As America reels with racial injustice, war, and political upheaval, the story alternates between snapshots of the two figures\u2019 personal and political struggles. Kennedy\u2014aka RFK, or, as some call his politically ruthless incarnation, \u201cBad Bobby\u201d\u2014is profoundly transformed by his brother John F. Kennedy\u2019s assassination. He publicly pushes for civil rights reforms while also secretly investigating conspiracy theories about JFK\u2019s death\u200b. RFK\u2019s political aspirations overlap with the struggle for racial justice and lead to a tense but working relationship with King, who often finds Kennedy\u2019s efforts on race insufficient. Meanwhile, King struggles to bear the burden of leading the civil rights movement. Threats loom on all sides, from violent white supremacists to conflicts among activists. Increasingly exhausted, King\u2019s prophetic instincts foreshadow his own tragic killing. Kennedy\u2019s presidential campaign makes groundbreaking efforts to connect with Black voters, even agreeing to a politically risky meeting with the Black Panthers\u200b. The novel culminates in his June assassination. Carpenter uses colloquial language and rich inner monologues to paint a detailed picture of two men with a shared vision of justice. Their struggles are effectively shown to be both personal and political: Kennedy yearns to move beyond his privileged detachment, and King finds the responsibility of being America\u2019s moral conscience to be enormously heavy. The moral thrust of the novel takes a page from King\u2019s \u201cLetter from Birmingham Jail\u200b\u201d in its assertion that white moderates slowed progress on civil rights. Yet, despite the novel\u2019s successful depiction of the era\u2019s tense, sweat-drenched atmosphere of violence and political maneuvering, the novel may leave readers wondering whether it adds insight or merely revisits already well-documented events, especially as much of this historical ground was already covered in David Margolick\u2019s 2018 nonfiction book The Promise and the Dream and elsewhere.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As America reels with racial injustice, war, and political upheaval, the story alternates between snapshots of the two figures\u2019 personal and political struggles. Kennedy\u2014aka RFK, or, as some call his politically ruthless incarnation, \u201cBad Bobby\u201d\u2014is profoundly transformed by his brother John F. Kennedy\u2019s assassination. He publicly pushes for civil rights reforms while also secretly investigating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}