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marieshan4321 's review for:
Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World
by Eileen McNamara
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
“Dear Daddy, I know you are very busy,” she wrote to her father at Hyannis Port, probably in the late fifties. “I also know you are advising everyone else in the house on their careers, so why not me?”
Always on the sidelines supporting her three infamous brothers throughout their political careers, this book tells Eunice Kennedy's story, from her childhood at Cape Cod to her passionate advocacy and lobbying for the rights of the intellectually disabled and her establishment of the Special Olympics.
Eileen Macnamara has touched on a lot here–from Eunice's early career working with delinquent youth and female prisoners, her chronic illnesses, her work on her brothers' various political campaigns, her family life and her later years and dealings with recent presidents such as Bush, Clinton and Obama.
The story also gets a personal touch with the inclusion of quotes from interviews with Eunice's five children, Mark, Anthony, Timothy, Bobby and Maria Shriver, as well as her sister in law Ethel Kennedy.
Included at the end of my review is a quote from Eunice herself from a speech at the JFK library;
“In a strange way, perhaps, my life also includes being lucky in the adversity I encountered. I am lucky that I experienced the sting of rejection as a woman who was told that the real power was not for me. I am lucky that I saw my mother and my sister Rosemary treated with the most unbearable rejection. I am lucky that I have had to confront political and social injustice all over the world throughout my career. You might say, ‘Why are you lucky to have had such difficult experiences?’ The answer is quite simple: the combination of the love of my family and the awful sting of rejection helped me develop the confidence I needed to believe that I could make a difference in a positive direction. It’s really that simple: love gave me confidence, and adversity gave me purpose.”