Jack: A Life Like No Other

by Geoffrey Perret, Geoffrey Perrett, Geoffrey Perret

Book Overview

Geoffrey Perret's Jack is both the first comprehensive one-volume biography of JFK and the first account of his life based on the extensive and important documentary record that has finally become available, including Kennedy's personal diaries, hundreds of hours of taped conversations from the White House, recently declassified government documents, extensive family correspondence, and crucial interviews sealed for nearly forty years. The result...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 037576125X
• ISBN13: 9780375761256
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 3.9" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

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.

A Kennedy Classic

This book is a tell it like it is history of one of the most American lives in the past century. JFK is presented from start to finish as a man in a race against boredom and with a mindset for the whitehouse. The book interestingly gives several chapters to his early years(which were quite priviliged) and then focuses on his career one government position at a time. It is a truthful and blunt portrayal of his character and should be read by anyone who is interested to know what JFK was really like.

Worth reading, but definitively not a great book

Geoffrey Perret presents a new look at the life of America's most beloved president; it is also "the first craddle to grave biography" of this intricate personality. While the book is worth reading for those who are looking for a single volume biography of Jack Kennedy, it is definitivley not the definitive life of JFK nor a top work of scholarship. It reads more like a big volume of Biography Magazine or any news weekly than a well written, well researched piece. It will entretain and you will learn something --the history parts are very good-, but it will not earn a place in history as Gilbert's or Jenkins biography of Churchill will do.Nevertheless you should read this book. It is an easy read, very entretaining and revealing. Jack's sex-adiction, amazing ambition, relation to his imposing father, sense of destiny, will be exposed before your eyes. It makes you wonder about where character in our leaders went since then.

Great!

Although some people have said some facts in the book are incorrect and they may be, I found JACK to be very entertaining. A great book for someone who wants a single edition Kennedy bio.

An above average effort by Geoffrey Perret.

If you've never read Perret's books, you should know that he is simply a literary recycler. In other words, there is rarely anything new in his books, and in some past books, most notably his book on Ulysses Grant, there are some glaring errors that any author/historian and editor would be ashamed of.This book is, however, a good read. In fact, while there's little that is new, there are pages here that are just as good as anything in a JFK biography. There's a grace to some of the writing in this book.Sometimes I found myself cringing at some of his sources (Seymour Hersh's book comes to mind), but for the most part it's assembled well.Despite the number of JFK books out there, there are few one volume titles out there. This might be a good place to start if that's what you're seeking.