The Patriarch

The Patriarch by David Nasaw

The Kennedy family is undoubtedly one of the most famous, if not the most famous, family of 20^th Century America. Most who even follow the family at a distance know that their story is a harsh one. Even the most skeptical people around are tempted to believe in something such as a “family curse” when hearing their family story.  This is a very well written, and heavily detailed book on the father, or “patriarch” of the family, Joseph P. Kennedy.

This book was a bit long. Reading on a Kindle, one can’t immediately look at the book and feel intimidated. Had I looked at an actual hardback version of this biography, I might have passed.  It probably looked awfully large.  We must remember, though, that Joseph Kennedy had an incredibly rich, full life, and such a large compendium is rightly justified.  Although I was definitely worn down by the end of the book, I didn’t feel that the writing was long winded nor too detailed.

Although the book (like most biographies) is told in a linear narrative, I felt at many times I was reading multiple biographies.  There’s Kennedy the astute successful businessmen, Kennedy the Hollywood producer, Kennedy the ambassador to England, and Kennedy, the father to the famous JFK.  Through all of these episodes, we’re constantly also kept in the loop with wife Rose and his nine children.  There’s just enough ‘family’ here to keep the reader familiar with all of their comings and goings, but the majority of the focus is on Kennedy’s many different endeavors throughout his lifetime.

I found it interesting that, whereas the book painted the man with a rather favorable brush, I came away with the impression that I really didn’t like the man.  Although he worked very hard for his money and rightfully earned his accomplishments, I was left with the impression that he waved his wealth in the face of all of his associates, and those that didn’t step in line with his ambitions or goals were quickly ostracized and demonized by him. I suppose tons of money can do that to one’s character; especially in the times when Kennedy lived.

My favorite part of the book was Kennedy’s tenure as Ambassador to England in the 1930s leading up to World War II.  This section of the book could have easily commanded its OWN book.  I’ve read many history books on World War II, and the events leading up to it, but it was fascinating to read about it through Joseph Kennedy’s eyes.  It was also probably the key reason why I ended up not liking the man.  Like many Americans, Kennedy was an isolationist prior the Pearl Harbor bombing, but unlike most, he remained an isolationist throughout the entire war, convinced it was a giant mistake.  We read time and time again how Kennedy simply didn’t think England had a fool’s chance to win, and like Neville Chamberlain, he went through hell and high-water to appease Hitler to keep the war from expanding; even without the US being involved.  When one reads between the lines, one gets the impression that Kennedy was more interested in protecting his wealth than he was stopping a maniacal dictator from trying to take over the world.

Of course, one must not treat the man too harshly when his oldest son, Joe Jr. was killed during the same war that Kennedy vociferously opposed while on a secret bombing mission.  Most know that Joe Jr’s death would be the first of four of Kennedy’s children tragically killed, in addition to another child reduced to a vegetative state after a failed lobotomy.  So as rich and powerful as he was, he definitely didn’t have an easy go of things.

Still, it seemed as though Kennedy comes across as a rich arrogant aristocrat who simply jumps up and down and pouts when others don’t see things his way.  During his tenure as Ambassador to England, we read multiple instances of clashes between Kennedy and President Franklin Roosevelt.  Powerful men create uncontrollably powerful egos.  

Kennedy does come across as a caring head-of-the family, always making time for each of his nine children, but at the same time seems to want to spend more time making gobs of money than having family excursions.  Throughout most of the book, we read that wife Rose goes on multiple cross-continent vacations either by herself, or with some of the brood; but never with her husband. Kennedy  seems to want to be more of a ‘responsible father’ as opposed to a ‘loving dad’.  When such pressures are put on one by their parents, you can’t help but wonder if things were more disjointed behind the scenes than what is revealed here.  Sadly, Kennedy is quite the womanizer and seems to spend much more time away from wife Rose that he does with her.  Rose seems resigned to her destiny, and we rarely hear her complain.  I guess this was the norm for the rich and powerful back then. Maybe it still is, I don’t know.  It seems like many people today still can’t differentiate ‘success’ from ‘happiness’.

When second (now eldest) son Jack enters politics, Kennedy makes his son’s political future another one of his personal ambitions. It’s no secret that Jack is very successful in all of his efforts; all the way up to being President of the U.S.A.   Although this book barely mentions the shady speculative innuendos that are largely hinted at elsewhere, you definitely come away with the impression that Kennedy’s money and influence is the main factor that escalates Jack into the White House at such a young age.   Even when his son becomes President, Dad can’t help but pout.  Apparently he was disgusted that his son won the election by such a narrow margin, and again rants and raves at all of those that he feels were responsible.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I began reading this.  Due to many unscrupulous rumors around the double life of Joseph Kennedy, I wouldn’t have been surprised had this thing been a full-scale slinger of mud.  In hindsight, I’m glad it wasn’t. The author seems biased to the good side of his character, yet after finishing the book, I came away with the impression that I admired Joseph Kennedy’s accomplishments, but can’t really say I admire him as a person or a husband.

Midnight

Midnight – by Dean Koontz

It took me a long time to jump on the Dean Koontz bandwagon.  This book is only the third one that I’ve read.  The first two were among his earliest works and my impression was that he hadn’t found his groove yet. Either that or the stories simply didn’t age well.  I simply wasn’t that enthralled.  This one changed all that for me and made me hungry for more.

By the time I read this one, it wasn’t exactly ‘new’ either (30 years in between the time the book was written and the time I read it), but it was still incredibly impactful.  This was one of those books that didn’t seem to have as much action as you might expect for a 470-page (paperback) book, yet the story was so engrossing that I didn’t mind the length or lack of action.

