5 comments about It's Not the End of the Earth, but You Can See It from Here.

1. I read this book when it was first published and always wanted to get a copy. I've read it again and it still makes me laugh. The homespun characters make me want to live in Centralia (at least for a while). The stories concerning the Indians get a little preachy but are only slightly annoying. For someone that wants to relax with a little light reading, this is well worth your time.



2. A classic, especially if you grew up in a little town in the Midwest. I keep re-ordering this book because I have to keep replacing it because I keep giving it away to everyone I meet that I know will love it. Unless you grew up in the big city, you know the people Roger Welsch writes about in this book, only you never realized how funny - or how endearing - they were. Or maybe you did, but you just didn't know how to tell other people about it. Roger does.



3. Writing from a narrative center somewhere between Mark Twain and Garrison Keillor, author Roger Welsch memorializes the town and inhabitants of Centralia (aka Dannebrog, pop. 356), Nebraska, in what he calls "Bleaker County." Centralia itself is either the center of this windswept prairie state or the center of the universe, depending on who you ask in this small town. It's located not far north of the Platte River and its farmlands, and not far south of the Sandhills, with its population of cattle and cowboys. Life in Centralia gravitates toward the Town Tavern, where many of these story-essays take place, and we meet Welsch's fictionalized friends and neighbors: Lunchbox, Goose, Slick, Woodrow, and Cece -- the regulars. There are also his wife Lily, daughter Jenny, an Indian friend Cal, a kind-hearted bachelor uncle named Grover Bass, a film crew from public television in Lincoln, a mean cuss named Royal Cupp, a rip-tearing adventurer, Luke Bigelow, and many others.

   Welsch has an appreciation for the quirky, cock-eyed, and audacious. Like an endlessly curious anthropologist, he's equally fascinated by the everyday and the out-of-the-ordinary. He's a humanist, romanticizing his characters even while he's treating them with tongue-in-cheek irony. He's also willing to show that they can stoop to the unforgivable, or that they do not share his appreciation for people from other ethnic backgrounds. There is a range of tones and sentiments in the book, from comic farce to tenderness and awe. My favorite essay, "Racing Horses at the Centralia Fourth of July," ranges across all three, as his young teenage daughter teams up with a burly cowboy to take second place in a relay race. I laughed and had tears in my eyes by the end.

   I thoroughly enjoyed this book and happily recommend it to anyone with an interest in small town life on the Plains. As a companion volume, I'd suggest the short stories of life in a rural Minnesota community in Kent Meyers' "Light in the Crossing."




4. This is life and this is fun! Beautiful pictures of Great Plain - Small Village life written -so well!- by an expert.



5. In "It's Not the End of the Earth,..", Roger Welsch does an excellent job bringing out the humor of small town life by simply telling stories about his friends in Centralia, NE. He has a witty way of giving value to each of the members of this rural community bringing to light the peculiar habits and expressions that make them all unique, interesting, and memorable. I applaud Prof. Welsch's folkloric expose' of the kinds of everyday things that I used to laugh about with my dad - some of my favorite things.

1 comments about Lincoln's Ladies: The Women in the Life of the Sixteenth President.

1. Now in a newly revised and expanded edition, Lincoln's Ladies is the eyebrow-raising true story of Abraham Lincoln's often troubled life and the women who influenced it. From his treasured first love, who unfortunately perished shortly after they became engaged, to his tumultuous relationship with his wife Mary Todd, who is documented as verbally abusing him (and the domestic help) on countless occassions and even chasing him with a broom, to numerous other women, not all of them romantic relationships, who came to speak with and know Lincoln in various ways, Lincoln's Ladies is a fascinating exploration of a great President's little-known private life. Written by an award-winning journalist, Lincoln's Ladies is a must-read for anyone curious about the nuances of history in general and Licoln's life in particular.

5 comments about Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961-1973.

1. Fine, scholarly biography of the Ph.D.-thesis type. Dallek relies mainly on documentary sources (which he reviewed copiously). The result is somewhat detached.
   
   You get little feel for the lengendary "Johnson treatment" that LBJ used to such great effect. There is, though, much quasi-psychological stuff. Johnson was poorly educated but intellectually brilliant. He was absolutely driven. He was Lincoln-like in his humor, his yarns, his frontier similes. But these gifts were often misdirected. He just had to be first, the best, at everything. He was frighteningly insecure, almost to the point of true paranoia. There are many stories of his abuse of subordinates.
   
   Dallek is a New Deal/Great Society liberal, and this viewpoint pervades. He is mostly enthusiastic about the Great Society and civil rights achievements, but scathing about Johnson's handling of Vietnam. The most revealing part is the recital of how Johnson felt forced to back into the war, and to try to do it almost surreptitiously. Reassuringly, Dallek presents Johnson as simply misguided and ill-advised. There is none of that Oliver Stone crap about being a tool of the military-industrial complex.
   
