I'm most irritated by the author's own inflated sense of himself. I wanted to read a book about John Kennedy, not a book about how great Geoffrey Perret thinks Harvard is. Let me explain. Early in the book, he discusses how Jack was forever compared to -- and came up short against -- his older brother Joe Jr. Until he went to Harvard. "Harvard, greatest institution in the world, was able to look past the poor grades and misbehavior and see the young man for the giant he would become" (or words generally to that effect). Really?, I said to myself; this guy must have gone to Harvard. Sure enough, he did. And he really likes to use every obscure word he knows or can find in a dictionary to show everyone just how smart he is. For example, "pelf," and a few pages later, "avoirdupois." Don't get me wrong. I like words and learning new ones, but in these cases there are perfectly adequate words that don't require a dictionary which convey the same idea. I like fancy words when they describe something that there isn't a single, easier word for. Like "palimpsest" or "croochie-proochles."
I'm mildly irritated because the editing doesn't seem great. It's not riddled with typos, but, for example, there is a description of the young Kennedy's exploits on a bridge in Europe which in one place is described as "fifty feet" high, and in another is described as "more than twenty feet." Technically, 50 is more than 20, but why the difference? Just pick one and use the same measure in both the text and the photo caption.
I'm undecided on whether the very long historical background is necessary. There's a lot about Joe Sr. and Rose, and John's childhood. Maybe it will all come to something, maybe it won't. I'm apparently not going to find out.
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