Summary

I've been fascinated by the idea of Camelot and the Kennedy dynasty since I was young - precisely why I've avoided this book until now. Bill O'Reilly is nothing more than a pompous, over-inflated windbag who is in love with the sound of his own voice. Given how drastically different his political leanings are from Kennedy's, I thoroughly expected much maligning of Kennedy's private life, which while devastating to Jackie and their children - and even the adoring public who had no idea - had no bearing on his assassination. Surprisingly, there were far less references to the President's trysts than I figured there would be (though there were far more than necessary.) Calling this book completely nonfiction however, as O'Reilly does in the 'sources' section, is a stretch. One of the greatest annoyances I find in any nonfiction work is when authors purport to put forth what someone is feeling or thinking - and it happens often in this text, particularly in regards to Jackie. Presenting Oswald as a man who simply wants to be famous doesn't exactly jive with everything else I've ever read about him. I'm not a huge conspiracy theorist by any means, but I can not believe that someone like Lee Harvey Oswald, who failed at everything else in his life, could have suddenly succeeded in killing the most powerful man in the world - especially when footage from that day on the knoll clearly shows Kennedy being shot from the front, not behind, at least once. All in all, it's a quick read and not terrible. But you won't learn anything new unless you have no idea who JFK is.