This magisterial, ambitious book traces, in considerable detail, the path John F. Kennedy undertook in his quest for the Presidency between 1955 and 1960.

From the time Kennedy first ran for Congress in 1946, he faced many challenges - both professionally and personally (given the periodic precariousness of his health, which remained largely a secret during his lifetime) - in forging a career in public service. "THE ROAD TO CAMELOT" shows the reader how it was that Kennedy in 1955 (by then a freshman Senator) with the assistance of one of his top aides (Ted Sorenson), a dedicated 'band of brothers' who had played a significant and invaluable role in helping Kennedy further his career (i.e. the 'Irish Mafia', which consisted of Kenny O'Donnell, Lawrence O'Brien, Dave Powers, and Dick Donahue), his brother Robert, and several key Democrats (many of them on the state level) who recognized Kennedy's potential and devoted themselves to him - began the long and laborious task of capitalizing on the national prominence he received from his failed attempt to win the vice presidential slot on the Adlai Stevenson ticket at the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

What is significant is that Kennedy started campaigning across the country in a rather understated way considerably earlier than any of his potential rivals in the Democratic Party. Indeed, the party leadership underestimated Kennedy as did many others. His youth, Catholicism, and his lack of any significant, legislative achievements were regarded as factors that would discount him as a viable presidential candidate. What also struck me as truly remarkable and incredible is the organization that Kennedy and his supporters were able to develop in many of the states (often as a way of bypassing some of the state Democratic Party machines that were either mildly non-receptive or openly opposed to his candidacy) between 1957 and 1960. In the process, future presidential campaigns would never be the same again. For that reason, "THE ROAD TO CAMELOT" is a book that everyone should read who wants to learn how it was that John F. Kennedy overcame many obstacles and defied the odds to secure the Democratic presidential nomination and be elected President in 1960.

The title of this book comes from the remarks made by Jacqueline Kennedy in a March 1964 newsreel in which she thanked the nation for its expression of sympathy to her in the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy's assassination in November 1963. She spoke of her husband in the following way: "All his bright light gone from the world."

The author goes on to share with the reader how he, who had been a wayward youth in high school during Kennedy's tenure in the White House, had been inspired by JFK to become more engaged in study and public affairs, and to lead a more purposeful life. He then provides a brief biography of JFK, showing what factors in his background helped to make him a statesman of substance and a wise, charismatic, discerning, and dedicated President of the United States. In doing so, the author does not shy away from touching upon President Kennedy's weaknesses (e.g. his affairs). After all, JFK was human and subject like all human beings to err from time to time. But McKenna looks at the totality of President Kennedy and seeks to explain why, more than 50 years after his death, he continues to inspire millions of people across the world.

The author contends that President Kennedy - who had been well-traveled and a voracious reader and student of history, government, and economics all his life - understood, unlike some of the presidents who followed him, that the United States, from its inception, was a democratic republic, "the most enlightened form of government" devised by humanity. Given that understanding of the country, Kennedy "knew it was based on trust in government and the belief that the common good is more important than the enrichment of individuals or special interests." Therefore, President Kennedy made it his focus to govern wisely in the best interests of all Americans while encouraging its citizens to "embrace [their] civic responsibilities" and "to believe that politics is a noble profession." Nowhere perhaps does President Kennedy explain this position better than in the address he made to students at Vanderbilt University on May 18th, 1963.

"I speak to you today, ... not of your rights as Americans, but of your responsibilities. They are many in number and different in nature. They do not rest with equal weight upon the shoulders of all. Equality of opportunity does not mean equality of responsibility. All Americans must be responsible citizens, but some must be more responsible than others by virtue of their public or their private position, their role in the family or community, their prospects for the future, or their legacy from the past. Increased responsibility goes with increased ability. For those to whom much is given, much is required.

"Of the many special obligations incumbent upon an educated citizen, I would cite three as outstanding: Your obligation to the pursuit of learning; your obligation to serve the public; your obligation to uphold the law. If the pursuit of learning is not defended by the educated citizen, it will not be defended at all.

