I, JFK: A Spirited Novel

Rating:
Summary: For the JFK enthusiast
Review: Dictating from purgatory, JFK sheds light on his life and all that has been written about him since his death. JFK talks about his mob connections, his friendship with Frank Sinatra, his feelings about Nixon, Jackie, LBJ, and Martin Luther King, his hatred for J. Edgar Hoover, and his affairs with Marilyn Monroe and Judith Campbell.

LBJ, Adlai Stevenson, J. Edgar Hoover, and Martin Luther King chime in as well.

With Kennedy wit and charm, Mayer brings Kennedy to life. Irreverent, wry, and suspenseful, it's hard to distinguish between fact and fiction.

Finally, the book also offers some illumination regarding Kennedy's assassination and death.

Rating:
Summary: A darned funny book
Review: I'd give it a 10, but I'm not quite old enough to have lived through it all, and therefore, some of the jokes go RIGHT over my head. But most hit me in the belly, where they're intended to: J.Edgar Hoover, for instance, the only "commuter" in the afterlife, with an open door to both heaven and hell; Robert Kennedy, a poignant character still in love with Marylin, who left "purgatory" a few years ago; Johnson, a cowboy still; and the mysterious cloud that occasionally drifts by, speaking in a voice like thunder. If you've seen the conspiracy films, you must read this book. A few laughs never hurt anyone, and yet you'll be moved as well. The novel humanizes the late President in a way that more serious treatments have not managed to. 'Tis a pity it's a special order; this one deserved monumental success

Rating:
Summary: I very much enjoyed this book.
Review: I, JFK is probably the funniest book I've ever read. After I read it I passed it to half a dozen friends. It has been lost in limbo for a few years but I hope to get another copy to share. My favorite part has to be the positive image of Marylin Monroe and how she sums up Jack as "just a pretty face". I highly recommend this book to anyone who lived through the era or knows their history.

Rating:
Summary: Banal and unconvincing
Review: JFK Senior is still probably the most famous dead celebrity so it's rather surprising that no one else has chosen to write a book in which JFK and his contemporaries deliver a retrospective from heaven.

So I'll give the author minimum credit for imagination. And no credit beyond that.

The author, Robert Mayer, makes several mistakes. First of all, he puts JFK, RFK, LBJ, and Martin Luther King in heaven. This is probably a mistake, as far as the first three go, and even No. 4 might owe an explanation or three before being allowed entry.

The author also consigns J. Edgar Hoover and old Joseph Kennedy to hell. In both those instances, he might be right. But his treatment of Hoover in particular is extremely distasteful and even juvenile.

Even if every rumor about how Hoover lived while he was on this planet was true, the author's treatment of Hoover is way out of line. WAY out of line. I think that Robert Mayer fancies himself as a far leftist with a magnanimous ability to see all sides of an issue.

It's funny how if you scratch an individual like that just a little beneath the surface, you see that same UGLY thing below the skin that you see in all liberals. Mayer's tone is pretty reasonable throughout most of the book, EXCEPT for the J. Edgar Hoover scenes. THAT'S the ugly liberal in Mayer seeping through. He might be Janet Reno in male drag.

His treatment of Richard Nixon is surprisingly even-handed. This book was written in 1988 when Nixon was still alive so Mayer was not required to consign Nixon to heaven or hell. He got to dodge that bullet.

Third of all, the story stars famous dead people in the afterlife. And when you try to make real the unknowable, even in a work of fiction, it's necessary to establish certain rules and stick to them.

Mayer doesn't really do that. It's not really clear what these dead personalities are able to do and are not able to do -- Mayer unfairly shifts this in order to accommodate whatever the plot requires, as the characters weave back and forth from their little corner of heaven to other little corners to earth to hell and back. No fair, Mr. Mayer.

Another thing that isn't fair is that when flashing back to actual historical events (the most noteworthy ones, of course, being the assassinations), the author, in Oliver Stone fashion, deliberately mixes fact with fiction without making the distinction clear.

A number of the passages in this book include conversations between JFK and his valet in Dallas. My eyes bugged out as I read the text of these conversations, which seemed remarkably prophetic and then I realized, with disgust, that they were all too prophetic because they were entirely fictitious. But the author introduces them as history.

Fifth of all, does anyone imagine that if these four characters got together again in heaven, they would sit around and discuss issues of policy, as they did on earth?

No. The world of the policy wonk would not have been heaven for the Kennedy brothers, who sought and achieved office in order to fulfill a destiny and not specifically with the goal of influencing policy.

