An invaluable book... it approaches the members of the Kennedy family as denizens of history and not of mythology...Whalen makes many fascinating contributions to history. --Chicago Tribune "Fine and Hauntingly detailed, evoking the image of a man whose most stunning characteristic was the naked and sustained force of his want.... What makes the story so great is simply that Joseph Kennedy is a great literary character, a character in the oldest tradition, a flawed figure on a grand stage, moving toward his destiny unaware of his flaws. It is precisely because Mr. Whalen recognizes Kennedy as a literary character that this book is so brilliantly memorable." -- Joan Didion, National Review "I think it is one of the great modern biographies. It stands with The Making of the President by Theodore White, head and shoulders above all the literature that has been written about the Kennedy Family." -- Iain Macleod, The Spectator , London Richard J. Whalen is a former Senior Editor of The Wall Street Journal and Fortune , and the author of six books.