After Camelot: A Personal History of the Kennedy Family 1968 to the Present

Taraborrelli picks up where he left off in Jackie, Ethel, Joan, adding more revelatory portraits of the Kennedys during the past four decades. To document America’s “royal family,” he conducted interviews with family members and their intimates, such people as Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Oleg Cassini, Robert McNamara, Pierre Salinger, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and numerous confidential sources. He also relied heavily on the 40 years of personal correspondence between Jackie Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson. There’s a parade of triumphs and tragedies, along with an insider’s view of family dynamics in crises both public and private: financial negotiations before Jackie’s marriage to Onassis; family interference in Pat Kennedy and Peter Lawford’s troubled marriage; Ted Kennedy’s bad behavior at Chappaquiddick, and his support of Caroline’s abortive Senate run to carry on the “family dynasty.” Taraborrelli has a fine flair for turning dry facts into dramatic descriptions so that many oft-told stories take on a new perspective. Meticulous multilayered details breathe life into remarkable recreations of family gatherings throughout this superb “fly on the wall” survey of the Camelot clan. Photos. Agent: TK. (Apr. 24)