   Robert Caro's latest volume in his multi-volume opus, "The Master of The Senate", takes Johnson only up to 1960. Dallek's two volumes cover Johnson's whole life. Caro puts in ten years of research for every one that Dallek has put in, and Caro's doggedness is beyond herioc. Dallek is a solid, straightforward writer (unusual for an academic), but he has little of Caro's inspired literary style. Flesh, blood, and sinew pervade Caro's books. Dallek's sounds like a political science seminar.
   
   Read it by all means, if you are interested in Johnson. But wait for Caro's next volume is you want the definitive treatment.



2. I sped through last year reading all three mammoth books in Robert A. Caro's Pulitzer Prize-winning LBJ biography series, and found them an incredibly readable, detailed portrayal of a man who was half megalomaniac, half incredibly gifted politician, a complex American Shakespearean character whose presidency crumbled into self-induced tragedy. Caro hasn't written the final book in his series yet concentrating on LBJ's presidency, so I decided to check out a competing LBJ biography by Dallek focusing on those years. And it's solid history, with great insight into LBJ's character and the disastrous decisions he made in Vietnam that undermined all the powerful social changes he achieved in civil rights and Medicare. Yet "Flawed Giant" is also kind of a slog, which Caro's books weren't. I can't quite put my finger on it, but Dallek lacks the fluid prose, deft research into place and era, and storytelling talent that Caro brought to LBJ - I was able to read hundreds of pages about dry as toast subjects like congressional redistricting and vote tallies and found them compelling reading under Caro. Yet here, I ended up getting bored silly by Dallek's bland recitation of the ups and downs of Vietnam, which you think would be interesting stuff. Dallek is a bit more even-handed in his appreciation of LBJ than Caro, but it just all felt a little too much like work. Guess it goes to show that it's as much in the storyteller as it is in the story. I'll be eagerly awaiting Caro's take on this same era, whenever it comes out.



3. Robert Dallek completes his two volume biography of Lyndon B. Johnson with "Flawed Giant". Its a well written book that tells the story of a brilliant politician who is overwhelmed and outmatched by events he failed to anticipate.
   
   The book begins with Johnson in the unhappy position of serving as Vice President under John F. Kennedy. A most difficult place for a man of Johnson's ego and stature to find himself. Nevertheless, Johnson struggles and does the best he can with this job obtaining recognition in his efforts to further U.S. diplomacy abroad and advance the space program.
   
   On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy is assassinated and Johnson becomes President. No one could ever accuse Johnson of not seizing the moment and this he does masterfully. Within a year, he obtains passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and a number of domestic initiatives aimed at reducing poverty and improving quality of life for Americans that become known as the "Great Society". Johnson's accomplishments as President all took place during the first two years of his presidency. Some of those accomplishments include the Head Start Program for disadvantaged children, a federal student loan program for college students, the Job Corps program for kids who dropped out of school, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which enfranchised millions of blacks, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Medicare.
   
   Johnson proves his skill as a politician by defeating opponent Barry Goldwater with almost 62% of the vote in the 1964 election. Unfortunately, these same skills waned as time went on. By the end of 1965, the positive accomplishments of the Johnson Presidency had come to an end. Johnson inherited the Vietnam War from his predecessor, John F. Kennedy. However, he made a series of mistakes after doing so. First, he concluded that America had to hold onto South Vietnam and prevent a "take over" by the North. He never grasped that the conflict was not an attack by the communist world upon the free world, but simply a regional civil war that had gone for decades. Second, he failed to grasp early on that the conflict was not winnable by conventional means, so he committed 500,000 American soldiers. Third, he failed to understand that the American people wouldn't stand idly by for years supporting such a war with no measurable progress being made. Fourth, he failed to consider steps such as simply withdrawing when it did become apparent that the war was unwinnable.
   
   As the Johnson Presidency unfolds, the accomplishments of the Great Society are overwhelmed by the Vietnam War. Johnson finally realizes his mistake at the end of his presidency. He announces he won't run again and initiates peace talks with North Vietnam.
   
   One must look at Johnson carefully and not jump to conclusions. He was a complicated man who did much good during his presidency. Sadly, though, he will most likely be remembered for the Vietnam War which cost America 58,000 lives.



4. Over the last several years I've read more than 30 presidential biographies, usually letting Amazon reader's guide me to the best choice. While I would place Dallek's LBJ Volume 1 in the top five presidential biographies, Volume two is not quite in the same class. Dallek continues to write well, and I think he presents a complex man and a very difficult time in a balanced way. But over half of this biography details the morass of Viet Nam, and it is truly depressing to read as Johnson and his advisers relentlessly lead the country over the cliff.
   