"For there will always be those who scoff at intellectuals, who cry out against research, who seek to limit our educational system. Modern cynics and skeptics see no more reason for landing a man on the moon -- which we shall do -- than the cynics and skeptics of half a millennium ago saw for the discovery of this country. They see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.

"But the educated citizen knows how much more there is to know. He knows that knowledge is power -- more so today than ever before. He knows that only an educated and informed people will be a free people; that the ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all; and that if we can, as Jefferson put it, 'enlighten the people generally,' 'tyranny and the oppressions of mind and body will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.' And, therefore, the educated citizen has a special obligation to encourage the pursuit of learning, to promote exploration of the unknown, to preserve the freedom of inquiry, to support the advancement of research, and to assist at every level of government the improvement of education for all Americans -- from grade school to graduate school.

"Secondly, the educated citizen has an obligation to serve the public. ... He may be a civil servant or a senator, a candidate or a campaign worker, a winner or a loser. But he must be a participant and not a spectator. At the Olympic Games, Aristotle wrote, 'It is not the finest and strongest men who are crowned, but they who enter the lists. For out of these the prize-men are selected. ' So, too, in life," he said, 'of the honorable and the good, it is they who act who rightly win the prize.'

"I urge all of you today, especially those who are students, to act -- to enter the lists of public service and rightly win (or lose) the prize. For we can have only one form of aristocracy in this country. As Jefferson wrote long ago in rejecting John Adams's suggestion of an artificial aristocracy of wealth and birth, 'It is,' he wrote, 'the natural aristocracy of character and talent.' 'And the best form of government,' he added, 'was that which selected these men for positions of responsibility.' I would hope that all educated citizens would fulfill this obligation, in politics, in government, here in Nashville, here in this State, in the Peace Corps, in the Foreign Service, in the government service, in the Tennessee Valley, in the world! You will find the pressures greater than the pay. You may endure more public attacks than support. But you will have the unequaled satisfaction of knowing that your character and talent are contributing to the direction and success of this free society.

"Third and finally, the educated citizen has an obligation to uphold the law. This is the obligation of every citizen in a free and peaceful society. But the educated citizen has a special responsibility by the virtue of his greater understanding. For whether he has ever studied history or current events, ethics or civics, the rules of the profession or the tools of the trade, he knows that only a respect for the law makes it possible for free men to dwell together in peace and progress. He knows that law is the adhesive force of the cement of society, creating order out of chaos, and coherence in place of anarchy. He knows that for one man to defy a law or court order he does not like is to invite others to defy those which they do not like -- leading to a breakdown of all justice and all order. He knows, too, that every fellow man is entitled to be regarded with decency and treated with dignity. Any educated citizen who seeks to subvert the law to suppress freedom, or to subject other human beings to acts that are less than human degrades his inheritance, ignores his learning, and betrays his obligations. Certain other societies may respect the rule of force. We respect the rule of law."

And sadly, as the author sets out to show the reader, President Kennedy's death had "a far more profoundly negative impact on the United States than is commonly realized" or appreciated.

This is demonstrated through the administrations of the some of the presidents that followed Kennedy (e.g. LBJ in his support of the Vietnam War and his failure, in certain respects, to be fully honest with the public; Richard Nixon; and Ronald Reagan who promoted the belief among the public of government as enemy of the people, de-emphasized the value and importance of civic virtue and public service in a democratic republic, and extolled the virtues of corporatism in creating a strong economy and society.)

Despite some editing errors I discerned in some of its pages (hence the 4 stars), this is a book I would strongly urge anyone to read who is deeply concerned about the present state of the nation, the levels of corruption in Congress from which its leadership profits at the expense of the public good, and wishes to become more constructively and purposefully engaged as a citizen to help reverse the tide of perversion that has overtaken the republic for the past 50 years. Furthermore, study the life and presidency of John F. Kennedy and take inspiration from a man who possessed rare gifts of brilliance, wit, and compassion.

