American Adulterer
From the creator of Bodyguard and Line of Duty
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
A breath-taking, original and compelling novel based on the private life of JFK, from the BAFTA award-winning creator of Bodyguard and Line of Duty and co-creator of the graphic novel Sleeper
'A novel of our times: shameless and prurient, detached and salacious' Observer
John Fitzgerald Kennedy is the 35th President of the United States, and a serial womaniser. An American man for the modern age: Kennedy is handsome, charming, a beaming paragon of worldly virtue. But beneath the slick veneer of a confident statesman he harbours a vice that will threaten his family, his fortune and even his country.
Empathetic, darkly witty and deft, Jed Mercurio's American Adulterer shines a novelist's spotlight on the world's most powerful, and corrupting institution: the American Presidency.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mercurio's third novel is a riveting imagining of the inner life of a satyrlike John F. Kennedy, referred to as "the subject," as he beds a steady stream of starlets, interns and prostitutes. Kennedy's well-known insatiable and sometimes comical philandering is juxtaposed against his often cruel relationship with Jacqueline, his brilliance as a statesman (excerpts from his actual speeches are included) and devotion as a father, offering a unique portrait of a powerful yet stricken and conflicted man. The villains are the methamphetamine-prescribing doctors and the bloodthirsty American generals pushing the world to the brink of Armageddon. JFK's contemporaries are also cast in provocative roles, with the coke-sniffing Marilyn Monroe plotting to be first lady, the mobbed-up Frank Sinatra and Kennedy's Soviet counterpart a peace-seeking Nikita Khrushchev all making memorable appearances. Kennedy has figured prominently in hundreds of books, but Mercurio's take on the subject is fresh, bold and provocative.
