The House of Kennedy, James Patterson

This is a sad tale of the Kennedy clan that begins with the Patriarch, Joseph Kennedy Sr., and ends with the death of John F Kennedy Jr. This is the second non-fiction book I’ve read on Patterson so now his writing prose I know well. It’s not rocket science… write everything as a thriller to keep the reader interested and engaged. It works. Joseph Sr was a swashbuckling narcissist that would stop at nothing to make his children succeed. Of the three famous brothers - John Kennedy was the ultimate pragmatist, Bobby Kennedy became a man of passion, and Ted Kennedy is the perfect amalgam of the two of them. There was and is the notion of the family curse – after all, there were at least twelve family tragedies discussed in this book alone. Is it a curse though? Perhaps it’s the fact that it’s a wealthy, ambitious family who has never been able to deal with tragedies in private? Money does bring with it certain curses though – power, entitlement, the grandiose of feeling as if you have the world by a string. If you are looking for a quick overview of the entire family saga, in a thriller format, not too detailed, just the meat and salacious reading, this is the Kennedy book for you.