|
Loading... A Disturbance of Fate (edition 2003)27 | 1 | 871,738 |
(2.5) | None | What if... Robert F. Kennedy had not been assassinated in June 1968? In the novel, the time in which RFK survives beyond 1968 is not a perfect journey leading to utopia. While many events occur that are both expected and welcome in trying to create a just and caring world, there are also surprises, ironies and dangerous developments along the way. The novel's ending is guaranteed to leave you thinking about the fluidity of history and the dictum "... for the want of a nail a kingdom was lost..."-though whose kingdom is lost and whose is gained is perhaps the most intriguing question.… (more) |
▾LibraryThing Recommendations ▾Will you like it?
Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. ▾Conversations (About links) No current Talk conversations about this book. ▾Series and work relationships
|
Canonical title |
|
Original title |
|
Alternative titles |
|
Original publication date |
|
People/Characters |
|
Important places |
|
Important events |
|
Related movies |
|
Epigraph |
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy, and daring those ripples, builds a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. -Robert F. Kennedy, Address to the University of Cape Town, South Africa, June 6, 1966, two years to the day before his death from an assassin's bullet | |
|
Dedication |
To Phil Ochs and Michael Harrington, who believed in the Kennedys, and to my father, who still believes | |
|
First words |
On March 16, 1968, just two days after announcing his candidacy for president, United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy delivered a speech that is sometimes called "The Measure of a Nation." It is a speech that no mainstream politician would date delivery today. -Introduction, Robert F. Kennedy and Alternative History Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, armed with his .22 caliber Iver Johnson gun, spent most of Tuesday, June 4, 1968, practicing his shot at a gun club shooting range in the dusty town of Duarte, California. -Chapter One, A Homicide at the Ambassador Hotel | |
|
Quotations |
|
Last words |
|
Disambiguation notice |
|
Publisher's editors |
|
Blurbers |
|
Original language |
|
Canonical DDC/MDS |
|
Canonical LCC |
|
▾References References to this work on external resources. Wikipedia in EnglishNone ▾Book descriptions What if... Robert F. Kennedy had not been assassinated in June 1968? In the novel, the time in which RFK survives beyond 1968 is not a perfect journey leading to utopia. While many events occur that are both expected and welcome in trying to create a just and caring world, there are also surprises, ironies and dangerous developments along the way. The novel's ending is guaranteed to leave you thinking about the fluidity of history and the dictum "... for the want of a nail a kingdom was lost..."-though whose kingdom is lost and whose is gained is perhaps the most intriguing question. ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description
|
Current DiscussionsNoneGoogle Books — Loading...
|
Yet in spite of the obvious thought and creativity that underlays this book, I found it to be a frustrating read. Part of it is in the policies he envisions Kennedy pursuing, all of which are borne out of the 30-plus years of hindsight that Freedman has the luxury of employing; rarely do Kennedy and his people take a wrong step or embrace a bad idea. This allows Freedman to create a liberal’s fantasy of how the last third of the 20th century could have unfolded, all of which strains credulity as the novel wears on.
Even more annoying, though, is Freedman’s voice as an author. Throughout the book it seems that he can’t decide if he is writing a novel of alternative history, an alternate-history textbook, or a paper speculating how history might have developed differently. Digressions explaining how events developed in “our timeline” or “RFK’s timeline” jar when they interrupt the more clearly novelistic sections of the text. Freedman also cannot even settle on the voices of his characters, as he attempts to replicate the regional accents of Lyndon Johnson, Richard Daley and other figures while ignoring Kennedy’s pronounced Boston Irish accent.
These flaws detract from the overall enjoyment of the book. While Freedman has clearly invested a lot of time and thought into constructing his alternate America, his writing fails to measure up to the task of turning it into an engaging read. Readers who fantasize about how much better America would have been under an RFK presidency will find much to comfort them in its pages, but anyone seeking a good read would do better to turn elsewhere. ( )