Book Review: American Adulterer

Imagine a rich, handsome and charming young man who possesses a powerful yen for beautiful women. After a decade or so of indulging his yen non-stop, he meets a lovely and equally charming young woman. She's different from the others, and the man, no longer so young but still a player, is fascinated enough by her to propose. They marry, appear to all the world to be a picture-book couple and have two adored children. The story does not end there: old habits die hard, and the man's desire to roam and conquer remains enormously strong. Then he is elected President of the United States.

What happens next to the marriage imperiled by the man's raging libido as he finds his footing as a charismatic leader and neophyte statesman? Historians, tabloid journalists and others have mined the public record to tell the story of John and Jacqueline Kennedy, but Kennedy discretion has kept us in the dark about what went on when these two glamorous and complicated people let their hair down in private. Jed Mercurio steps into that vacuum to offer a fictional meditation on John Fitzgerald Kennedy, his marriage, health problems, peccadilloes, political achievements and missteps. Skeptics and Camelot loyalists may howl at some fictional liberties Mercurio has taken, but aficionados of the New Frontier will rejoice in this bracingly candid page-turner.

Adopting the approach of a clinician, Mercurio lays out a fascinating timeline based on medical records (even at 43, when we he was elected President, Kennedy was not a well man), the long list of clandestine sexual assignations (his roving eye was constantly alert to potential playmates) and world-changing highpoints of his too-short administration (January 20, 1961-November 22, 1963).

Against all odds, Mercurio has also created the series of plausible private moments we have been craving to supplement the parts of the Kennedy story we already know. A scene in which Kennedy discovers the full extent of Jackie's shopping sprees comes to a tense climax with her simple defense: "You know why I spend, Jack." Oh, yes we do by then! At a later point in the novel, Kennedy's doctors assemble to assess his maladies (Addison's disease, among them) only to reach the stark conclusion of, "I think he's dying." With a story this hot, there will always be a prurient appeal (nobody can ignore the dalliances with Marilyn Monroe, Judith Campbell Exner and others); the surprise here is the huge amount of soul Mercurio conveys about Kennedy as an inspiring President and Kennedy as a complex and flawed man.--John McFarland

Shelf Talker: Skeptics may howl with derision, but Mercurio's storytelling and artistry make American Adulterer an engrossing, illuminating and ultimately affecting novel of the Kennedy years.