   During the first two years of LBJ's presidency he led the US Congress to pass some of the most significant legislation in our history - Medicare, greatly increased low income housing, legal aid, increased funding for education and student loans, the most important civil rights legislation of the 20th Century, and the Great Society legislation, a muddled effort to end poverty.
   
   Then, slowly and inexorably LBJ took the US deeper and deeper into Viet Nam. Dallek argues that whatever other geo-political factors were involved, LBJ's drive to be a great president and his fear of failing made the Viet Nam catastrophe inevitable. Johnson simply could not admit to being the first president to lose a war, he couldn't cope with the reality of the corruption of Viet Nam's leadership, and he couldn't stand to be honest in telling the American people just how poorly the war was going. Dallek presents a president who was increasingly paranoid of a nonexistent communist menace influencing the anti-war movement and of Bobby Kennedy leading JFK's ghost to steal LBJ's legacy.
   
   Today, there are numerous editorials comparing the war in Iraq to Vietnam (or denying any comparison). I've yet to see an article comparing President Bush to LBJ, and in most ways they are polar opposites. Still, this biography is very timely. There are unmistakable similarities between America's descent into the two wars, Iraq and South Viet Nam's lack of resources to provide leadership to their own people, our leaders' reluctance to level with the US, the isolation each president sought to avoid criticism, and a society that was so polarized by other issues that it is somehow ok to not take an objective look at the facts of the war.



5. Capt. Lance Sijan, USAF Medal of Honor winner, was tortured to death while a captive in a North Vietnam prison. Gerry Coyle, Army PFC, died in Tay Ninh . Bill Fahey, Marine PFC, died in Quang Tri . Leo Matylewicz, an Army Spec 4, had his body literally blown to pieces in Kontum. Dave Rozelle was killed in Quang Tri while a Marine Lance Corporal. Tom Malloy, Army Spec 4, died in Bien Hoa. Mike Turose's body was never recovered for a return home or even a burial when his F-4 was shot down over North Vietnam. Dick Christy was killed over Cambodia when his forward air control aircraft was shot down. Mike Bosiljevac's remains were not recovered until Vietnam opened up to allow forensic search teams years after the war was over - 20 years after he was shot down over North Vietnam. Mike Blassie's remains were placed in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. in 1998 DNA testing identified the remains as Mike. He had been shot down over An Loc.
   Why do I list these men killed in Vietnam as the introduction to this review of Robert Dallek's biography of Lyndon Johnson - "Flawed Giant"? Because Lyndon Johnson as President of the United States from Jack Kennedy's assassination until 1968 might as well have pulled the trigger or pressed the button that sent them to their deaths. Jane Fonda may have posed on the North Vietnamese anti-aircraft weapons but Lyndon Johnson placed those men in harm's way - for no reason other than his fantastic ego. Let me quote Dallek's afterword:
   "Vietnam was a larger mistake. It was the worst foreign policy disaster in the country's history. Aside from the sacrifice of the many brave men and women who lost their lives or suffered because of the conflict, there seems nothing heroic about the struggle. ... Vietnam was a morass. The battlefield clashes and constant discussions in Washington and Saigon about the war were a confusion leading nowhere. ... the planning for Vietnam led to unproductive commitments in what came to seem like an open-ended conflict.
   ...
   "The principal products of administration discussions about the fighting were false hopes, self-generated illusions, and paranoid fears of domestic opponents, who were not the Communist dupes Johnson believed them to be but men and women devoted to the national security and well-being as anyone in the government and military."
   "Johnson knew from the first that he might be pursuing a losing case in Vietnam."
   "Even less flattering to LBJ is the reality that he also pursued the war for selfish motives. To admit failure on so big an issue as Vietnam would have been too jarring to Johnson's self-image as a can-do leader."
   During the 1964 presidential campaign when Johnson ran against Goldwater, one of the Democrat slogans was "If you vote for Goldwater your sons will be in Vietnam." Well, my parents voted for Goldwater and I ended up in Vietnam.
   This book covers the years from 1961 to Johnson's death in 1973. Of course there is more than Vietnam. Johnspn's outstanding record on civil rights is well covered. But, for me, I cannot help but think about being in the Boy Scouts with Mike Turose and wondering what our futures would be after we got out of engineering school. Fortunately for me. I ended up with a future. Thanks to Lyndon Johnson, Mike didn't.

5 comments about Faith and the Presidency: From George Washington to George W. Bush.

1. Even though tomes have been written on the American presidents, Dr. Smith manages to bring fresh insight as a result of painstaking research. ( It could serve as a model for any student looking to document his research) The book is not "light" reading....but the author writes with clarity and with as much impartiality as humanly possible. I found his distinction between the ways that these presidents' faith shaped their policies to be thought-provoking. This book provides a strong framework from which to examine the coming election season.



