the same crooked Wood As his father rather than compete Young Jack played a different part. Quot he was a Hamilton writes Quot the family joker witty irresponsible irreverent careless and tardy refusing to conform like the other children to Rose s pathetic preoccupation with Jack Kennedy continued in that role through his indifferent schooling at Choate and Well into his College years. But at Harvard he finally straightened out producing As his senior thesis a detailed study of England a failure to rearm Between the world wars. After All that has been written about Kennedy it s hard to imagine wanting More. But after this virtuoso performance i can to wait for the next volume. T a in to Lovo by . Thomas Scribner s. With his last novel lying together 1990thomas seemed to have reached a dead end. The charac John Kennedy in Boston in 1939. Ters in that novel did Little but pop in and out of one another a lives and stories like an endless series of russian dolls and the Reader quickly tired of their solipsistic antics. In an Effort to escape from that self conscious world of literary artifice Thomas has turned to the world of history. He has taken on one of the seminal events of recent american history the assassination of president Kennedy. Given Don do Lillow a Librn 1988 and Oliver stones Moyie Juk 1991not to mention countless other books articles and essays the Kennedy assassination is not the freshest subject. In lying in to love offers neither a credible new interpretation of the event nor a new fictional Light on the emotions unleashed by it. The assassination theory set Forth by flying in to love is a Hodge podge one somewhat reminiscent of those sketched by Dilillo and Stone and unsubstantiated by any real evidence. As Thomas depicts it Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone but was part of a Large conspiracy and cover up involving everyone from Small time Hustler David Ferric to vice president Lyndon Johnson. Oswald Thomas suggests believed he was meant to murder not the president but gov. John Connally of Texas As a protest against the governments alleged plots against Fidel Castro. As things turn out in Thomas telling Oswald did not end up firing the deadly shots that struck the motorcade another unknown conspirator did. Oswald simply took the rap. After Kennedy a death Thomas goes on secret service agents doctors and the Fri conspired to cover up the details of the assassination. The coffin was opened and Kennedy a brain was removed and replaced by someone else a in order to conceal the path of the Bullet. Unlike Stone Thomas does no to dwell on these events he offers them up to the Reader in passing. At one Point he implies that the scenarios set Forth in flying in to love Are actually the fantasies of a nun named sister Agnes who once met the president and developed a sexual fixation on him. This perhaps explains Why some of the events described take place in an imaginary future in which Kennedy survives his trip to Dallas and goes on to spend the evening of nov. 22, 1963, at Johnson a ranch. Kennedy spends the better part of this novel thinking about women he can take to bed. In flying in to love Thomas has done a pretty Good Job of destroying the myth and historical reality of Kennedy. He has turned the Story of the president and his assassination into a sordid and wilfully sensationalistic tale about an oversexed Man and the people he turned on. One almost wishes Thomas had kept writing the solipsistic fictions head specialized in earlier. They did nothing worse than bore the Reader. At least they did not distort history or turn it into a Lubric ious sideshow. Michiko kakutan1. New York time-, is renew York times list fiction 1 lied blessings by steel lust week on Listl 2 the til 1 a body thief by Anne Rice last week 1 wow on list m 3 duh Ranf Force by Hick Francis last week 4. Weeks on list 4 4 mostly harmless by Douglas Adams last week 3. Weeks on list 4 5 the Start Shine Down by Sidney Sheldon last week weeks on 1st 8 Milco by James a Michener last wreck 7. Weeks on list 8 7 the general s daughter by Nelson tie inst week on list b Sable i notebook by Nick Bantock