Donald James Lawn

An inspiring concept - what if President Kennedy had survived that fateful day in Dallas - but written like an extended political debate. The narrative is divided between Bobby Kennedy at his brother's bedside in November 1963 and JFK at the end of his second term in 1968, hiring Washington Post journalist Patrick Hennessy to write his memoirs. Shot in the back instead of the head, with Jackie taking a flesh wound to the neck as collateral damage, Kennedy is critically injured and out of action for a week at Parkland Hospital while his brother tries to find out who was behind the attack (hint: the author believes that 'calling it a killing by a lone assassin does not make it so' - and I tend to agree!)

On a lovely day in Dallas, Texas, all that they had worked so hard to achieve over the last three years might have been snuffed out in a few seconds.

I tend to avoid reading 'what if' scenarios about the assassination - especially after Stephen King's overinflated novel 22/11/63 - because the plot is often reduced to 'Kennedy must die!' Lawn is far more sympathetic, however, and reading about the second term of Camelot that never was is bittersweet. Jack, after losing only a week instead of his life and going through some sort of out of body experience, achieves what many claim he planned to do in 1964: pulls of Vietnam, avoids further conflict with Castro, and pushes through the Civil Rights Act (LBJ retains the credit here, working on behalf of a recovering JFK). He becomes a thoughtful, thankful and treasured leader, observed by Lawn's author insert lead character, Hennessy: There was a sense of being in a darkened room because the person with the only lamp had departed, taking it with him. The intrigue, the intensity, the magnetism had just up and left.

I loved the intensity and the wishful thinking of the 1963 chapters, with Caroline waking her father up by reading her favourite bedtime story ('Oh hi, Daddy!') and Bobby filled with guilt for buying Hoover's lies, but Kennedy's memoirs - or Lawn's take on the national and international policies that never were - make for dry reading. The golf didn't help either (I know JFK was skilled at golf, but I'm with Mark Twain: Golf is a good walk spoiled!) There is also a tedious sideplot with Hennessy romancing a librarian, with shades of King which I could have lived without.

Interesting and touching, but could have done with a little less conversation, please!… (mais)

Very good book - tremendous insight into the Kennedy administration - and what it could have been like if JFK lived. It covers all the highlights of what was going on at that time and how Kennedy handled policy - and how he may have handled it if he could have continued.. Some eye opening stuff about the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuba, Russia, Vietnam, Civil Rights, and of course the assassination... and all presented in a very readable, and understandable format.. I highly recommend this book - and really don't understand why it isn't much more popular.… (mais)