True CompassA Memoir

The late Sen. Kennedy commits his vastly lived life to paper in an honest and painfully self-aware memoir
It would be easy, for a Kennedy, to let the legend speak for itself — to let the glamour of a royally privileged upbringing, the repeated drama of family tragedies, the halo of political achievement and righteousness tell your story. But the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy decided to commit his vastly lived life to paper, racing against a prognosis of terminal cancer. What results is an honest and at times painfully self-aware account of the youngest boy in a family of nine children, growing up in the shadow of his more successful brothers Jack and Bobby, learning the hard way that though his name helped open doors, he was also saddled with a less than stellar academic record, a less than storied athletic ability, and the public perception that he never worked a day in his life.

In some senses True Compass, which uses Kennedy's beloved hobby of seafaring as a recurring metaphor — feels like a short book, as it is difficult to deeply explore all that he experienced. Yet the key events are here, including his darkest tribulations — a Harvard cheating disgrace, the death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick, divorce, a family sexual scandal in Palm Beach, a failed presidential bid. The assassinations of Jack and Bobby, though devastating, only cemented his will to continue on in a distinguished career in the United States Senate, fighting for healthcare, education and peace in Northern Ireland. The legend as Kennedy wrote it has already taken on new historic proportions: Kennedy's successful endorsement of President Obama, leading to the inevitable passage of healthcare reform, casts a glow over the man, who, for all his flaws and wrong turns, found some final redemption.