2. I encourage you to set aside a block of time each day as you loose yourself in the history and faith of each of these men. It is full of interesting faith facts that just a history of these presidents would never touch. I must confess it took me time to read and digest this book, but well worth the time. I look forward to reareading this book in order to grasp new facts that I did not glean from the first read. I would love to see it used in school class rooms everywhere. The research, notes and excellent writing of this work is outstanding!



3. A first-rate work in which eleven presidents are analyzed in terms of their religious beliefs and their actions. Solid framework of analysis. The work brims with new details, broad understandings, and sound and judicious conclusions. Impressive, varied bibliography. The copious notes, alone, are worth a close read. Sparkling writing and sound organization make this a page-turner.



4. If you are looking for fresh information about the role of faith and religion in the lives of some of America's greatest presidents then I highly recommend purchasing Faith and the Presidency.
   The author, Gary Smith has done his homework. His research is very thorough and his style of writing is clear and free of technical jargon.
   I thought the book presented a balanced view of democrat and republican presidents; and the author covers each president's religious affiliation without bias. After reading this book I finally understand why religion is such a hot topic during every presidential election.
   Reading about Abraham Lincoln and how his faith helped him address the crises of the civil war is the best I have read to date.
   Students, teachers of history, religious leaders and those with a love of presidential history need this book to complete their library. A must read for 2007!



5. Gary Scott Smith's Faith and the Presidency is fascinating to read and weighty in substance. Full of personal details drawn from the lives of various presidents as well as important observations about public policy and religious impulses, Smith hits the sweet spot between bold, exciting claims and strong supporting evidence.
   
   I was particularly persuaded by the book's observation that the foreign policy of presidents more readily reveals their philosophical commitments because the U.S. presidency has greater latitude abroad than at home.
   
   This is a book worth reading from cover to cover. Smith hits a home run with this exceptional book. A tour de force!

5 comments about From Selma to Sorrow: The Life and Death of Viola Liuzzo.

1. Only one of the many people who gave their lives for racial justice in the 1960s was a white woman. Several reasons for this become clear in Mary Stanton's moving portrait of the life of Viola Liuzzo.
   
   In an age when conformity was considered a virtue, especially for white women, Viola Liuzzo was not a conformist. A spirited woman who married the first time as a teenager, Liuzzo was at the time of her death attending Wayne State and the mother of five children. Her best friend was African American, when that was considered peculiar. Her husband was a Teamster, but he could not control her. When none of the other students who agreed to accompany Liuzzo to Alabama at Martin Luther King's invitation showed up, she went alone. The March from Selma to Montgomery was hours finished when she and a young black male passenger in her car were shot. He survived, just barely. She did not.
   
   For all Liuzzo's unconventionality, nothing prepared her friends and family for the drubbing her reputation was given by the government. Overnight, she went from a brave, unselfish freedom fighter to a slut who abandoned her children, possibly used drugs and was married to the mob. The information leaked to the press was the invention of the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover had his own reputation to protect, and that of an informant inside the Ku Klux Klan, who contributed to Liuzzo's death.
   
   Stanton, who has since written several portraits of whites caught up in the Movement , shows that it was these slurs on Liuzzo's reputation, rather than her death, that inflicted the deepest wounds on her family. She was killed twice-once by a bullet and again by the ugliest kind of slander.
   
   While Congress debates whether or not the Voting Rights Act should be renewed, this book reminds us that our government of, by and for the people has often colluded with the worst among us to keep down the weakest. It's worth remembering.



2. Like the author I was stunned in 1965 when I heard of the Liuzzo murder and the trial of Collie Leroy Wilkins. The prologue in Stanton's book was engaging and beautifully written. However, after the prologue the book is not as compelling. Ms. Stanton clearly suggests that Rowe was the murderer, but leaves some large questions unanswered. Where is Leroy Moton? If Moton testified that Wilkins was the murderer why dismiss Moton's testimony because of lie detector tests administered to Wilkins? I wonder if Rowe committed the crime myself, but I don't see evidence in the book to support the author's perspective. Even if Rowe did commit the murder, that does not exonerate Wilkins or Murphy. Also, the book seemed unevenly documented. In some cases there were footnotes from newspapers that were either unnecessary or provided insufficient support. In other cases claims were made without any documentation.

   What is good about this book is Ms. Stanton's passion. What it lacks is structure and support for some of the claims contained therein. Still, I am glad I read the book and glad she wrote it.




