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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780345476739
ISBN number: 0345476735
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 496
Printing Date: November 23, 2004
Publishing house: Ballantine Books
Release Date: November 23, 2004
Sale Popularity Level: 309448
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Product Description:
A PRESIDENTIAL DYNASTY. AN ARAB TERRORIST ATTACK. DEMOCRACY UNDER SIEGE. Mario Puzo envisioned it all in his eerily prescient 1991 novel, The Fourth K.
President Francis Xavier Kennedy is elected to office, in large part, thanks to the legacy of his forebears–good looks, privilege, wealth–and is the very embodiment of youthful optimism. Too soon, however, he is beaten down by the political process and, disabused of his ideals, he becomes a leader totally unlike what he has been before.
When his daughter becomes a pawn in a brutal terrorist plot, Kennedy, who has obsessively kept alive the memory of his uncles’ assassinations, activates all his power to retaliate in a series of violent measures. As the explosive events unfold, the world and those closest to him look on with both awe and horror.
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Rated by buyers 
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This was one of the worst books I've ever read. The characters are all over the place, the plot meanders and Puzo can't decide if it's set in the future or the present. (He invents a futuristic chemical brain scan as a convenient plot device, yet the story is set in present time.)
One particularly irritating facet of this book was that the few women in it are in very minor roles, even the Vice President, and are invariably described in terms of their sex lives.
As for the plot being "parallel" to our current troubles in the Middle East and with terrorism, these problems are nothing new and have been around in various forms for decades. The US isn't known for learning from its mistakes.
This is the only book that I have ever thrown into the trash. I read it on a plane and tossed it into a trash can on my way to the baggage claim. It felt great.
Rated by buyers 
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Francis Xavier Kennedy, nephew of the slain JFK/RFK has ascended the presidency due, in no small part, to his family name, his political instincts, and his near-adolescent idealisim.
During Holy Week it seems as if the world is falling apart at the seems. The Pontiff has been assasinated, and FXK's daughter has been kidnapped by Muslim extremists and then executed in cold blood.
FXK devises a response that he feels is commensurate with the crimes committed, and one that is befitting defending the honor of the most powerful nation on earth. There is one little snag; an imperial congress, motivated purely by greed,political opportunism, and a visceral hatred for the CINC,is poised to declare him non compus mentis and have him impeached.
An incident of 9/11 proportions takes place in New York that changes the entire dynamic of this political opportunism/intrigue and FXK adresses an emergency session of a join-session of Congress, and is spared the ignominy of being removed from office. Puzo's prescience here is uncanny; a nation in crisis after a terrorist event, a zealous President/Justice Department eager to preserve the Union, to the point of using draconian measures...it is all there, prophetically so. Eerie.
Puzo spins a yarn like no other. His scenarios/character; development/plots, sub-plots are woven into an exciting, breathtaking tapestry that takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride; the thrill of a lifetime. There are so many twists and turns it is likely to give a less engaged reader the literary equivalent of motion sickness. Dialogue is crisp, sometimes raw, and cynical. The stuff a poltical thriller is made of.
Some have decried this work as being a little contrived, but Puzo has a knack for tying up all of the loose ends and leaving the reader satisfied after he/she has read the novel.
A first-class piece of literature.
Rated by buyers 
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I thought it was pretty good, even though it could have been better...
Rated by buyers 
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...if you're in the bathroom with time on your hands! I must admit that I did finish this book and was glad that the ordeal was over. Puzo (like Leon Uris) definitely lost the touch near the end of his career and this book is no exception. In just a few hundred pages, President Kennedy II is shown as a tyrant, a socialist, a reactionary, a humanitarian, a political bumbler, a visionary of USA utopia, a man who would kill a few thousand citizens to save himself from impeachment, a liar who can beat the ultimate lie detector, a dear and loving husband/father, etc....how many characters must one man be? And what's this odd sub-plot of a former-Mormon/Hollywood oddball who on a whim (in less than 10 seconds of consideration when the opportunity presents itself) decides to kill the president of the United States. Once again another character with fourteen different personalities!. Puzo even got his basic facts wrong about the Mormons (he should have stuck with the Catholic Church). I would hate to be washed up on a deserted island and find this book washed up on the shore subsequent to me! I would go crazy reading it again.
Rated by buyers -
While reading this book I noticed that the protagonist seemed to change between three characters, and the intial protagonist turned to be the antagonist at sometimes, and then changed back to being the protagonist at others. It really served to confuse me. Many of the action scenes in the book were very confusing, not explained well. Some scenes were explained (poorly) and then explained again, without warning, from other points of view. In addition the author tends to make clauses (such as "That we had last night", "Which would make it worse.") as sentences. Call me crazy, but they are not sentences, and when not in dialogue it bothers me to see that repeatedly.
Otherwise, the book held my interest, but it did not impress me whatsoever. Some (read: much) of the plot was predictable, some of it developed before certain facts were reavealed, etc.
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