UP CLOSE: ROBERT F. KENNEDY
By Marc Aronson
Viking, 2007
Category: Young Adult Biography
I am a student at heart, one of those people who would go to school forever if I could manage it. But since I have only recently finished paying for my existing degrees, and because my three kids will be college-age in a blink, I make do by learning from the people I meet and the books I read. Marc Aronson is my latest teacher.
Marc keeps a blog, Nonfiction Matters, at the School Library Journal website. The issues he raises there are important … and his thoughts (and those of his readers) are always insightful. I learn much, and am inspired to think.
Marc has also written this magnificent biography of Robert F. Kennedy, and reading it was a lesson in craft. I was taken by Marc’s passion for his subject—it was palpable—and I couldn’t help but wonder at the massive responsibility a biographer assumes. Telling the story of a life is one thing, but getting to know a person well enough to explain their lives … that strikes me as another thing altogether. I can’t remember another biography that has given me such a strong sense of the author’s commitment to this task.
Great book. Great blog. I recommend both to all students of nonfiction.