The Man Who Knew Kennedy

Description for THE MAN WHO KNEW KENNEDY by Vance Bourjaily:

This beautiful and important new novel begins on the day President Kennedy is murdered---and ends one half year later. In the intervening time, we participate in the lives of a group of people of the President's own generation---specifically, Barney James, the head of a small manufacturing concern in Connecticut; his restless wife, Helen; his good friend, Dave Doremus, a man with the talents and ambitions for a career in politics; and Doremus' wife, Connie. They are a moderately wealthy set (but the wealth is worked for); independent of mind; fond of sailing, baseball, and popular songs; sexually enlightened or sexually confused (depending on your own point of view); and with a sense of values made self-conscious by the three major experiences of which they, as a generation, have borne the brunt---the Depression, World War II, and the assassination of the President. It is this last awesome event---the death of John Kennedy---which initiates the cation of the novel, creating a subtle sequence of reverberating crises in the life of Barney James and his wife and of Dave Doremus and his wife, all culminating in the brilliant climax of the book---a charted ocean sail that the two couples take together.