This is one of those “strange things are happening in a small town” books. In this story, people there are starting to behave oddly, and a young woman is killed while jogging. Her cause of death also seems quite suspect.  It’s not an isolated incident either, so a federal agent arrives to investigate. In addition to the agent, the deceased jogger’s sister arrives in this somewhat remote town as well to try to find out exactly what is going on.  Soon, both of these individuals probably wish they would have stayed away.

Without giving away too much story, it seems as though there’s a bit of “mad scientist” in this town who’s trying to play God.  He’s convinced he has the formula and the means to create a perfect race of people.  Well, we all know what happens in horror stories when someone plays, or thinks he’s, God.  A couple of other characters are brought into the foreground as the story unfolds, which is one of the book’s strongest assets; the fact that the main cast remains quite small.  Unlike many Stephen King books I’ve read, this book isn’t filled with innumerable idiots stumbling around making bad things worse.

In fact, from someone such as myself who’s read just about every Stephen King book, one can’t help but make comparisons between the two masters of latter-day horror. Don’t get me wrong, I really like King, but his writing style has far too many Achilles Heels, and I found this book such a refreshing change of pace that what I’ve been used to when reading King.  This book was not only scary, but also eerie.  There were so many times when Koontz would make a random observation when he told this tale, that I couldn’t help but cackle with reactionary laughter.

It’s always a pleasure to discover a ‘new’ author, and I was relieved when I now figured out just what all the fuss was about.  I look forward to many more by this author.

Sleeping Beauties

Sleeping Beauties – By Stephen King and Owen King

Reading this novel, for me, was a bit like eating a wonderful meal at a gorgeous restaurant, but my experience was somewhat ruined by the guy sitting at the table next to me who yakked loudly on his cell phone the entire time I was eating.  There were so many great things within this story that I experienced, but I couldn’t help shaking my head since there were small, annoying things that took away from the overall enjoyment.  Of course, this isn’t the first time I’ve made this comparison after reading a Stephen King novel.

I should also point out that this book is actually a joint effort with son Owen.  There are a lot of people who griped about this book because they said Owen isn’t as good as dad, and had Stephen written this thing solo, it would have been noticeably better. I’m not sure I buy into that theory.  This book seemed par for the course with every other Stephen King novel I’ve read, and since I don’t know how much he contributed versus how much Junior contributed, it’s very easy for me to look at this book as a run-of-the-mill Stephen King novel.

The first 500 pages of this book were great. Without giving away the plot, this is one of those ‘mass hysteria’ King novels where the events affect an entire community/continent/world.  Think of some of his books like ‘The Stand’, ‘Under the Dome’, ‘The Tommyknockers’, or ‘Salem’s Lot’. So as the book progresses, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Are all of the characters going to bind together as and do something useful due to the unforeseen circumstance (The Stand)?  Or are they going to ploddle around like idiotic morons and essentially destroy everything good (Under the Dome)?   It ends up being a mixed bag, yet I was overly satisfied with the direction the book took and the overall end results.

Which then leads me to my complaints. Sadly, these things that I’m about to mention aren’t isolated to this one book.  This book can be construed as one of those ‘male vs. female’ books, and Stephen King is passionately anti-male.  It’s hard to go for more than 5 pages without King making some reference to a particular misogynistic moron in this story, either in first or third person.  Now, I know the world has idiotic males, but in Stephen King’s world, you would think the world is overflowing with them.  Ask yourself this, if women were suddenly supernaturally disappearing, do you really know that many men who would say things like: 

“We should call FEMA so someone can watch my kids. I have a ball game to go to tonight”.   

Or:

 “This is God’s way of punishing women since they now all want to wear pants”. 

 

If you’re reading this review and think that most men act this way, I would respectfully suggest you find a new group of friends.   Yes, there are evil women in this book as well (a large part of the story takes place in a women’s prison), but when women do bad things, according to King, it’s never their fault.  He obviously blames their crimes on these women’s fathers, boyfriends, and husbands.    Again, these sentiments aren’t exactly new within a King novel, but he lays it on way too thick here. (For those that don’t know, Stephen King’s father abandoned him and his family when Stephen was very young, and King’s been venting about it in his books ever since.)

Then we come to the ‘gross’ factor.  Again, pretty common in a King novel.  I seem to remember situations in other Stephen King novels where bullies rub kids’ noses in animal excrement, a racist white kid who poisons a black kid’s dog, and an animal that devours a woman’s dead husband at her feet while she’s handcuffed to the bed.  Fortunately, there isn’t TOO much of that here, but it’s still incredibly distracting and annoying. Do we really need to read things like:

“John sat in the front seat of his car picking his nose”.

And then his companion says: 

“Are you going to wipe that booger under the car seat?”

I simply don’t GET why Stephen King thinks such dialogue is necessary to move a story forward.  I’ve known 12-year olds with a higher level of maturity.  It continues to amaze me how King can be such a great writer and such an awful writer at the same time.

Anyway, back to the book.  Once the ‘showdown’ happens, things move a tad slower than I would have liked.  Drawn out “action sequences” are much more bearable on a movie screen than they are in a book.  I was also a tad disappointed with some of the characters at the end.  In our story, our two main central characters (and I’m trying REALLY hard not to give any plot away) have a simple misunderstanding in the middle of the story. For some reason, they never really resolve their issue.  It seemed a bit disappointing when the whole thing concluded.

If Mr. King happens to read this review, I would love to let him know that I would gladly help him with his next book. No, I’m not good enough to come up with a story that rivals his best work, nor do I have the gift of moving a story along.  What I DO have that Mr. King does not, is the ability to know how real people talk to each other in real situations.  I would also love to teach him how to distance himself from how a 12-year old adolescent normally thinks who is heavily into bodily excrements and fart noises.

This was oh so close to being a great book.