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Book Reviews of The Kennedy Curse : Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years

The Kennedy Curse : Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years
The Kennedy Curse Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years
Author: Edward Klein
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ISBN-13: 9780312312930
ISBN-10: 0312312938
Publication Date: 4/17/2004
Pages: 272
Rating:
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 16

3.4 stars, based on 16 ratings
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

12 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed The Kennedy Curse : Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years on + 43 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
I felt sure I had read all the news and gossip surrounding this well known family. But being a Kennedy follower since JFK first appeared on the horizon, I decided to read yet one more story. It begins generations ago, where the beginnings of greed and power first sprouted its ugly head. Through the years the fight for power, being competitive with everyone including your own kin, along with disregard and total disrespect for anybody's feelings except theirs, left me breathless.

They say children suffer the sins of their fathers. I feel it is so with these people.

It may not be a curse but rather coincidence, but it made me wonder. I'm sure it will give you yet another insight into this large and complicated family.

Great book. Does not disappoint.
vmachapy avatar reviewed The Kennedy Curse : Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years on + 215 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
Back cover reads:
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 Kennedy's character and led 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 obessive 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 Kennedy's has obscured their human attributes. And so, finally, this book is an attempt to demystify the Kennedy's by telling the story of how the descendents 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 the American society-and, in the porcess, made the fatal mistake of thinking of themselves as divine. - From the Kennedy Curse
reviewed The Kennedy Curse : Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years on + 205 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
An investigation of one of the great mysteries of our time - the Kennedy Curse. 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.
reviewed The Kennedy Curse : Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years on + 203 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
Although it manages to uncover every sexual pecadillo of President Kennedy and other Kennedy men, it also shows how hard it was for the Irish to be accepted into American society. And they spoke English!
reviewed The Kennedy Curse : Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years on + 34 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This was very interesting. Some stuff I knew but a lot I didn't
reviewed The Kennedy Curse : Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years on
Helpful Score: 1
I really enjoyed this book. Much of the Kennedy legacy was much before my time but I still did find the book very interesting. It was hard to put down.
priscillamylove avatar reviewed The Kennedy Curse : Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years on + 83 more book reviews
In this probing expose that became a national phenomemon, renowned Kennedy biographer Edward Klein - unravels one of the greatest mysteries of our time and explains why the Kennedys have been subjected to such a mind-boggling chain of calamities
joann avatar reviewed The Kennedy Curse : Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years on + 413 more book reviews
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 pattrn 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 dynastys 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 Kennedys' fantasy of omnipotence-an unremitting desire to get away with thing that others cannot-and the cold, hard realities of life.
reviewed The Kennedy Curse : Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years on + 31 more book reviews
Very interesting. Easy reading. Will not be reposting this book. It will be passed on to another person.
reviewed The Kennedy Curse : Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years on + 30 more book reviews
This book portrays the lives of Patrick Kennedy, Joe Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy, William Kennedy Smith, JFK, JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. These profiles demonstrate the basic premise of the book - Kennedy Curse.
reviewed The Kennedy Curse : Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years on + 19 more book reviews
Brand New never used
reviewed The Kennedy Curse : Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years on + 117 more book reviews
Fascinating book -