3. The only thing I remember in 1965 about my childhood in Montgomery, Alabama was that I was six-years-old and there was the terrible murder of a white woman by the Ku Klux Klan. I didn't know her name. All I knew was she was killed for having a black man ride in her car with her. That is all I have known for years. Thanks to Mary Stanton's excellent biography, I now know her name and her story. One night after reading several chapters I could not get to sleep. My thoughts were of Vi and Highway 80 out of Selma. Remembering can be a painful thing but through the sensitivity of Stanton's writing and her personal admiration for Viola Liuzza, I came to love and admire this courageous woman. Sorry that we never met. I appreciate Stanton sharing her struggle to research the story and write it. That was fascinating and very rewarding to be at Stanton's side page after page hoping her contacts and leads would pan out.



4. This book took priority over my agenda, a page turner of the first order. Getting the real story of Viola Liuzzo was on the back burner of my own mind so long I didn't remember it was there until Stanton's book caught my attention at the library. The book is in layers, with the story of getting the story as telling of the 1990s as the unfolding of what was actually happening in Selma and America in the 1960s. The role of women and political correctness 1960s style all over the U.S.A. as well as in Selma rings true. The story of the civil rights movement in the context of the South is absolutely girpping.



5. Like Mary Stanton, I was also curious about Mrs Luizzo, and she stayed in the back of my mind. I am sorry for the loss her family and many other families suffered simply because they wanted to change something that was completely wrong and unjust. I also feel shame on a government who would go so far to make those who were right and decent appear so degrading and immoral and to even allow murder to protect the "status quo" This book is must reading for anyone who really wants to take the blinders off about what really happened during that horrible time. I have recently been given the opportunity to visit parts of Alabama and while the area I visited is very decent, mentally I can still visualize the Alabama of 1965 and understand why it is necessary to leave the Viola Luizzo marker defaced; as the author has stated the struggle isn't over. Thank you Mary Stanton

5 comments about The Greatest Communicator: What Ronald Reagan Taught Me About Politics, Leadership, and Life.

1. This author does a great job of putting us beside him as he interacts with President Reagan. What surprised me most was how different Reagan really was compared to the image the "drive-by media" gave us.
   
   Wirthlin is someone who's name we've heard but this reallly solidifies him as an important insider and confidant to the greatest president in the 20th century.
   
   Well done Mr. Wirthlin!



2. Dick Wirthlin's myriad experience with the Reagan presidency, including a three-decade relationship with the "Greatest Communicator," is eloquently recounted by Wynton Hall, Wirthlin's co-author and an expert in presidential rhetoric. To say that this book is a must read for anyone wanting to know the man behind the politician is an understatement. Read Chapter 7, "Three Goodbyes," for a poignant and uplifting account of Reagan's bravery in his battle with Alzheimer's.



3. Most reviews submitted are friends of the author or work for him. This makes their reviews a bit unfair to the rest of the reading world. However, the book was well written and interesting. I love Reagan and always enjoy reading about him. It's interesting to see from an insider's point of view.



4. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and it really held my attention throughout. It is a personal portrayal of a man that provides unique insight into how his values truly drove his behavior and how his personality and vision built the foundation for successful communications. Dick Wirthlin does a wonderful job of communicating friendship and of creating a very human connection in the reader's mind with President Reagan.



5. This was a fascinating account about the rise to the US presidency, and what drove his policies of one of the greatest world leaders of his century. This book lays out clearly the vision Reagan had when he came to office, and how his policies and actions, fit into that aspirational goal/vision. Younger people may lack the vantage point that those of us who grew from childhood with the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union as a daily and real threat to our existence and life itself. Reagan's leadership and legacy is that he may have perhaps eliminated that threat. Wirthlin's insight and record from his proximity to the decisions and what drove them provides yet another glimpse of the character and leadership principles that guided Ronald Reagon's policies and actions. While we stuggle again today with threats and challenges to our democracy and freedom around the globe, the lesson here is that we should not underestimate the good that can come from a bold vision and dedication to a noble cause even if it may take sacrifice and overcoming significant adversity, and time to achieve it!

5 comments about General Lee: A Biography of Robert E. Lee.

1. from the prospective that it does include personal letters from Lee. The recounting of the campaigns is prefunctory though Fitzhugh does come down heavily on Longstreet and eagerly takes up the cudgel for the Gettysburg-wasn't-Lee's-fault crowd.



2. As a the great-great-great-great grandson of Robert W. Lee and his slave/mistress Ophelia, I thought this book provided a profound insight into the life of the man who led the Army of Northen Virginia to so many improbable victories.



