Fictional exploration of the private life of a philandering American president

BOOK OF THE DAY: SORCHA HAMILTON reviews American Adulterer by Jed Mercurio

BOOK OF THE DAY: SORCHA HAMILTONreviews American Adultererby Jed Mercurio

‘IF I DON’T have a woman for three days I get terrible headaches.” John F Kennedy – the story goes – once said this to former British prime minister Harold Macmillan, confessing his tendency to suffer withdrawal symptoms from sex.

The 35th president of the United States is widely known to have had extramarital affairs, most famously with Marilyn Monroe. But how much do we need to know about a politician’s private life? This is the question at the heart of this entertaining fictional exploration into the mind of an habitual womaniser – who also happens to be the “leader of the free world”.

Imagining the numerous flings and affairs, author Jed Mercurio delicately weaves the very private behaviour of the president into the very public events of JFK’s career, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis. This is not, however, a glitz and glamour story. Mercurio uses a muted, clinical style to approach this tale of sex, politics and fame. The president, for example, is called “the subject” throughout.

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Controlled, dispassionate language describes the chillingly matter-of-fact mind of the philanderer protagonist. There is no contradiction, he believes, between loving one’s wife and children and having a mistress – if anything, it will spare his family the short temper of a frustrated male. The successful philanderer must work on his “capacity to endure guilt” and treat rejection, should it arrive, “with complete nonchalance”. Most importantly, his intensely high libido must be regularly seen to – by anyone, it seems, other than his wife.

The novel begins just as “the subject” takes up office in the White House. The newly elected president, now in the public eye, realises his days of anonymous “travelling salesman sex” are over. He must employ more devious ways of luring women, using the loyalty of secret service agents to cover for him, insisting on state security so his lovers won’t kiss and tell, and even employing an old friend as “a beard” to seduce women and then show them into the president’s private quarters. Many uncomfortable “transactions” take place: he invites wide-eyed interns for quickie late-night meetings, and has two attractive assistants on call to perform “head massages”, while a young secretary is urged to go under the table to relieve his stress.

The first lady, in the meantime, chain-smokes L&M cigarettes and blows his money on clothes and redecorating. But as a witness to his vulnerabilities – his agonising back pains and the numerous ailments he conceals from the public – Jackie maintains a hold on him. If there is any loyalty to be found, perhaps it is in the fact that his wife is the only woman the president allows into his emotional domain.

American Adultererposes some fascinating questions about the connection between the public and private spheres. There is a brilliant moment, for example, when the president narrowly avoids both a nuclear war and marital breakdown in one day. Mercurio states in an afterword that he used various sources to write the book – and artistic licence – but overall was fascinated by the opportunity to speculate about the impact a sex scandal would have had on the Kennedy administration.

This is an engrossing, imaginative read, which plays with our obsession with private lives by both stimulating and questioning the reader’s lust for knowledge. Does it really matter what JFK got up to behind closed doors? Does it affect how we regard his performance as president? Maybe not, but you can’t help wondering . . .

American Adultererby Jed Mercurio Jonathan Cape 354pp, £12.99


Sorcha Hamilton is an Irish Timesjournalist