Of all the Kennedy bio's I've read, this ranks as one of the better ones.

https://bestpresidentialbios.com/2017...

“Jack: A Life Like No Other” by Geoffrey Perret was published in 2001, two years following the release of his biography of Dwight Eisenhower and four years after his biography of Ulysses Grant (both of which I have previously read and reviewed). Perret is a historian, the author of nearly a dozen books and served for three years in the U.S. Army.

Somewhat to my surprise, Perret's book was reportedly the first single-volume cradle-to-grave biography of JFK. Soon to appear, though, were at least two additional (and far more thorough) biographies of Kennedy authored by Robert Dallek and Michael O'Brien.

Perret's biography immediately proves unpretentious, easy to read and almost casual. About two-thirds of this 400-page book is allocated to Kennedy's life up through his presidential campaign, with the balance allocated to his 1,037-day presidency. But throughout its run the biography proves uneven in emphasis, inconsistent in its grammatical style (often switching between present and past tense) and only occasionally leaves the impression it is delivering serious and consequential history.

This biography is generally organized chronologically although some topics are presented thematically (particularly during JFK's presidency). Readers familiar with Kennedy's life will take this in stride; others are prone to becoming confused by the approach and may find the narrative more challenging to follow than expected.

The discussion of Kennedy's significant lifelong medical issues is less sophisticated than in later-published biographies and tends to understate their impact on his daily life. In addition, Perret undermphasizes the roles played by Kennedy's siblings and colleagues in his personal and political lives. And while it is true that JFK's life was filled with an abundance of garish impropriety, Perret seems to enjoy wallowing in the muck and Kennedy's sex life takes up more space in this book than the entire last year of the Kennedy presidency.

But the book's deepest flaw is that it lacks the penetrating insight, deep analysis and colorful character development of the best presidential biographies. This biography is not without virtue, but the most insightful moments are reserved for the last fifty pages when the author begins dissecting Kennedy, his motivations and what he learned during his presidency.

Perret's also provides a particularly engrossing chapter on the young JFK during his years at Choate and offers the best introduction to Inga Arvad (one of Kennedy's romantic interests who was thought to be a German spy) that I've seen. In addition, Perret expertly introduces and dissects Jackie Bouvier's complex and often perplexing personality.

But, overall, Geoffrey Perret's biography of John F. Kennedy provides more pitfalls than promise. Readers new to JFK may find this a buoyant, lively, fast-paced and relatively uncomplicated sojourn through Kennedy's life. But a more experienced audience will find Perret's biography too breezy, unsophisticated and lacking in penetrating analysis and character development.

Overall rating: 3 stars

I've always been fascinated with JFK. This book flays him open and exposes all of his faults. No man and no president is perfect. The one thing that bothered me througout the book was the lurid focus on his sex life. I felt icky reading the details in here. Not necessary!

"JACK: A Life Like No Other" is a fairly straightforward biography of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States. The reader is taken through the various phases of JFK's life and career. It was a life fraught with many challenges and perils, highs and lows. Throughout his life, JFK suffered from a variety of illnesses (e.g. chronic back pain which became steadily worse over time, jaundice, scarlet fever, malaria, and Addison's Disease) that would have humbled a lesser person. Indeed, on 3 different occasions, JFK had been administered the final rites by the Catholic Church. And as if by a miracle, JFK not only survived but endured. "From an early age he had known something that few rich men's sons ever learn this side of serious illness: there is no wealth but life."

While this was an easy book to read, there were some glaring errors in it that were enough for me to give it a lower grade than other books about President Kennedy I had enjoyed reading and valued for the knowledge they gave me about this singularly unique individual and statesman who had the capacity to inspire millions of people to their best efforts, and in the process, become better human beings. (Furthermore, the author's contention that President Kennedy's death was attributable to a single assassin - Lee Harvey Oswald - I don't agree with at all. Perret leaves the reader in the midst of that fatal motorcade in which the President and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy took center stage on November 22, 1963, summing up the book with a novelistic flourish that struck me as somewhat overwrought.)

#108 of 120 books pledged to read during 2018

If you haven't read any books on John F. Kennedy, this is a great "condensed" one-volume version of his life from beginning to end. I have read many books on him, so I kept noticing many missing details. But if you just want the basics, I think this was written exceedingly well.

Returned by Library. A Great resource for research and / or term paper. Enjoy!

Fantastic book - complete research, amazing citations, grounded in fact and impossible to put down.

Really three and a half stars. I have read many many biographies of JFK and thought there wasn't anything else to learn. Wrong! The author seems to bring a different, deeper perspective to the book gleaned from among other things JFK's family history and his belief he would not live a long life. I did finish feeling his marriage was pretty much loveless on both sides. And that he was far more conservative than his legend would have us believe.

I would rather have kept a few of my illusions about JFK. With his frenetic attempts to live around his life-long health problems what he was sure would truncated life, I just felt sorry for him.

This is an engaging biography about JFK. I don't know enough to "fact check" this book, but it is well written and presents an interesting take on JFK's life. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading biographies that have a little flare.

Most entertaining book I’ve read on JFK. Focuses more on his personality and who he was, than on getting every event in his life and presidency down in detail. Noticed a few tiny errors in facts here and there but the overall quality of the book lies in its ability to make you feel like you got a glimpse into JFK “the person”, which is something no other Kennedy book I’ve read has done.

I liked this biography of JFK. It was very readable and took care to give you the historic background to the many 20th century events that shaped his life and presidency. It didn't ignore the salacious details of his life but didn't dwell on them either. It gave you a better picture of his often precarious health then one would ever imagine looking at him. In the end, I was sad that it appeared that he and Jackie did not have a mature, loving marriage. And that he was killed just when he seemed to be growing into the presidency.