Interview

Laurence Leamer answers questions about his books on the Kennedy family, discusses some of the surprising facts that he uncovered, and talks about the literature that has most influenced his own writing.

This is your second book chronicling the Kennedy family, the first being the bestselling The Kennedy Women. What do you think it is that draws you, and for that matter, the entire country, to the story of the Kennedy family?
I don't think what draws me to this subject is much different than what draws most people. It's one of the most dramatic, emotionally powerful stories in American life. It's a story of a great family at a time when we struggle over the meaning of family. It's not mere happenstance that The Godfather saga arrived at the same time as an immense, renewed fascination with the story of the Kennedys. Beyond that, I like to write books that I would read, and I would read The Kennedy Men. I want to learn something from a book, and I want to write a book that people will feel has taught them valuable things.

In all of your extensive research on the Kennedy family, were there any particular facts that you discovered that came as a complete surprise?
There are so many things, but there is one overwhelming fact when you look at the same themes going on generation after generation: marry carefully, very carefully. Blood matters immensely. For instance, when Robert Kennedy married Ethel ...