JFK & the Muckers of Choate: A Real-to-Life Novel

by Scott Badler

Overview

In the turbulent times of a young man's high school experience, one must find his way, make himself known to his peers, and most of all, establish himself in the oftentimes hostile world he is trapped in. JFK & the Muckers of Choate takes a look at John F. Kennedy's time in high school at Choate, a preppy, Waspish, all-boys boarding school.

As a Catholic at a time when anti-Catholic sentiment was rampant, JFK finds that his four years in this Connecticut institution are much more jagged, complicated, and high-stakes than he expects. Why? It turns out that the future president actively defied Choate's sometimes authoritarian rulers and, in his own personal rebellion, associated himself with, and led, a number of similarly-minded iconoclasts who wind up as his closest companions, both then and afterward.

JFK's chaotic and adventure-filled high school days, as narrated by JFK himself, not only tell us a great deal about an important, yet largely unchronicled, stop on his rapid journey to the presidency, but, because it's entirely based on real events, offer us a thoroughly enjoyable and illuminating look at a charismatic American icon whom most readers will adore, many for the first time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610885669
Publisher:	Bancroft Press
Publication date:	05/29/2022
Pages:	324
Sales rank:	1,097,193
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Scott Badler has been a newspaper reporter and a regular contributor to such publications as the Boston Globe, where many of his humor pieces appeared. In addition to having had published essays about the Kennedys, political history, and satire, he has written two non-fiction books: What's So Funny About Looking for a Job? and Oh Brother, and Other Revelations on Family, Relatives, Pets, and Sex.

He has taught Humor Writing courses at Harvard and Emerson College.

A native Californian, he was born in Los Angeles but lived in the Greater Boston area for many years, some of them in the district where JFK won his first congressional seat in 1946. A graduate of San Francisco State University, and the holder of an M.Ed. degree from Cambridge College, he currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is his first novel.

Editorial Reviews

In 1960, the author, a second grader, stood on a California street yelling ‘Nix on Nixon.’ Six decades later, he presents a funny and serious account of JFK’s prep school days. An enjoyable romp, it captures Kennedy’s teenage voice at Choate boarding school, echoing Tobias Wolff ‘s Old School and the film Scent of a Woman.

OLIVER POLLAK

"Scott Badler has blended fact and fiction into a fascinating portrait of the 35th U.S. president's prep school years, from an intriguing perspective—that of JFK himself. Leavened with just the right amounts of humor and historical foreshadowing, it's a fast, fun read, and hard to put down."

STEVE WIEGAND

Fascinating look into an unknown chapter of our former president as a student. Badler’s strength is in revealing how Kennedy developed empathy for the poor and disenfranchised while leading fellow students in fun-filled pranks and desired school reforms, experiencing his first sexual escapade, and interacting with his famous family.

ELIZABETH KOEHLER-PENTACOFF

2022-03-29
Ask not what your prep school can do for you, ask what you can do for your prep school.

Journalist and nonfiction writer Badler states that this novel, focusing on John F. Kennedy’s time at the elite Choate School, is mostly based on actual history. Unfortunately, this first-person fictionalized portrait of a mutinous teenage underachiever fizzles. Episodes include gathering a group of fellow muckers to defiantly hold secret meetings before compulsory chapel and wear unsanctioned club pins, an explicit visit to a Harlem bordello, a closeted roommate’s offer of a hand job, and no less than four long dialogues with a Columbia psychologist. Interactions with the large Kennedy clan, particularly eldest brother and golden boy Joe Jr., play a large role. Both Lead Belly and Gertrude Stein parade past, the former having to pass his hat to get paid, the latter to make her famous comment about her hometown and encourage young Jack to write a book about brave politicians. In the end, the adolescent fuming and rebellion feel like a device for showing a future president developing leadership skills, exhibiting strength of character in dealing with his chronically poor health, and expressing strong feelings about the injustice of racial and religious prejudice. Readers can get the same from better conventional biographies without having to pick the invented bits out from the historical ones.

Ambitious but only fitfully entertaining or informative. (author’s note, character bios, timeline, discussion questions, further reading) (Historical fiction. 15-18)

Kirkus Reviews