3. I am a student of the civil war, and I've made most of my studies from Actual Memoirs of the event. I figured that I'd rather take the word of the people who were actually there than 3rd person commentary. I've read Grant, Sheridan, J.B. Gordon, E.P. Alexander, and of course, Sam Watkins, Frank Wilkeson, and Berry Benson, to name some of the best. Regrettably, Robert Lee died before he could record his own personal reminiscences. Through my desire to read about him in the same way I'd read about other participants of the war, I found this book-and I figured that Fitzhugh Lee's biography would be as near as I could get to the famed General, for Fitzhugh Lee was not only a Relative of the famed General's, but a General himself in the War of the Rebellion. Half way through the book, I felt thoroughly betrayed. After the first 70 pages, the book becomes the most average of monologues about the movements of troops during the civil war. The only difference between this book and the memoirs of certain other officers engaged in the same battles is the Fitzhugh Starts his recitations with, "General Lee's Order were that...", and has less maps, that usually ease the strain of describing obscure movements.
   I will say, though, that the author does spend at least a quarter of the book On the life of R.E. Lee outside of the civil war- the first 70 pages focusing on his Lineage, his training at West point, and his engagements in Mexico, and the Last 20 on his Presidency at Washington-Lee College. Also, sparsely placed throughout the book, Fitzhugh makes use of General Lee's personal correspondance with his wife and family. I would have appreciated seeing more of that, but people 150 years late to the party can't be choosers. Of the Author's style, it is mostly factual, highly romantic(though nothing like Gordon's memoir), and at times he makes allusions and references that let you know he's highly intelligent. This Book doesn't make any in-depth study of General Lee, and mostly considers his character to be untouchable....



4. ...read and enjoyed this book. Being the recently acknowledged illegitimate child of General Lee, I agree that it is a worthy book.



5. I found this book to be wonderful. I used it in a research report and it was very helpful. It stood out among the other hundreds of Lee biographies

5 comments about Portrait of Johnny: The Life of John Herndon Mercer.

1. Gene Lees captures Johnny Mercer's melancholy in his Portrait of Johnny, and he shows us the control two women had on his life. It's not pretty.
   
   His mother, Lillian, tried to stifle his marriage and control his affections. Herself an emotionally-distant mother, she failed to keep Johnny in Savannah, but did crack down on Mercer's spontaniety and outgoing view toward life.
   
   His wife, Ginger, was almost prevented from marrying him, which would have been a great thing for Johnny. Instead, however, they married and Ginger made Johnny miserable his whole life.
   
   With these two control freaks adding to his depression, Johnny somehow continued to write loving and often lively popular lyrics. In fact. Lees shows he was often the first choice of song writers to write their lyrics.
   
   Mercer's fate was harsh, he drank and had a temper, yet his deep seated love for music and life were not stifled entirely by these two distant and egotistical women.



2. I've always been a fan of Johnny Mercer and this book let me know thhe man behind the songs that he wrote.
   Excellent book



3. PORTRAIT OF JOHNNY: THE LIFE OF JOHN HERNDON MERCER isn't just for already-dedicated fans of the musician, but for any interested in the lasting effects of his songs. Gene Lees is a music historian and songwriter who handles well the sensitive details of Mercer's life and times. From his complicated relationships with a domineering mother and tormenting wife and to his work on show songs which succeeded and some which failed, PORTRAIT OF JOHNNY is packed with reflections by those who knew him best.
   
   Diane C. Donovan, Editor
   California Bookwatch



4. Being an admirer of Mr. Mercer's work, I looked forward to reading this book. I found the bio's author, who was acquainted with the songwriter, to be way too intrusive, opinionated and judgmental. The author heaps abuse on Mercer's wife of many years mostly because of her life post-Johnny and, amazingly enough, because she apparently wasn't a good conversationalist ("I could never find anything to talk about with her" is the refrain that occurs way too often). The other reviews of this book posted here interested me because it hints at something that is completely glossed over in the book - Mercer's sexuality. The closest it gets to the issue is the statement that Judy Garland always got involved with homosexual men, followed a few sentences later with the beginning of Mercer's affair with her. Mercer is obviously tormented and unhappy about something throughout his life - Lees near the end of the book tries to pin it on Ginger, but given the apparent lack of passion in that relationship, that doesn't seem to hold up. If Lees is afraid to say Mercer was closeted, fine - but he shouldn't then blame everything wrong in his life on his wife. Mercer was an incredibly talented man - but I think being the wife of a sexually conflicted man is probably not the happiest position to be in either. There is a lot of good information about Mercer in this book, but the author puts himself in the middle of it much too much.



5. Yesterday, I spoke with about a dozen of my co-workers -- most of them ten or even twenty years younger -- and asked each of them, "Who's Jerome Kern? -- does that name ring a bell with you?" None of my friends recognized the name of the `dean' of great American popular songwriters - the man whose melodies inspired ALL of the other great composers - especially, George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers.
   
   This sad reality confirmed a thought I had, the moment I picked up this book, and wondered, to myself, Is there really any market for a book about Johnny Mercer? -- a songwriter who died almost 30 years ago?- How many people today would care to read a biography - however interesting (and this one is simply superb) - that concerns an old songwriter? --- even someone who was, according to his peers, the greatest lyricist of the English language?
   
