From Publishers Weekly
Graham moves her focus from the U.K. royals she portrayed in
Gone with the Windsors to America's royal family in this imaginative fictionalization of the Kennedy clan's evolution between the world wars. The story is told from the perspective of Nora Brennan, an Irish immigrant nanny who watched over the Kennedy kids beginning in 1917. Though Nora adores each child, she grows especially fond of Rosie Kennedy, whose learning disability makes her the runt of the overachieving litter. Throughout her years of service, Nora discovers that beneath Mrs. K's prim and proper exterior is a heart as hard as the hob of hell, only outdone by Mr. K's unrelenting pressure on his sons to succeed at any cost. Meanwhile, Graham guides readers through the family scandals, political triumphs and petty squabbles that lead up to WWII, which will change the lives of the Kennedy family and their faithful nursemaid forever. Though it's billed as a bittersweet comedy, the Kennedys are easier to pity than to laugh at, and their lives are marred by tragedies that Nora suggests Joe Kennedy brought on himself. The family gets a very sympathetic if sometimes soft-focused treatment that should find a readership among those who came of age in the era of Camelot.
(Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
British author Graham takes on America’s royal family, as seen through the eyes of Nora Brennan, an Irish immigrant who becomes the Kennedys’ nanny in 1917. Joe is a toddler and Jack is on the way when Nora arrives. By means of her chatty and insightful memoirs, Graham portrays this proud and prolific family until Kathleen Kennedy’s funeral in England in 1948. The reader is privy to the birth of each child, Mr. K’s philandering, Rose Kennedy’s frequent absences, and the lavish gifts she receives for ignoring his dalliances, including cars with drivers and Greenbrier vacations. The competitive Kennedy spirit is instilled almost from birth, even in Rosie, the slow learner finally sent to a Catholic home in Wisconsin. Mr. K’s stint as a Hollywood mogul, his friendship with FDR’s son Jimmy, and his lackluster years as ambassador to England are seen through Nora’s perceptive eyes, always in light of how they affect her brood. Graham blends accurate historical detail with Nora’s outspoken and gossipy vernacular in this highly entertaining read. --Deborah Donovan
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
