Edward Kennedy: An Intimate Biography

A vivid protagonist who never quite escapes the pull of family and fate anchors this novelistic portrait of the late Massachusetts senator. Journalist Hersh (Bobby and J. Edgar) makes Kennedy his own statesman—a born politician and authentic liberal who combined a capacity for conciliation with a talent for ruthless maneuvering. But Kennedy never entirely shook off the hold of Kennedyness: the shadow of his domineering father, who he feared might have him lobotomized like his sister Rosemary if he didn’t measure up; the ghosts of his dead brothers; the dread of assassination; the “predatory” sense of entitlement, especially to booze and women; the clan’s epic bad luck. The author meticulously recounts Kennedy’s political wrangles and legislative initiatives, but his approach is literary rather than wonkish; drawing on Hersh’s decades-long acquaintance with the family, the prose brims with sardonic humor and indelible sketches of, say, Bobby’s “misery-wrinkled little hawk’s face” or Jackie’s uncomfortable campaign appearances as a “remote Vogue cutout before... seemingly endless files of scrubwomen.” The result is an entertaining, psychologically acute rendition of a man and a mystique. (Sept.)