I, JFK - Softcover

In this satirical debunking of the so-called Camelot presidency, John F. Kennedy, whose purported beyond-the-grave reminiscences are the substance of the text, emerges as a cynical, sex-obsessed egomaniac who took the American people for a ride. JFK says things like, "The simple fact is, I was telegenic," while his brother Bobby defends Joseph McCarthy's complexity of character, and Lyndon Johnson, commenting on the 1960 election, tells JFK: "You used me, and tossed me aside like a whore." Some of this is genuinely witty, as when JFK, about to meet Khrushchev, cracks: "It was like stepping into the pages of Orwell, for a chat with the head pig." But for the most part, Mayer ( Superfolks ; The Dreams of Ada ) recycles gossip and advances his own semi-surreal versions of events such as Marilyn Monroe's murder and JFK's assassination in a racy, sometimes amusing but highly forgettable fantasy. Joseph Kennedy, Lindbergh, Aristotle Onassis and "Jackie Zero," Martin Luther King, Hoover, Hoffa and assorted mobsters make appearances.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The author of Superfolks (LJ 3/15/77) has written a wildly inventive, outrageous, even blasphemous confession, supposedly created in the hereafter by John F. Kennedy. It is 25 years after JFK's death and almost time for him to move to the next tier, so he decides to write his memoirs or confession and set the record straight. In his present state he is surrounded by Bobby Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and Adlai Stevenson. Marilyn Monroe has already moved on; and Jimmy Hoffa, father Joe, and J. Edgar Hoover are in hell. JFK's versions of Marilyn's and his own death are probably no more ridiculous than what actually did happen. The author's impudence is mostly irresistible, but there are some farcical lapses that don't quite make it on the printed page--although they might on film. This could become very popular, and most readers won't be disappointed.
- Robert H. Donahugh, Youngstown and Mahoning Cty . P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.