Upon immersing myself in "Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years", I felt as if I were an actual witness to a marriage between 2 remarkable people, whose lives together became bound up with the politics, culture, ethos, and destiny of a nation.

At the time of their marriage in September 1953, the husband, a freshman United States Senator with budding promise of reaching the White House, hailed from a rich, prestigious Irish-American family steeped in the Catholic faith. His wife, who came from a slightly less wealthier background, was a graduate from Vassar who had studied at the Sorbonne, possessed artistic and intellectual attainments, and shared certain, profound affinities with her husband, which the author makes plain in considerable detail as the story progresses.

I have had a deep-seated fascination with JFK and Jacqueline Kennedy for years, and this book I found hard to break away from once I began reading it in earnest. Even if you have little interest in politics or history, the book's human interest element alone makes for compelling reading. It makes alive to the reader the sensibilities of an era --- the 1950s and early 1960s --- in such a way that one almost feels as if the past has become the present. This is a book that I could read again and again, without tiring of it, despite the horrific tragedy of Dallas and its aftermath in which Jacqueline Kennedy, now a widow, struggled to re-establish a meaningful life for herself and her children.

This is the best book that I've read that makes plain how it was that John F. Kennedy, with the help of a dedicated, loyal and hard-working group of young men later known as "the Irish Brotherhood" (many of them, like himself, veterans of the Second World War) --- among others --- managed to establish, at times against heavy odds, one of the most remarkable political careers in American history that took him from the House of Representatives in 1946 to the White House in 1960.

One of the best attributes of this book is that it reads a lot like an epic novel. The many personalities who fill its pages come alive in bold, bright colors. The story begins in a Chicago bar shortly after JFK's failed bid to secure the vice-president slot with the Democratic candidate for President, Adlai Stevenson, in 1956. Kenneth "Kenny" O'Donnell (the author's father, who, at that time was JFK's "tough-talking , no bullshit, political aide") is savoring a beer while coming to terms with this setback in Kennedy's political career. "...the entire week --- had ended up with a loss. They got screwed. Thrown under the bus by the Democratic Party establishment, especially by the liberals, who had never liked Jack or his father. ... Adlai Stevenson, making his second run for the Democratic presidential nomination, along with Senator Carey Estes Kefauver, crime-fighting liberal from Tennessee, and the rest of the political establishment --- led the charge against the Kennedy brothers. They were men who saw Jack Kennedy and his Irish buddies as impossibly young, inexperienced, and arrogant. John F. Kennedy was, after all, the son of Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, a man who was loved by some but reviled by even more. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, or Jack, as his family called him, was the [second] child of Joe and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy of Boston. When their firstborn son, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., died tragically, a hero in the war, it supposedly fell to second son Jack to pick up the fallen standard. Or so the story had been told around Boston."

Then, after the reader is given access to some of Kenny's O'Donnell's background (like JFK, a Massachusetts native, but from humbler working-class origins, who joined the U.S. Army Air Force at 17, saw action in Europe - where he was twice shot down over enemy territory and managed to make his way back both times to the Allied lines), the clock is rolled back to the 1945-46 school year at Harvard. Thanks to the GI Bill of Rights, Kenny has secured a place there, where he becomes renowned for his athletic prowess on the football field, becoming captain of the team. Here is where Kenny would have a fateful meeting with destiny when he met Robert ("Bobby") Kennedy. "Bobby had wanted to join the squad. He was then too small, a marginally talented athlete, but made up for it with sheer determination." Both men hit it off instantly and talked often about football and politics, subjects for which they shared a passion. For a time both Bobby and Kenny were roommates. It was Bobby who would introduce Kenny to his older brother John. JFK and Kenny didn't really hit it off at first. (Indeed, it would be a few more years before both men became fully comfortable with each other and developed a virtually unspoken bond of mutual trust and respect.)

Kennedy, not long out of the Navy, was set on running for Congress. But despite his father's wealth and longstanding political connections in Massachusetts, he wasn't regarded as a serious candidate for a solidly working-class district that looked down on people of his class. Notwithstanding that, Kennedy was determined to do his best to win and to that end, he slowly built up a coterie of dedicated people (including Kenny) who canvassed the district door-by-door and made the personal connections that would give him much needed visibility.

