Few men in American politics have had a life so full of promise, privilege and tragedy as Senator Edward Kennedy, brother to the slain President John Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
Last Lion chronicles the life and career of the man who perhaps is the living embodiment of the so-called "Kennedy Curse," a man who rose to power in the Senate as the youngest brother of President Kennedy, only to see JFK slain in 1963, followed by the assassination of RFK in 1968.
With the detail that only a paper like the Boston Globe can provide, Kennedy's life milestones are explored in detail: the plane crash that broke his back and almost killed him in 1964, and the months of hospitalization that followed; the famous Chappaquiddick incident, which forever tarnished his reputation and his claim on the presidency at age 37; the tragedies that besotted his son Teddy and his daughter Kara; his doomed run for the presidency against President Carter in 1980; and the subsequent rape trial of his nephew William Kennedy Smith in 1991. Also most prominent in the book are tales of Kennedy's womanizing and drinking.
But for all his tragedies and setbacks, Kennedy emerged as the family head, attending to his slain brothers' families, speaking at RFK's eulogy, and finally finding his place in the Senate as the Democrats' pre-eminent Senator, fighting for universal health care and causes that his brothers started.
While it is a quick and exciting read, the book seems to be written in haste and in obvious tribute to a man who has just lately hit the headlines again, first, in his endorsement of Barack Obama as presidential candidate, and more importantly, because of his medical condition — Kennedy has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. There is also a lack of fluidity in the writing style, but this can only be attributed to the different writers from the Globe who contributed to the book.
For anyone who wants to get a richly detailed and fact-based account of the youngest Kennedy's life, Last Lion is a definite grab. However, it seems to lack the mythology and famous quotable quotes that so often characterize biographies about his brothers. Perhaps this is intentional: for in this book, Kennedy is only all too human, and perhaps, this is the message.
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