KENNEDY

by Reg Gadney ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 22, 1983

Yet another Kennedy mishmash--keyed to a British documentary series to be shown on NBC-TV this November, but otherwise negligible. The text is a hackneyed rehash of the Kennedy presidency--from Dallas back to the Inaugural, the Bay of Pigs, the Freedom Riders, Jacqueline, etc.; the photos that comprise at least half the book are stock human-interest images (for the most part), unevenly reproduced; the whole, in design and production, is well below today's eye-catching, evocative best. Live, on TV, some assassination heart-tug material may have an impact: JFK saying his last good-bye, unbeknownst, to his half-paralyzed father; Caroline and John-John, unaware, jumping up at the sound of a helicopter. And some of the flat, choppy, monotonic recital of events may have an immediacy: ""JFK sought out Wofford and asked him to have the Freedom Riders stop their journeying. Wofford told him that it was unlikely anybody could stop them now. John Siegenthaler, a close friend and assistant of Robert Kennedy's, was told to go and see if anything could be done."" There is also much quotation; considerable reference to retrospective writings; and, most creditably, some attempt at a tasteful balance--re Jackie; re ""Inga-Binga,"" Judith Exner, et al. Gadney, however, has nothing to say about what any of it meant. He doesn't revive Camelot, but neither does he confront the myth head on. He doesn't even situate JFK in the American Sixties. On the printed page, the particulars are inert--with no emotional charge, and no resonance as history.

Pub Date: Nov. 22, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart & Winston

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION