The Importance of Being Kennedy
| Price: |
$24.99 |
| On Sale: |
14/08/2008 |
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Formats:
B Format Paperback
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Kennedy nursemaid Norah Maguire has been with the family since 1915 and has witnessed every moment, public and private. When Mr Kennedy brings home his 'business associate' Gloria Swanson, star–struck Norah sees all. While Mrs Kennedy shops, prays and takes to her childbed once a year, Norah is in charge. She sees the boys – Joe, Jack, Robert and Teddy – coached at their father's knee to believe that everything they'll ever want in life – girls, influence, high office – can be bought. She sees Kick and her sisters trained to say their rosaries and prepare for advantageous marriages. And Norah knows precisely what happened to Rosemary, the one child even Joe Kennedy couldn't bully into shape.
The Second World War changes the lives of both Norah and her favourite, Kick, in unforeseen ways. When America joins the war in 1941, Kick volunteers, escapes the confines of the family and goes to London, with Norah as her chaperone. Kick is 21 and London adores her. It's in London that Norah finds unexpected mid–life love and it's from London that Kick stages her first act of rebellion. She gets married, to a Protestant and in just ten minutes at Chelsea Registry Office Kick begins the unravelling of her father's careful plans to create a Catholic First Family, and her mother's determination to ignore anything that displeases her.
Norah Maguire's story follows her through her wartime marriage, her widowing and her eventual emergence from grief to lob an even bigger hand grenade into the Kennedy compound: a passionate love affair with another Protestant, and a married one to boot.
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Critical Praise for
The Importance of Being Kennedy
'Her story has the feeling of being more alive and more revealing than any biography…with energetic pace, witty dialogue and vividly drawn characters' Guardian 'Deftly mingles comedy and sorrow, producing a serious pleasure of a novel that is both poignant and entertaining.' Penny Perrick, Sunday Times 'One of Graham's undoubted strengths is the way she seamlessly blends fact and fiction. Real people, including the cream of British aristocracy, are portrayed with as much colour and verve as the fictional characters. This is an entertaining addition to the Kennedy canon, one that goes behind the public smiles to conjure up the petty jealousies and divided loyalties that plague every family. It also gives a fictional voice to two forgotten women whose troubled lives are almost completely overshadows by the Kennedy legend.' The Herald
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The Importance of Being Kennedy
The story is told from the viewpoint of fictional Kennedy nursemaid Norah Maguire, who has been with the family since 1915 and witnessed every moment, public and private. When Mr Kennedy brings home his 'business associate' Gloria Swanson, star–struck Norah sees all. While Mrs...
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