Un adúltero americano
Jed Mercurio
Publicado: 2009 | 334 páginas
Ciencias sociales

Esta novela disecciona desde la primera línea las estrategias, los objetivos y la psicología de un mujeriego compulsivo. Y no estamos hablando de un hombre común y corriente. El sujeto de esta novela de escasa ficción y espléndidos hallazgos es John Fitzgerald Kennedy, uno de los más atractivos, míticos y mitologizados presidentes de los Estados Unidos. Jed Mercurio –que además de escritor es médico– se inspira en la escabrosa vida sexual de Kennedy, y también en su complicado historial clínico, y la principal e inteligente premisa de esta provocativa novela es que el deseo que impulsaba al presidente de cama en cama y sus enfermedades eran el fundamento de su personalidad política. Una novela de un humor y un ingenio a veces bastante negro, Un adúltero americano es el intenso, divertido, perturbador retrato de un estadista y de una época, y Mercurio presenta a JFK como un hombre de los tiempos que le tocó vivir, a la vez fuerte y frágil, con oscuros impulsos y deseos privados, y a la vez de gran talento y visión política.

Purchased recently on the Barnes and Noble 75% off sale table, it took a long time to finish this book and I think the reason is that the style was convoluted and confusing.

There were too many vividly written pages of JFK's manifest sexual indiscretions.

Peppered throughout with his very serious medical conditions, it is amazing that JFK could function in the way in which he did. Finding "Dr. Feelgood" and his pills and injections enabled a very drugged and ill man to live another day.

While he was a loving father and husband, his libido simply could not be controlled to one or two or three or four or five or one hundred women.

To say he was flawed was an understatement. But, to paint his entire life and presidency in negative shades, would not be realistic. And, the author does a credible job of showing a leader who, when confronted with the possibility of war, always turned the tide toward peace.

He was haunted by the disaster of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban crisis. When confronted by the thug of Russia, Premier Khrushchev, and his bombastic personality of threats, lengthy tirades and bullying, time and time again Kennedy stood firm but did not embrace war.

Very wary of involvement in South East Asia, Kennedy knew that it would be wrong to become enmeshed in this embattled nation.

When the Berlin wall was built, Kennedy was at his finest in stating that while Democracy may have problems, we do not have to build a wall to keep our people inside.

His courage in taking a stand against the travesty of the treatment of blacks in America cost him admiration. He was sickened by images of police clubbing and physically harming innocent people. He was viscerally upset by the emotional degradation of people who deserved better, especially because they risked their lives in a war to defend our nation.

I give this book two stars. It was worth the read, but it appeared as though the author didn't know if this should be a pornographic novel or a love poem for a flawed hero for whom many accolades and songs have been sung. ( )

Highly entertaining but only if you have some deeper understanding of who JFK was beyond an adulterer. The surprising thing about this book is how well Mercurio captures Kennedy's toughness in the face of miltary advisors hell bent on war with the Soviet Union, his courage on civil rights, and his gentleness with his chlldren and fragile wife (yes, depsite and perhaps due to his adultery.) ( )

This could have been so much better than it was. And it should have been named "American Sick Guy" -- there was more about JFK's health than his dalliances. I couldn't get past the reference to JFK as "the subject," it was awkward and disruptive whenever it came up, because the rest of the story wasn't a medical or psychological report, it was a story. I assume that making this a novel, rather than non-fiction, was so the author could make up all the inner talk we got - the justifications and motivations for the string of sexual encounters that is documented in the book. But it never seemed clear what this book was trying to be: a history of JFK's years as president, or a novel about a character that the author could manipulate as he desired? Overall, I found it largely distasteful and manipulative.

The reason I gave it two stars instead of one was because there were times that what it could have been shown through. For instance, the description of the Cuban Missile Crisis highlighted in a very real (and scary) way JFK's differences with the military and the "military-industrial complex" and showed the internal pressures that favored aggressive, hawkish responses. We see the gifts of JFK in his desire for peace and disarmament, and in his work to promote civil rights and social justice within America. I would have liked to see more of this, and less repetitive accounting of medical procedures and symptoms. ( )

My mother couldn’t get past the first chapters of this book- she wasn’t ready/willing/able to see President John F. Kennedy in this harsh light.

Despite being from Massachusetts, surely the epicenter of Kennedy lovers and apologists, I am still a generation removed from those that elected him and mourned him not long after. This perhaps made me more open to reading about the hundreds (thousands?) of liaisons, betrayals and lies. I think the author appreciated the great and almost protective love that people have for this man, and maybe that’s why he treated JFK as a “subject” and often spoke clinically. Otherwise, it could have been seen as too exploitive or as just another sensational biography.

I think we learn a lot about this man who has become almost a mythical hero. Like so many heroes of the past, he had flaws and weaknesses, but on top of this he had medical problems that were so severe, I’m not sure how he got out of bed, let alone ruled the free world. Despite the author’s detached language and removed attitude, we see that underneath the glamour, the tan and the women and the power, President Kennedy loved his wife, his family and his country. ( )