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Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History |
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Editorial
Review:
In this gripping memoir, John F. Kennedy's closest advisor recounts in full for the first time his experience counseling Kennedy through the most dramatic moments in American history. Sorensen returns to January 1953, when he and the freshman senator from Massachusetts began their extraordinary professional and personal relationship. Rising from legislative assistant to speechwriter and advisor, the young lawyer from Nebraska worked closely with JFK on his most important speeches, as well as his book Profiles in Courage. Sorensen encouraged the junior senator's political ambitions--from a failed bid for the vice presidential nomination in 1956 to the successful presidential campaign in 1960, after which he was named Special Counsel to the President. Sorensen describes in thrilling detail his experience advising JFK during some of the most crucial days of his presidency, from the decision to go to the moon to the Cuban Missile Crisis, when JFK requested that the thirty-four-year-old Sorensen draft the key letter to Khrushchev at the most critical point of the world's first nuclear confrontation. After Kennedy was assassinated, Sorensen stayed with President Johnson for a few months before leaving to write a biography of JFK. In 1968 he returned to Washington to help run Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign. Through it all, Sorensen never lost sight of the ideals that brought him to Washington and to the White House, working tirelessly to promote and defend free, peaceful societies. Illuminating, revelatory, and utterly compelling, Counselor is the brilliant, long-awaited memoir from the remarkable man who shaped the presidency and the legacy of one of the greatest leaders America has ever known.
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Avg. Customer Rating:
4.0 / 5.0 
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Customer Reviews:
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Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0
/ 5.0
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A Great Read. Buy it.
A thoroughly enjoyable read if you are interested in the JFK era. Sorensen loved (in the most genuinely platonic sense) his hero Kennedy. While some of his praise for the assassinated President borders on cloying, the overall book is an excellent read. As a keynote speaker, (I reference the Kennedy brand in a jaundiced manner in Why Ireland Never Invaded America) I have a deep and abiding fascination for great wordsmiths and by any standards President Kennedy's Counselor is a great speech writer.
The... more info
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Preliminary Review
I am currently reading the book, which I found to be enjoyable and mesmerizing from the first word. The author's use of the English language is superb and I enjoy the beauty of his prose as much as I enjoy his content.
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A very good book
I had a hard time getting used to Sorensen's life being discussed by theme (how he joined Senator Kennedy, his evolving role on the staff, speechwriting, the issue of religion, etc) rather than chronologically. I couldn't help but think that this made his recollections seem a bit shallow, since we are deprived from the moment-to-moment aspect of presidential decision-making and have to rely instead on what are just recollections decades earlier.
But the book provides a fascinating account of the... more info
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A fascinating, boring read
The 50's and 60's certainly were fascinating times in American politics, and I can't seem to put books like this down. There is no question that it delivers insight into this era (and of course later years)from a unique point of view. However, it is very difficult to digest the heavy doses of egotism mingled with the "I'm just a lucky everyman from Nebraska" stuff. If you can get past that, the parts about the JFK years are interesting. The rest is mostly intolerable.
Part 1 of the book, dealing with... more info
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