   Here's a simple test: If the following song titles mean something to you - then I can guarantee you will LOVE this book: "Skylark," "Autumn Leaves," "The Summer Wind," "One For My Baby," "Something's Gotta Give," "Laura," "I Remember You," "That Old Black Magic," "Dream (when you're feeling blue) --- all of them, and many others, written by the same man, and celebrated here in "The Life of John Herndon Mercer," written by an old friend and fellow lyricist, Gene Lees.
   
   ----
   
   Mercer's best writing was to the music of the greatest composers of popular song - beginning with Jerome Kern in the early 1930s, ("I'm Old Fashioned") and continuing for 30 years, until the early 60s, when Johnny wrote two, consecutive "Best Song" Oscar winners with Henry Mancini -- "Moon River" and "Days of Wine and Roses."
   
   We're reminded with many a poignant anecdote, that a golden age of great song writing died, years before Johnny Mercer left us, on June 25, 1976 - after lingering in a semi-vegetative state for eight months, following brain cancer surgery.
   
   His widow, Ginger, presented Gene Lees with the only copy of Johnny's unfinished memoir, in the hopes that the author could develop it, into a book. Lees uses portions of Johnny's insightful writings, interjecting trenchant observations of his own -- as if conversing with the spirit of his old friend. Interspersed are conversations Gene had with Johnny, such as one from the late 60s, concerning the quality of contemporary song lyrics. Said Mercer,
   
   "A lot of people who can't write (songs) are trying to write . . . and it's based on (a combination of) Elizabethan structure and hill music . . . like Simon and Garfunkel and Jimmy Webb and Johnny Hartford, and the kids down in Nashville - they take the guitar and try to philosophize to a hillbilly tune with chords that come from 'way, 'way (long) ago . . . I think Webb is a superior writer, I didn't mean to classify him with the others, and Burt Bacharach is trying very hard to be different --- too hard (I'd say) but he is gifted."
   
   Then, musing about the songs that were popular in America almost a century ago, Mercer (born in 1909) wrote, "I used to listen with awe and wonder to every kind of music I could get my hands on. Gypsy airs on the accordion or zither, harmonica blues, gems from Broadway, the yodels of Jimmy Rodgers, cowboy songs from the prairies, all reached my ears and touched my heart.
   
   When I remember talking to the old timers as a child, I know that the well of our folk music goes deeper than I or even my grandfather knew. The traditional songs were brought over here in the holds of the immigrant boats and the slave traders, those that reached us via the islands, are only a drop in the bucket, so vast and deep is the reservoir that we have kept hidden in our heart.
   
   After a man spent all day ploughing a field, or herding cattle, laboring on the docks or in the mills, poling the canals and picking cotton, he had no movies or phonograph to lighten his burden . . . but he had his family, his jug and his banjo or mouth organ or concertina, and he could sing the old songs to escape and remind himself of happier times and wonderful far-off places. . . These were times when Mama and Pa and Grandpa and Uncle Silas forgot their troubles, forgot to be stern, and were as human as the kids."
   
   This is a passage, according to Lees, "that could never have been written by Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Dorothy Fields or . . . any of the other major lyricists Johnny respected. It reveals a deep identification with the American people, the so-called common folk. Of all the sophisticated, literate lyricists, only John Mercer had this quality.
   
   On the very next page, Lees chides his old friend for expressing the hope, in his memoir, that it's never too late for there to be another generation of good, if not great, song writers. As if in conversation, Lees writes tellingly,
   
   "Oh John, you've fallen into the trap of optimism. Since you died, popular music has only deteriorated further. In the age of Elvis popular music dispensed with interesting and beautiful harmony. In the age of rap, it dispensed even with melody, beautiful or otherwise . . . . and radio (which made the career of Johnny Mercer) evolved in such a way that it is impossible to find anything by Jerome Kern on the air, and jazz has disappeared from commercial radio broadcasting. In 2002, National Public Radio cancelled its jazz shows. John, you may not have liked "Hair" the musical, or the Beatles . . . but compared with what is going on now, the songs of both seem like towers of taste and intelligence.
   
   "Occasionally Shirley Horn or Natalie Cole will have a successful album of the great standards, and Diana Krall became a star singing them. But there is NO circumstance to generate the creation of (great) new songs in your tradition."
   
   ----
   
   Near the end of this splendid biography, Lees quotes Mercer in a prophetic observation about his own legacy, in answer to a question posed by a BBC interviewer,
   
   "I think some of my songs may be noticed, as individual pieces, but I think Gilbert (& Sullivan, and Lorenz) Hart, possibly (Ira) Gershwin - because of his brother, but mostly because of his wit, his sly sense of humor, and (Irving) Berlin and (Cole) Porter, going right on up into (Alan Jay) Lerner and (Frank) Loesser, will be studied . . . and collected . . . and forgotten."
   
