JOSEPH P. KENNEDY - THE PATRIARCH : MISTRESS MANIFESTO BOOK REVIEW

The Patriarch - The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw. 

This is a fine work, well researched with permission of the Kennedy Family who allowed sealed documents at the Kennedy Library to be open to the author, and can be read just for the historical content.  Joseph. P. Kennedy was the self made man who fathered U.S. President John F. Kennedy and left his many children millions.  We Americans seem to know a lot about them, and this vast family still has some illustrious members. Of surprise to me (and I've read so many books about the Kennedys and Jackie and Marilyn) is that Joseph P. Kennedy had quite the relationship with Franklin Roosevelt before and after he became President of the United States and was no stranger to visits to the White House, but also that he socialized with William Randolph Hearst and his Mistress Marion Davies.  Author David Nasaw's focus is entirely on Joseph P. Kennedy so the relationships of all other's named, including his wife Rose, are not detailed, and if you've read a lot of books or seem a lot of films around the Kennedy's much of the information you read here may seem repetitive.  However, I'm reviewing this book for MISTRESS MANIFESTO because of the many characters in it that you have read about here (and can easily summon up using the Google Search feature embedded in the side bar to bring up past posts about!)

These include: Joseph P. Kennedy's Mistress Gloria Swanson
William Randolph Hearst and his Mistress Marion Davies
Missy Lehand, said to be the in-Whitehouse Mistress of President Franklin Roosevelt,
Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, daughter of Joseph P. and Rose (who I devoted a month to because she did lots of Mistress time before her second, brief, marriage),
and Clare Boothe Luce, who I owe a month to, I think.
And of course Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, who I think would have made a better Mistress than a Wife.
I came away with an understanding that Joseph P. though frequently not home due to business, and he and Rose seemingly living separate lives though united by their children, wrote loving letters to his children and had not abandoned his fatherhood.