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PEOPLE & ARTSTuesday 6 October 2015
Patrick Kennedy memoir takes hard look at family, addiction
MICHELLE R. SMITH In a Monday, March 30, 2015 file photo, former Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy speaks at the interview when his father
Associated Press dedication of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, in Boston. famously choked when
PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island asked why he wanted to
(AP) — A new book by for- Associated Press be president. The two went
mer U.S. Rep. Patrick Ken- sailing, and the elder Ken-
nedy, youngest son of the But even stranger was with him only once about recent years about his be- nedy tried to pretend ev-
late Sen. Edward Kennedy, browsing through a book- his 1969 car accident on lief that his father had Post- erything was fine, but kept
openly discusses what he store one day and dis- Chappaquiddick Island Traumatic Stress Disorder shaking his head and mut-
says are the mental illness- covering a shelf of Ken- that killed his father’s pas- after seeing both his broth- tering.
es and addictions of him- nedy books, and realizing senger, Mary Jo Kopech- ers assassinated — then “I had never seen him so
self and his family mem- all the family secrets he ne. It happened one year being forced to relive the upset with himself,” he
bers, and takes on what he wasn’t supposed to talk as the anniversary ap- killings whenever they were writes.
portrays as a veil of secrecy about were written there, proached. replayed on television. Kennedy describes wor-
used to hide the problems he writes. “’I just want you to know But the book contains in- rying that his father was
of America’s most famous “The books were often rid- how bad I feel about ev- teresting windows into how drinking too much, par-
political family. dled with inaccuracies, but erything, and I’m really sor- his father coped. Sen. Ken- ticularly around the time of
The memoir, “A Common also riddled with facts that ry you have to hear about nedy, for example, wrote the 1991 sexual assault trial
Struggle,” due out Mon- probably would have been it,’” he says his father told a letter to his son when he of his cousin, William Ken-
day, focuses heavily on his much easier to hear first him. “That was it. Then we decided to run for presi- nedy Smith. He writes that
relationship with his father from close family members just walked in silence.” dent — to be delivered if he, his brother and sister
and how the younger Ken- and perhaps with some Many of the details in the he was assassinated. staged an “anemic” inter-
nedy often felt he let his context,” Kennedy writes. book are no surprise. Ken- He also recounts what hap- vention, which their father
father down while coping He says his father spoke nedy, 48, has been open in pened after a 1979 CBS rejected, telling them he
with bipolar and anxiety was trying to get help from
disorders and repeated a priest.
trips to rehab, even as a His relationship with his fa-
U.S. congressman from ther was chilly for years af-
Rhode Island. ter that, he writes. So chilly
By his telling, it was a sin- that he decided to run for
gular experience grow- Congress in 1994 without
ing up a Kennedy: Family speaking with his dad first.
members have the habit But their relationship right-
of giving each other auto- ed itself after he took office
graphed photos of them- in Washington the follow-
selves; he got one from his ing year, he says.
father when he was just a Ted Kennedy Jr. disputed
baby. A family photo print- the accuracy of the book
ed in the book depicts him on Sunday, saying in a
in his bedroom as a young written statement that he
child showing off his aquar- was “heartbroken” that his
ium to Henry Kissinger, who younger brother had cho-
served as secretary of sen to write “an inaccurate
state in the administrations and unfair portrayal of our
of Presidents Richard Nixon family” that was “mislead-
and Gerald Ford. ing and hurtful.”q
‘M Train’ is disappointing follow-up by rocker Patti Smith
BETH J. HARPAZ her new book, “M Train,” cation of an era in New Occasionally Smith begins
Associated Press will be sorely disappoint- York City when subcultures to veer into a semblance
Punk rocker Patti Smith ed. “It’s not so easy writing flourished amid urban de- of a narrative,
added “literary sensa- about nothing,” is the first cay and old-school neigh- with memories of her late
tion” to her resume with line of “M Train,” a line that borhoods. husband, Fred, or the
the 2010 publication of her unfortunately proves true. But it’s not just the lack of story of her purchase of a
captivating memoir, “Just At best, “M Train” is filled a chronologically ordered house in New York’s hipster
Kids.” That book simply with memory fragments story or historical context Rockaway Beach neigh-
and beautifully described and poetic-sounding de- that’s missing in “M Train.” borhood shortly before the
her life with photographer scriptions. This book just feels like the area is devastated by Hur-
Robert Mapplethorpe be- At worst, it’s 250 pages of journal jottings of a bored ricane Sandy.
ginning in the late 1960s, free association and mun- goddess, meandering aim- But those incipient tales
long before they found dane drivel. lessly as Smith flies to visit a merely tease the reader
fame, as they scrounged There are descriptions of writer’s grave or give a talk into thinking a full-blown
for food and art supplies, her junk mail, her dreams somewhere, without ever story is on its way. It’s not.
holed up in New York’s and her repeated visits to offering a coherent theme, Still, there’s hope if you’re
Chelsea Hotel and reveled a coffee shop. But there is never mind a plot. looking for more of what
in the city’s downtown club nothing resembling a story. Smith gave us in her first
and arts scene, encounter- Even readers who weren’t This photo provided by Alfred book. Skip “M Train” and
ing celebrities wherever fans of Smith’s music were A. Knopf shows the cover of stay tuned for a forthcom-
they went. drawn into “Just Kids” by the book, “M Train,” by Patti ing Showtime series based
Fans hoping for Volume II of its strong autobiographical Smith on “Just Kids.”q
the story of Smith’s life with narrative and brilliant evo-
Associated Press 