JFK would go on to win election to the House and maintain his seat until 1952, when he decided to run for the U.S. Senate against Republican Henry Cabot Lodge, who hailed from a powerful political family and was regarded as unbeatable. The state Democratic Party didn't take him seriously and when on Election Night --- Eisenhower was swept into the White House, carrying on his coattails large numbers of Republicans elected to Congress --- it looked as if JFK would lose, pressure was put on him by party leaders in the state to concede. But he wouldn't, because a majority of the votes had yet to be counted and he had confidence in the work Kenny and others had made over many months in setting up a statewide political network. Sure enough, in the wee hours of the morning, Kennedy would prevail over Lodge, one of the few bright spots in the fortunes of the Democratic Party in 1952.


Helen O'Donnell, who throughout the book, made judicious use of a series of taped interviews her father had with the journalist Sander Vanocur (who covered the Kennedy White House for NBC) in 1965 and 1966 --- in addition to oral histories from politicians (e.g. Hubert Humphrey who ran against JFK during the 1960 Democratic primaries) and people who worked closely with her father and President Kennedy, as well as interviews she carried out herself with her father's surviving siblings (who played parts in many Kennedy campaigns), Senator Edward Kennedy, Sander Vanocur, and Ben Bradlee (formerly Head Editor of The Washington Post) --- deserves full praise for a thoroughly engaging, poignant, and wonderful book.

Not too many people know that, while in the Senate, JFK's chronic back problems had become so severe that he had two surgeries on his spine in 1954. Complications set in and his temperature had gone up to 105 degrees F. Up to this time, Kenny had no idea of the various health problems with which JFK was afflicted. Only gradually, as he earned JFK's full trust and that of the Kennedy Family, would these details be shared with him. Twice the Catholic Church had administered JFK the last rites. Many in the Democratic Party reckoned that even were he to survive, JFK would emerge a cripple and much diminished in terms of his political prospects. Some in the Party leadership expected that his time in the Senate would be short-lived. This, for me, was one of the most touching chapters of the book. The reader will see a John F. Kennedy who seemed finished, at a very low ebb, who somehow, after a slow recovery, finds anew his passion for politics and public service and, like the phoenix, comes back stronger.

To sum up, I want to cite the high regard in which President Kennedy held his chief political aide and close friend: “I never doubt Kenny. His loyalty to me is absolute. I trust him completely. We may disagree at times over politics or people. He is not always right, nor am I. But I always know he has my back and always will. He always calls it like he sees it. I appreciate that.”

You'll Be Okay: My Life with Jack Kerouac is, for anyone with an interest in Jack Kerouac and the leading members of the Beat Generation group of writers and artists, a fascinating story of how they lived in wartime New York City during the early 1940s. Edie herself was married to Kerouac between 1944 and 1948.

I confess to knowing little about Jack Kerouac and not having read any of his books. But a couple of years ago, I went to see the movie 'Kill Your Darlings' which was centered on the college days of the earliest members of the Beat Generation: Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Lucien Carr, whose murder of David Kammerer in August 1944 - an old acquaintance from St. Louis who had an overweening attraction to Carr and stalked him - is at the heart of that movie. I enjoyed the movie, which reminded me of "You'll Be Okay", which I had purchased at BORDERS a few years earlier, but had yet to read. Now having read it, I enjoyed Edie Parker's reminiscences on an era (the 1940s) that fascinates me to no end. She made the New York of that time as she experienced it so tangibly real to me. Most of her friends were then in their early 20s and they wanted to LIVE and experienced to the full all that life afforded them. And as most of them (with the exception of Kerouac who had entered Colombia University on a football scholarship in 1940) came from affluent backgrounds, they were free --- wartime rationing and privations notwithstanding --- to live and work in New York, then as now one of the most colorful and exciting cities on Earth.

Thus, for its nostalgic value, I give You'll Be Okay: My Life with Jack Kerouac FIVE STARS.