American Adulterer - Softcover

Jed Mercurio

3.22

514 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0224081551 ISBN 13: 9780224081559

Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 2009

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The subject is American citizen holding high elected office, married and father to a young family...

From its opening line, American Adulterer explores the life of a habitual womaniser in hypnotically clinical prose. The subject regards his high libido as physiologically normal;if he goes without a woman for three days, he suffers withdrawal symptoms. Yet this particular philanderer is in no position to live with bohemian abandon. He must be circumspect in his choice of partners and employ careful calculation in their seduction. He must go to extraordinary lengths to conceal his affairs from his wife and his political rivals and with good reason, since he is the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Jed Mercurio shows us Kennedy's affairs with Marilyn Monroe, mob moll Judith Campbell, libertine Mary Meyer, and his flings with numerous White House staff, including his tryst with a nineteen-year-old intern whose unofficial role was to provide sexual release for the man who was Leader of the Free world during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Yet he never demonises his subject, instead offering a sympathetic and wholly credible portrait of a virtuous man in the grip of an uncontrollable vice. Each affair propels President Kennedy into increasingly murky waters. He fears losing the wife and children to whom he's devoted, and the office to which he's dedicated. And despite being crippled by back pain, and suffering from a range of other debilitating ailments, Kennedy is a highly effective Commander-in-Chief, with an idealistic vision of America.

Through its study of an important historical figure, this remarkable, ground-breaking novel poses controversial questions about society's evolving fixation on the private lives of public officials and, ultimately ignites a polemic on monogamy, marriage and traditional family values.

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Review:

"Remarkable new novel about the president... The man's wit, courtesy, peacemaking vision and cool judgement are all here, vividly re-created, as well as courage in the face of near disabling infirmity and pain... gripping and thoughtful."-- Hugo Barnacle, "The Sunday Times""American Adulterer is a novel of our times: shameless and prurient, detached and salacious."-- Sean O'Hagan, "The Observer""Compelling... With its glacially elegant prose, Mercurio's narrative keeps its distance from the subject."-- Adrian Turpin, "Financial Times"

Book Description:

"Compelling...With its glacially elegant prose, Mercurio's narrative keeps its distance from the subject"

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