Saturday, December 29, 2012

Killing Kennedy - The End of Camelot

Hello.  My name is Sharon.  I am a published author of nonfiction and a wannabee author of published fiction.  I am currently writing in the romance genre.  Now I see some of you turning up your noses at that.  But think of it this way - there's nothing wrong with a bit of love.  The world would be a much better place if we all made love not war.

Okay.  I just dated me in the span of time.  Yep, I'm an aging Hippie.  There's not a thing wrong with that.  My aging hands are still perfectly capable of making a respectable peace sign - among other gestures when appropriate.

This blog will be devoted to pop culture - films, tv, music, and books (e or otherwise.)

My first post is devoted to the book Killing Kennedy - The End of Camelot written by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard.

This book is the number one best selling nonfiction title on the New York Times Bestseller List and has been for a few months.

I lived in the Dallas area on November 22, 1963.  I was in what we knew as junior high school - which many of you will know as middle school. The events of that day are still fresh in my consciousness and they still hurt.  It is a terrible feeling when the President is assassinated in your home town.  I hope none of you ever experience such trauma.

Mr. O'Reilly and Mr. Dugard have produced a well written book that reads like a novel instead of a true crime story or dry historical tome.  The characters of JFK, his wife Jackie, his brother Bobby, and his assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, all come alive as never before.  Honestly, I'm not sure about Oswald and his role in the assassination, but that's a mystery that may never be solved.

It was an enjoyable read which had my attention throughout.  They brought that time period back in vivid detail.  I could almost smell the cigarette smoke in that parking garage where Ruby shot Oswald.  I could see the gurney taking the President's body through the lower halls of Parkland Hospital.

The authors captured the time correctly.  It was a time of such hope for the future.  We had a vital young leader who had brought us back from the brink of nuclear war.  There were small children in the White House.  Their parents were icons of style and grace.  The Kennedys appeared to be the perfect family to lead us into an enlightened future.

The dream was obliterated on a bright November day in Dallas, like Camelot, never to come again.

Bravo Mr. O'Reilly and Mr. Dugard on a job well done.