Book Review | America's Reluctant Prince: The Life of John F. Kennedy Jr.

Rating: 2 Stars

John deserves so much better than this. Leeches, all of you, making money off your relationship with him. I wouldn't have read this at all if I had realized ahead of time that he was a "friend" of John's. In the final lines the author states how his heart ached when John died and, "It aches still."

So you wanted to stop the ache by writing a biography of your friend who just wanted to be regular guy, and his intensely private wife? You wanted to toss out your opinions about things, and your supposition, some of which contradicts what other friends have said in the years since Kennedy died?

For example, when talking about getting into a gathering after JFK Jr died: "Now the bigger test: would John's other friends know me? Most of my time with John had been one-on-one, and while I occasionally ran into Randy and others who belonged to his inner circle, the interactions had been brief" (page 398). See what I mean? Leech. You weren't part of the inner circle, so you didn't know him THAT well. I'm not saying those conversations didn't happen, I am sure they did, and that Gillon was known to JFK Jr's friends, but what a way to totally trash the friendship you had - by writing a book about him, and not a terribly nice one at times, without John being able to defend himself or respond to it.

Obviously we know Kennedy could never be a regular guy, the public would never have allowed it, even if his family would have. I think that is ultimately what the 'Kennedy Curse' really is. We placed insanely high expectations on John in particular, given the love the country had for his father. John could never have lived up to that ideal, it simply was not possible. He had his own grief and trauma to work through, losing his dad, and then Bobby, both before the age of ten. One point made me particularly sad, in that John did not remember his father. But he certainly remembered Bobby, who stepped in after JFK's assassination. Maybe that's why he sought out potentially dangerous situations, walking that line between life and death. Death was always around his family, it was practically a companion for most of his life as he lost his mother, then had to prepare to lose his cousin and best friend to cancer as well. It is sadly ironic that John had been preparing the eulogy for his cousin (Anthony) at the time of the crash, and Anthony ended up eulogizing John, then passing away a few weeks later.

Here's a line that especially pissed me off and I immediately decided that this book would be one star: "While I hate to even think about it, John and his passengers experienced a horrifying final few seconds of life as the plane entered a violent, plunging spin that sent them smashing into the ocean at 200 mph" (page 392). Here's a thought, asshole - maybe DON'T THINK ABOUT IT AND DON'T WRITE ABOUT IT.

More speculation on page 393 that bothered me especially: "...John still could have used his radio to ask for help. But John never made radio contact. I think I know why. John enjoyed danger and risk, and he always found a way out. He no doubt realized he was in trouble, but no more trouble than when he camped alone in the wilderness for a week, he strapped himself into his Buckeye, or skied down steep cliffs. Whatever it was that attracted him to danger - a genetic predisposition or a psychological response to the trauma of his childhood, or both - John had supreme confidence in his ability to get himself out of tight jams. If his own skill and determination were not enough, he could count on some other force to protect him...He assumed that this flight would be another challenge that he could conquer. He likely worried more about the embarrassment of a leaked recording of him asking for help than he did about crashing his plane."

One quote I marginally appreciated: "Finally, many people speculate about the impact John might have had if he'd lived, raising the prospect that he might have one day returned to the White House as president. It's possible, but I believe John should be remembered for the authentic life that he lived and not for what he might have become" (page 8).

Ultimately I ended up giving this book a very tenuous two stars because the actual facts, those that are verifiable, were thoroughly researched. It is only when the author inserted himself into the story that things got dicey. It was so much, "Look at me, I was friends with JFK Jr!" The speculation of John's thoughts and actions that were scattered everywhere throughout from the point they met is one of the many reasons that I will not rate this higher than two. A biography like this would have been better off in the hands of someone unbiased either way, someone who was not even remotely close to the story and the life John lived before it ended far too soon. But that's the problem then, isn't it? We all felt like we had a claim, because he grew up in the spotlight, he was ours and we couldn't lose him like we lost his dad. Yet we did anyway. Despite the wealth and privilege his name afforded him, JFK Jr never stood a chance. Let him rest in peace.

(Okay, so I get that I am lumping myself in with an earlier generation, the generations that actually saw him grow up. I was 16 when the plane crash happened, and watched the coverage for days, in tears a lot of the time. By the time it occurred, I was already totally in the thrall of the Kennedy aura. I feel the sentimental protectiveness of him, even though he was already an adult by the time I started learning about his family.)