Maybe LBJ would be happy as an eternal policy wonk. MLK, of course, led by inspiration and did not hold elective office. Maybe, in the event that hell freezes over and Clinton is allowed into heaven, policy wonking might be his second or third choice of recreation. But not for the Kennedy brothers.

Finally, Mayer makes the same mistake that all leftists do. His "even-handed" treatment of the Kennedy brothers only criticizes them from the left -- they expanded the Vietnam War, they didn't do enough for civil rights, they were too "Cold War" and too obsessed with getting Castro, etc.

But as Kenneth Lynn has said, there was a yellow thread of timidity that was interwoven through the ostentatious aggressiveness of the New Frontier. All of the "hard-nosed" Kennedy actions were done within the framework of domestic politics, which caused them to often betray those who took their fighting words at face value. Kennedy foreign policy left the Communists more firmly entrenched in Vietnam and Cuba at his death than they were when he took office.

The author, Robert Mayer, doesn't raise THIS critique of the Kennedy brothers; as a leftist, he is incapable of understanding it and may not be aware that it exists.

The book is readable enough and can be finished in one sitting and might be worthwhile if all that you are looking for is an afternoon of whimsy. But not if what you are looking for is an honest fictitious treatment of history.

Rating:
Summary: A must for all JKF buffs!
Review: Robert Mayer's main characters are: JFK (Handsome Jack) in the afterlife ... along with RFK (Robert, the Young), Lord Veep Nixon (the stubble-hearted); LBJ, Bane of Texas, Henry Cabot (the Large), J. Edgar Hoover, Dr.King, Fiddle and Faddle, Judy, and of course, Marilyn, who sternly lectures Handsome Jack on morality and the Monroe Doctrine before and after their romps in the sack. Brilliantly written with much thought provoking truth woven in this delightfully humorous work of fantasy where JFK explains ALL.

Rating:
Summary: A must for all JKF buffs!
Review: Robert Mayer's main characters are: JFK (Handsome Jack) in the afterlife ... along with RFK (Robert, the Young), Lord Veep Nixon (the stubble-hearted); LBJ, Bane of Texas, Henry Cabot (the Large), J. Edgar Hoover, Dr.King, Fiddle and Faddle, Judy, and of course, Marilyn, who sternly lectures Handsome Jack on morality and the Monroe Doctrine before and after their romps in the sack. Brilliantly written with much thought provoking truth woven in this delightfully humorous work of fantasy where JFK explains ALL.

Rating:
Summary: Best Book on Tape I Have Ever Heard
Review: This book should be heard, since the two reader's accents contribute tremendiously to the wit and enjoyability of this book. One doesn't have to be a Kennedy fan to delight in this book, but personal familiarity with the New Frontier is necessary.

The book is witty, moving and terribly clever. There probably are historical inaccuracies. This story is Kennedy talking from "heaven" so it seems more than a little pedantic to expect that his "remeniscence" will be accurate. The point is the sense of time, the Irish version of the Kennedy accent and the personal view of the Kennedy myth.

I read incessantly. However, sometimes books on tape are superior to the written form. Some books are simply better read. For example, for an adult, the book on tape version of Harry Potter is just better. Bernard Cornwell's "Sharpe" series are infinitely better read by Frederick Davidson.

I, JFK is such a book. Like Kennedy or loath him. This book remembers a time and a group of people who changed who were are as a nation. For a trivial amount of money you can experience, but more importantly, enjoy a unique time in American history. I cannot recommend a book more highly.

If you are old enough to remember Kennedy's death, then I urge you to listen to this book. I don't think you will regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Best Book on Tape I Have Ever Heard
Review: This book should be heard, since the two reader's accents contribute tremendiously to the wit and enjoyability of this book. One doesn't have to be a Kennedy fan to delight in this book, but personal familiarity with the New Frontier is necessary.

The book is witty, moving and terribly clever. There probably are historical inaccuracies. This story is Kennedy talking from "heaven" so it seems more than a little pedantic to expect that his "remeniscence" will be accurate. The point is the sense of time, the Irish version of the Kennedy accent and the personal view of the Kennedy myth.

I read incessantly. However, sometimes books on tape are superior to the written form. Some books are simply better read. For example, for an adult, the book on tape version of Harry Potter is just better. Bernard Cornwell's "Sharpe" series are infinitely better read by Frederick Davidson.

I, JFK is such a book. Like Kennedy or loath him. This book remembers a time and a group of people who changed who were are as a nation. For a trivial amount of money you can experience, but more importantly, enjoy a unique time in American history. I cannot recommend a book more highly.

If you are old enough to remember Kennedy's death, then I urge you to listen to this book. I don't think you will regret it.