... seldom has the Joe Kennedy story been told in such a searing, remorseless way ... Ms. Ronald’s assessment of the Kennedy conundrum at the beginning of his ambassadorship is stark...She is equally deft at capturing the Kennedy conundrum as the difficulties mounted and the war clouds darkened—and as Kennedy, by word and deed, misrepresented the instincts and intentions of the administration that made him its minister in London.
Ronald paints an unflattering portrait of Joe Kennedy, and details how FDR outfoxed him, ruining Kennedy’s maneuvering to be the first Roman Catholic U.S. President. Ronald surveys the vast network of politicos and lovers whose lives intersected with Kennedy during his eventful and disastrous diplomatic career.
... unblinking ... Ronald spares readers the particulars about Kennedy’s extramarital affairs, beyond mentioning the names of some of his paramours. Instead, she meticulously details other activities of Kennedy—frequently absent, and holding both pro-Fascist and isolationist views—during a harrowing time in U.S. diplomacy ... Fans of popular history and biography should appreciate this addition to the ranks of books about the Kennedy family.
The author’s detailed, well-populated narrative traces Kennedy’s daily doings, family relationships, self-serving projects, womanizing, and fraught service, in which he repeatedly proved to be an embarrassment, making public statements, for example, without government approval ... A well-researched history of an egotist who toyed with world affairs.
... dense and unflattering ... Ronald overstuffs the narrative with extraneous details (dinner party seating charts, accounts of Rose Kennedy’s travels), lessening the impact of her subject’s dangerous diplomatic blunders. Readers will wish this sprawling history had a sharper focus.
