The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years - Softcover

Klein, Edward

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312312938 ISBN 13: 9780312312930

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 2004

Synopsis

Death was merciful to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, for it spared her a parent's worst nightmare: the loss of a child. But if Jackie had lived to see her son, JFK Jr., perish in a plane crash on his way to his cousin's wedding, she would have been doubly horrified by the familiar pattern in the tragedy. Once again, on a day that should have been full of joy and celebration, America's first family was struck by the Kennedy Curse.

In this probing expose, renowned Kennedy biographer Edward Klein--a bestselling author and journalist personally acquainted with many members of the Kennedy family--unravels one of the great mysteries of our time and explains why the Kennedys have been subjected to such a mind-boggling chain of calamities.

Drawing upon scores of interviews with people who have never spoken out before, troves of private documents, archives in Ireland and America, and private conversations with Jackie, Klein explores the underlying pattern that governs the Kennedy Curse.

The reader is treated to penetrating portraits of the Irish immigrant Patrick Kennedy; Rose Kennedy's father, "Honey Fitz"; the dynasty's founding father Joe Kennedy and his ill-fated daughter Kathleen, President Kennedy, accused rapist William Kennedy Smith, and the star-crossed lovers, JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. Each of the seven profiles demonstrates the basic premise of this book: The Kennedy Curse is the result of the destructive collision between the Kennedy's fantasy of omnipotence-an unremitting desire to get away with things that others cannot-and the cold, hard realities of life.

About this title

About the Author:

Edward Klein is the author of the New York Times bestsellers All Too Human: The Love Story of Jack and Jackie Kennedy and Just Jackie: Her Private Years. He covered John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign, served as a foreign correspondent in Asia, and was foreign editor of Newsweek. During his eleven years as editor in chief of The New York Times Magazine, it won the first Pulitzer Prize in its history. His articles have appeared in New York, Manhattan, inc., Vanity Fair, and Parade, for which he also writes "Walter Scott's Personality Parade." He is the author of the novel The Parachutists. He lives in New York City and Bridgehampton, Long Island.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

This book is a detective story.

It is an investigation of one of the great mysteries of our time-the Kennedy Curse. It explores the underlying pattern that governs the curse and examines the many influences-historical, psychological, and genetic-that have shaped the Kennedys` character and led to their self-defeating behavior.

The stories in this book illustrate how the Kennedy Curse began in the common Irish immigrant experience of poverty and humiliation, and developed into an obsessive lust for power and dominance over others at the expense of all ethical behavior....

The people in this book were, for the most part, on a fatal collision course with reality. They felt immune to mortal laws and somehow divinely protected from the inevitable consequences of their deeds and misdeeds. In their hunger for unlimited power, they saw themselves as superior beings who resided above the common herd. They felt special-omnipotent and worthy of being worshiped....

Our inclination to idolize the Kennedys has obscured their human attributes. And so, finally, this book is an attempt to demystify the Kennedys by telling the story of how the descendants of Patrick Kennedy, a poor Irish immigrant who came to the shores of the New World in 1849, pulled, tore, scratched, scraped, clutched, and clawed their way to the top of American society-and, in the process, made the fatal mistake of thinking of themselves as divine.

&mdashFrom The Kennedy Curse

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0312312938
• ISBN 13: 9780312312930
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288