by Kate Storey
First published 2023
Rolling Stone journalist Kate Storey takes readers inside the Kennedy family's private world at their Hyannis Port compound on Cape Cod. For a century, this Massachusetts retreat has served as the backdrop for America's most famous political dynasty. Storey conducted over one hundred interviews with family members, friends, neighbors, household staff, and security personnel to reconstruct the intimate moments that shaped the Kennedys. The book spans from the 1920s when Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy first rented The Malcolm Cottage through today's generation. Storey reveals Rose Kennedy's view of the family's greatest tragedy, explores the competitive dynamic between brothers Jack and Joe, and provides fresh details about Jackie's time at the compound. She also offers previously unknown insights into JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette's relationship. The compound witnessed JFK's presidential acceptance speech, Jackie's interview with Life magazine after the assassination, Ted Kennedy's retreat following Chappaquiddick, and Maria Shriver's wedding to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Through these stories, Storey presents the Kennedy family as both political icons and ordinary people seeking refuge by the sea.
Genres: 20th-century, biography-memoir, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-secrets, ordinary-people
Setting: Hyannis Port, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Period: 1920s, Chappaquiddick
368 pages · Hardcover · Scribner