last week 5. Weeks on list to i 9 the Pelican Brief by John Cist him lust week 8. Weeks on list 37 10 Griffin 4 Sabine by Nick Fintock last week 6. Weeks on list u 11 red Square by Martin Cru South lust week on list 12 the Bridges of Madison county by Robed James waiter dast week 11 weeks on list 15 13 where is Joe merchant by Jimmy Ruth Cut last week 9, weeks on hot i j 14 waiting to Alhale by Terry Mcmahan last week 18. Weeks on list 26 15 Gerald a game by Stephen King last week 14, weeks on list Pinon fiction 1 Sei by Madonna last week 1, weeks on list 81 2 the Way things ought to be by Rush list much last week 2. Weeks id 3 if does no to take a Nero by h Norman i Eler in tie last week 3, weeks on list 7 4 i can to believe i said that by Kathie Lee Colloid with Jim Jerome last week 4 weeks on list 5 5 every living thing by James Hernot last week 5. Weeks on list 18 6 bankruptcy 1995 by Harry e f Iglic or with Gerald j Swanson last week 7 weeks on list 4 7 Earth in the balance by at Gore last week 8. Weeks on list 84 8 the sent passage by Gail so achy last Rek 5. Weeks on list. 88 9 women who run with the wolves by clans a of a Kola Estes last week 10 weeks on list 15 10 the to of Piglet by Benjamin Holt last week 9 weeks on list 9 11 Truman David Mccullough last week 11 weeks on list 23 12 Genius by James Gleick last week 12, weeks on list 3 13 Young men 4 fir by Norman Maclean last week 13. Weeks on list 1? 14 my me by Earvin magic Johnson with William Novak lust week on list 15 the change by Germaine Greer last week 14, weeks on list 4 paperback fiction 1 hideaway by Dean Koonjr weeks on list 3 2 Midnight whispers by v c Andrews weeks on list 5 3 Rahrer runs through it by nor nun Maclean weeks on list 3 University of Chicago version 4 the firm by John Ensham weeks on list 48 5 remember by Bambara Laylor Bradlon weeks on list 41 6 a time to kill by John Grisham weeks on list 32. 7 reckless by Amanda Quick lust week on list 8 private eyes by Jonathan Kcal Limun weeks on list 5 9 a River runs through it by Norman Maclean weeks on list 3 10 Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley weeks on list 7 paperback non fiction 1 United we stand by Ross Perot weeks on list 12 2 putting people first by Bill Clinton and at Gore weeks on list 7 3 the autobiography of Malcolm x with the assistance of Alex Huley weeks on list 4 4 backlash by Susan Paludi weeks on list 5 5 when you look lie your passport photo its time to go Home by Erma Bombick weeks on list 3 6 Sei Art and american culture by Camille Puglia weeks on list 4 7 America what went wrong by Donald l Barlett and James d Steele weeks on list 3t 8 Molly Ivins can a say that can she by Molly Ivins weeks on list 3 9 you just done to understand by Deborah Tannin weeks on list 79 10 the Load less travelled by m Scoti Peck weeks on Hsi 4/2 paperback miscellaneous 1 the Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Walterson weeks on Iris 9 2 the seven habits of highly Ette Calvo people by a Leohn r Covey weeks on Lisl 96 3 Lite a Little instruction Book by h Jackson la own i weeks on Lisl 67 4 cows of our Plano by Gary Laison weeks on hot. 2 5 the to Factor fat Oram counter by Jaime Pope Cordle and Murm a Spahn weeks on list 115 at stars and stripes bookstores latest available Lisl of Best Sellers Al stars and strips shop pm con or bookstores fiction 1 the stars Shine Down by Sidney Sheldon 2 Star trek Best destiny by Diane Carey 3 Gerald s Gam by Stephen King 4 where is Joe merchant by Jimmy outlet 5 fun Housa by Dean Koontz b Shadow rising by Robed 7 mostly harmless by Doug Tai Adam i Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag 9 Bridges of Madison county by rot a t j w i i 10 night of bit Hawk by Dale brow non fiction 1 it does no to take i hero by h Norman so War Kopl 2 senator my ton Viera with Ted. Kennedy by h re h 3 Are you the oni Tor me by Barbara de Angel. 4 every a Vang thing by James in Mut 5 the Suen passage by Caj go the for Tho love of a child by a it Quot mu1 to 7 Truman by David Mccullough 8 Earth in the balance by a be e 9 airman Mortensen by m it i h Are 10 chief my life in the Upo la i pm. A a u k a u
