[.ca] Jack: A Life Like No Other (ISBN 037576125X)

From Amazon.com:
Written with commendable measure, Geoffrey Perret's Jack: A Life Like No Other is an informal but informed cradle-to-grave biography of JFK. Though Perret hardly ignores the intricacies of Kennedy's uneven and truncated presidency--specifically the cold war imbroglios of Southeast Asia, Berlin, and Cuba, as well as intractable domestic festerings of poverty and civil rights--his real interest lies with the man himself. Kennedy, in chronic ill health from childhood, emerges here as a singular and daunting contradiction, at once cautious and impulsive, generous and selfish. He was a brat and a man of the people, an inveterate womanizer and a devoted family man, well-read but hardly intellectual, a charmer with a ferocious temper. Perret's book--utilizing heretofore-unseen documents--is refreshingly candid and felicitously nonjudgmental. Neither hagiographical, mean-spirited, salacious, nor conspiratorial, Jack, rich in anecdotes, is a welcome, evenhanded addition to the Kennedy library. --H. O'Billovitch

ZZZZZZZZ:
Mr. Perret somehow succeeded in writing an incredibly boring book about a man who lived an extrodinary life. The book is also marred by continuous misstatements of fact and poor research. To those looking for a good book on JFK, I advise you to take a look at Nigel Hamilton's "JFK: Reckless Youth" for illumination on his early life, Richard Reeves' "Profile in Power" for a broad look at his presidency, and Arthur Schlessinger Jr.'s "A Thousand Days" for an intimate look at his presidency that also gives you an excellent sense of who he was as a person. "Jack" isn't worth the time.

Readable but flawed book about a charismatic but flawed man:
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Not for the research -- as many of the other reviewers and the footnotes section of the book attest, most of the information has been available to us in other forms. But for the insights and attitude. Perret seems intent on making Kennedy human, and he succeeds. Kennedy is at once a visionary legislator (one of the first advocates of abolishing the mandatory retirement age and an early friend to both labor and Israel) and a bored playboy/senator (if a bill didn't interest him, he couldn't be bothered with it). A reckless womanizer who didn't really care about the impact his escapades had on his wife or career, yet one of the first politicians to recognize the power of the women's vote. And perhaps it was his confidence in his own rampaging heterosexuality that made him so comfortable with homosexual men -- something not very common in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Most of all, Jack managed to balance overwhelming ambition and opportunism with a secret but very strong core of idealism and conscience. I wish Perret had been a bit more discerning in choosing his sources. (I mean, J. Randy Taraborelli and Seymour Hersh, for heaven's sake!) But this complaint did not detract from readability of the book. It left me feeling profoundly sad about what this nation lost nearly 40 years ago, and how different the world today would be if JFK, for all his myriad faults, had lived out his natural life.

Good Stuff Here!:
The life of Jack Kennedy has been covered countless times in books, magazines and movies. Having made the transformation from assassinated president to tabloid favorite, one wonders if there is anything new to be learned about Kennedy, or if there is anything to be gained by buying Geoffrey Perret's book. If you're at all like me -- a fan of history, an admirer of JFK, but not too swayed by rose colored revisionism -- then this book will prove to be well worth the money. Perret starts at the beginning and fully explores the odd psychological uprbinging Kennedy experienced in a family that was extremely eccentric and neurotic -- quite a far cry from American royalty. He follows Kennedy through his pratfalls as a high school and college student, and laments on the never-ending health problems Kennedy ran into throughout his life. I, for one, never knew that our movie star president was often in a frail and precarious state. By the book's end, you walk away with a new appreciation for all of the complexities of Kennedy's character -- and there enough here to make Freud blink a few times -- and for the truly unique life that he led.

Another JFK-trasher; certainly NOT "like no other":
It's true that JFK lived a "life like no other," but the author completely missed his chance to tell the reader why. This is the same type of tabloid swill that's already been done to death in, for example, "JFK: Reckless Youth" and "A Question of Character." The themes of JFK's being obsessed with early death and his drive to live every day as if it were his last, are interesting ones, and could have been a good premise for this book. But this book adds absolutely nothing to what's already been written. No new ground is broken, despite promises to the contrary. Also detracting from his credibility are the author's gossipy references to such things as JFK's personal habits while having sex, how many cigarettes a day Jackie smoked (do I care?) and the homosexuality of friends like Lem Billings and Joe Alsop. Obviously JFK felt comfortable and confident enough in his own masculinity and heterosexuality, and valued the loyalty and friendship of these men enough, that he was neither concerned about nor felt threatened by their sexual orientation. Also detracting from the book's credibility is the sloppy research and annoying lack of fact-checking. For example, the author mentions several times that Bobby and Ethel were married in 1951. They were actually married in 1950. The book also states that Bobby and Ethel's first-born son was Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. In fact, he was their second-born son (he was born in 1954); Joseph P. Kennedy II (born in 1952) was the first. Also, Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy is mentioned several times as JFK's "eldest" sister, and is even misidentified as such (in place of Rosemary) in one of the book's photographs. Perhaps the author fell into Joe, Sr.'s spell of pretending that Rosemary, the actual first daughter and third child, never even existed. These are just a few examples. This book is a waste of time.

A Good Try:
Jack is a nice easy read but one tends to wonder where Perret got some of his ideas or if in fact he got them from anywhere but his own imagination. There are times when Perret seems to make up small insignificant happenings to forshadow the inevitable outcome of his life. That aside, Jack is a good book portraying a President so unique and so different than most ex-Presidents. This would be a good first Kennedy read.