The rags-to-riches story of the first Kennedys to set foot in the U.S. is depicted in sweeping style ... Thompson powerfully re-creates the experiences of Irish immigrants in the mid-to-late 19th century ... This study of the earliest Kennedys, both thoroughly researched and vividly imagined, is an inspired addition to a mostly talked-out topic.
... splendidly heterodox ... Thompson brilliantly illuminates the strain of Mariolatry in the Kennedys that Bridget embodied....But Thompson goes wrong in framing the Kennedy story as a melodrama of Irish grievance. The most piercingly obvious fact about the family is that they were keen to join established elites.
Journalist Thompson may surprise both general readers and historians with a Kennedy book based on newly accessible materials and differently focused on the family’s first members in the United States: John F. Kennedy Jr.’s Irish immigrant paternal great grandparents ... this winsomely written book employs cultural context, empathy, multiple viewpoints, and careful evaluation of sources ... This is both an absorbing family story and a saga of the Irish diaspora in Boston, a city that eventually accepted the Kennedys and allowed the ambitious family to achieve versions of the American dream before fate intervened.
Thompson’s impressive research and engaging exposition create a unique addition to the Kennedy canon. This is not just the story of the Kennedys; Thompson paints a picture of life for many Irish immigrants. History buffs should pick up this book immediately.
Thompson offers a cursory overview of Joe, Rose, and their children, devoting his attention to their forebears. Drawing on archival material, contemporary publications, and family papers where sources about the Kennedys’ early years are scant, Thompson provides solid historical context about the plight of Irish immigrants, roiling national politics, and changing demographics ... A lively biography of an iconic family before it became famous.
... illuminating ... Thompson is especially good at evoking the hardships Murphy endured and placing them in the context of the 19th-century Irish experience. The result is an engrossing, real-life rags-to-riches tale.
