After last week’s Inauguration recommendsday, this week I’m back in the US presidential adjacent sphere with my BotW. It may have taken me a couple of weeks to read – but that’s because it’s a nice if US sized paperback and I didn’t want to wreck it by putting it in my work rucksack!
Kate Storey’s The White House by the Sea is a whistle stop tour through the history of the Kennedy family at Hyannis Port. Yes it’s more than 300 pages long, but that’s not a lot of pages to cover three and a bit generations of a very large family. That means that you’re not going to get lots of detail on everything that happens in the Kennedy family – but you don’t necessarily need to know all the details of everyone’s lives to follow it either.
You’ll probably find it easier if you know at least the main beats: Joe and Rose had a lot of children of whom Joe Jr died in World War Two, Kathleen died just after the war, JFK was assassinated while president, RFK was assassinated while running for president, Ted kept considering running for president and Rosemary was given a lobotomy. There are also a lot of grandchildren – many struggled in various ways to live up to their family’s legacy and some of them also died tragically young. There. That’s about all you need to follow the family’s love affair with this part of the Massachusetts coast – and the effect that it had on a small town that found itself at the centre of national attention because of its most famous residents.
Storey has conducted lots and lots of interviews with the people of Hyannis Port and those connected to the Kennedys so it does feel like you’re getting new insights into the subject. I’ve still got Ask Not on the to read pile, and will report back on that one too but this is certainly worth reading. I have long come to the conclusion that the Kennedy family wasn’t a great one to marry into, and nothing here has changed my mind but it remains fascinating to see the outsize impact of one family on America.
I got this one for Christmas and it’s probably going to be a special order job rather than a wander into the bookshop and find a copy book, but if you’re interested it’s worth it.
Happy Reading!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 