Up Close: Robert F. Kennedy (review)

"So who was Bobby? Pale shadow of his brother? Ambitious conniver? Crusader for the poor and unfortunate? Martyr?" In attempting to capture the personality that garnered such diverse public opinions, Aronson knows he must also grapple with the Kennedy family, and to probe the Kennedy family is to enter a labyrinth of patriarchal domination, vicious sibling rivalry, shady financial deals, probable underworld connections, dirty personal secrets, and almost paradoxically, a fierce dedication to public service. With his customary attention to historiography, Aronson critiques the sources from which he draws his account, and it's therefore little surprise that the "insightful psychological portrait" of Kennedy by author Evan Thomas seems to have influenced his own largely psychological approach to this biography. While he occasionally fills in the historical background with a very broad brush ("As [Senator Joseph] McCarthy understood, people voted with their emotions, rather than their minds"), he paints a compellingly detailed portrait of an overlooked son who settled into (or perhaps just settled for) the role of political manager and enabler for elder brother Jack, and who only stepped into a race for Democratic presidential nomination with reluctance and insecurity. Writing is lively and intimate, all quotations are cited, and a bibliography with annotated websites is included; an index and black-and-white pictures will be included in the final copy.