   After including the names of "a few more" Johnny forgot to mention - Dorothy Fields, Oscar Hammerstein and the Bergmans, Marilyn and Alan, among others, the author recapitulates that lyric writing, "at least when it is pursued to its highest level" is the most difficult literary form of all - matching perfect words to great melodies.
   
   The author recalls a stranger asking him (Gene Lees): "Don't you think Johnny was MORE than a lyricist? - that he was a poet?" Lees replied, without hesitation, "No, he was more than a poet - he was a lyricist."

5 comments about The Kennedy Men: Three Generations Of Sex, Scandal And Secrets: Three Generations of Sex, Scandal and Secrets.

1. Your character is your fate. Personality disorders run in families .
   Generation after generation. Theres no cure or medication that works.
   There is no therapy that works . People who repeat the same behavior
   over and over have no insight . People who make excuses for them or
   defend them lack insight as well.



2. At least "Kennedy Men: Three Generations of Sex, Scandal and Secrets" never pretends to be anything but what it is: a collection of tabloid reports and gleeful gossip. The entire book has very little point except: Kennedy men are scum who break the law and treat women like dirt. But those who have ever gotten a dirty little thrill from tabloids will enjoy this easy read.

   It begins with the calculating patriarch Joseph Kennedy, whose many affairs were a source of inspiration to his sons. In this book are the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, the Good Friday rape case, Marilyn Monroe's mysterious death, drugs and alcoholism, divorce and adultery, the Mary Jo Kopechne tragedy, and dozens of other tragedies and mishaps.

   Thankfully Bly doesn't buy into the sentimental goo about a family curse; in this book, it becomes evident that most of the Kennedy tragedies are, if not caused by their own actions, then nothing more than that -- accidents and tragedies. And it becomes quite evident that they did cause a lot of their own problems, such as Chappaquiddick.

   With a title like "Three Generations of Sex, Scandal and Secrets," obviously as many extramarital affairs as possible are going to be gone over again. Joseph Kennedy's affairs start it off, and Bly happily retells JFK's affairs with Monroe, Inga Arvad, Angie Dickinson, Gene Tierney, and Judith Campbell Exner. While Ted Kennedy is usually a side-player in such books, he's roasted without mercy with plenty about his conquests as well -- including one humiliating anecdote where he takes a drunken prostitute to a party, where she wets an antique sofa. The next generation isn't spared as well: While most of them seem relatively okay, David Kennedy's drug addiction and Joe II's car crash and turbulent lifestyle are aired out. The most vivid of the third-generation Kennedy stories is the William Kennedy rape case. And even "John-John" doesn't get off too easily: His more flamboyant and famous girlfriends, like Madonna and Sharon Stone, are presented as well.

   The entire book is written in bite-sized semi-chapters, giving the further impression of tabloid journalism. But the writing style is brisk and pleasant, never getting bogged for too long in any one area unless it's really important. There's a good array of photographs, at least half of which are onetime girlfriends of the various Kennedy men. (Look no further for one of the worst Madonna pictures I've ever seen)

   Usually tabloid books are disguised with dignified covers and titles. But "Three Generations of Sex, Scandal and Secrets" is unashamed of what it is, which makes it a guilty pleasure worth the read.




3. This book is essentially a collection of gossip about the three generations of the Kennedy men, starting with patriarch Joe Kennedy Sr and concluding in the present day (well, 1996). If you enjoy gossipy reads (as I do) then you'll enjoy this book.

   The only problem I had was the sections devoted to John Kennedy were shorter than I would have liked. But there are dozens of bios on JFK out there, and this book wasn't entirely about him.

   Reading this book, it seems like Teddy & the third generation's recklessness with drugs and women are what ended Joe Kennedy, Sr's dream of a family legacy.




4. "Thank God for the Kennedys. Without them, a lot of bad writers would be waiting tables." I heard this line on a recent rerun of Law & Order and it immediately made me think about Nellie Bly's The Kennedy Men, one of the more superflous books claiming to give us the dirt on America's prodigal sons. Basically, what Bly has done is compiled a collection of facts culled from other, better Kennedy books and recorded them in the breathless prose of a tabloid reporter. There's nothing new within this book and, despite Bly's claims to the contrary, no valuable or new insight to be gained from what is basically a list of other people's dirty laundry.



5. Nellie Bly details the peccadilloes of the Kennedy men from the 1900's to the 1990's. We get the lowdown on Gloria Swanson, Marilyn Monroe, Judith Campbell, Chappaquiddick, Joe II's jeep accident that left a young woman paralyzed, the drug use and the arrests of the third generation men, and so on. Joe Kennedy Sr. told his sons "If there's a piece of cake on your plate, take it". You have to admire the women that stuck it out with these guys. A good read for those interested in the Kennedys.

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