هر روز موهبتی است

by John Kerry, علی مجتهدزاده (translator)

John Kerry tells the story of his remarkable American life—from son of a diplomat to decorated Vietnam veteran, five-term United States senator, 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, and Secretary of State for four years—a revealing memoir by a witness to some of the most important events of our recent history.

Every Day Is Extra is John Kerry’s candid personal story. A Yale graduate, Kerry enlisted in the US Navy in 1966, and served in Vietnam. He returned home highly decorated but disillusioned, and testified powerfully before Congress as a young veteran opposed to the war.

Kerry served as a prosecutor in Massachusetts, then as lieutenant governor, and was elected to the Senate in 1984, eventually serving five terms. In 2004 he was the Democratic presidential nominee and came within one state—Ohio—of winning. Kerry returned to the Senate, chaired the important Foreign Relations Committee, and succeeded Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State in 2013. In that position he tried to find peace in the Middle East; dealt with the Syrian civil war while combatting ISIS; and negotiated the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement.

Every Day Is Extra is Kerry’s passionate, insightful, sometimes funny, always moving account of his life. Kerry tells wonderful stories about colleagues Ted Kennedy and John McCain, as well as President Obama and other major figures. He writes movingly of recovering his faith while in the Senate, and deplores the hyper-partisanship that has infected Washington.

Few books convey as convincingly as this one the life of public service like that which John Kerry has lived for fifty years. Every Day Is Extra shows Kerry for the dedicated, witty, and authentic man that he is, and provides forceful testimony for the importance of diplomacy and American leadership to address the increasingly complex challenges of a more globalized world.

Genres: Politics, Biography, History, Memoir, Nonfiction, Autobiography, Biography Memoir

736 pages, Hardcover

First published September 4, 2018

About the author

John Forbes Kerry is an American politician who is currently serving his fourth term as the junior United States Senator from Massachusetts. As the Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, he was defeated in the 2004 presidential election by the Republican incumbent President George W. Bush. Senator Kerry is currently the Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. He is a Vietnam Veteran, and was a spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War when he returned home from service. Before entering the Senate, he served as a District Attorney and Lt. Governor of Massachusetts under Michael Dukakis, also a future Democratic Presidential nominee.

Reviews

[Lorna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every Day is Extra was a very interesting, honest and all-encompassing memoir of a man who spent much of his life in public service to this country, from his days in the United States Navy during the Vietnam war to serving as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts and five terms in the United States Senate before his service as Secretary of State during President Obama's second term in office. John Kerry notes in the Author's Note that Every Day is Extra is an attitude about life that the guys he served with in Vietnam felt about coming home alive; it was the recognition of a gift and a mystery and gratitude for survival when so many did not make it. Kerry poignantly states that it is a pledge to live their extra days in ways that keep faith with the memory of their brothers whose days were cut tragically short. Having followed John Kerry since he testified in 1971 before the Foreign Relations Committee in Congress about Vietnam, I found Kerry's memoir a most interesting look at history as well as his career. John Kerry speaks honestly and informatively about all of the issues that are facing our country today. As a personal aside, having worked hard in my community during the Kerry-Edwards campaign in 2004, I am ready to work again in 2020 for a Kerry candidacy for president should he decide to run.

"How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

"I've told much of this story in these pages for a reason: not to relive a difficult past, but to remember how we changed the course of our country. Good people believed the world--at home and abroad--could be different and better. Citizens organized. People fought for something. We marched. We voted. We got knocked down and we got back up."

"Our democracy is challenged. . . It is constantly changing, growing and reinventing itself. But its well-being always--always--depends on citizens to keep it alive. The strength of the United States is derived not from a party, not from a leader, but from a natural resource that is truly renewable: the resolve of our citizens and their commitment to make the American ideal a reality."

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoy reading biographies and learning about people’s lives and how they accomplished their careers. John Kerry (1943- ) tells the story of his life in great detail. He starts off with the history of his grandparents and moves on from there. I had not realized that Kerry was from patrician New England roots. He attended private schools in Switzerland and the USA. He learned to speak a number of languages.

The book is well written. Kerry devoted his entire career to public service. He provided great details about his life, but I wish he had provided more in-depth insight into people he worked with such as Obama, Hillary Clinton and his friend, John McCain. The memoir does provide an inside look at what happened during his time in the Senate and as Secretary of State. I particularly enjoyed the last part of the book about his time as Secretary of State. I was familiar with his service in Viet Nam as I had read “Tour of Duty” by Douglas Brinkley. If you enjoy memoirs I recommend this book to you.

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is very long at almost twenty-nine hours or 600 pages. I enjoyed listening to Kerry narrate his book. Hearing the person tell their own story seems to bring an intimacy to the book.

[Carol Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Kerry is an exceptional man, and this is an exceptional book. He is one of my favorite presidential candidates ever because of his transformation of heroism in Vietnam to public protest against that war. I was a war protester myself, but only after I had taken classes on the history of Southeast Asia.

Naturally, the part of the book that interested me most was his account of joining the Navy and fighting from a swift boat. He gives an articulate and moving description of those experiences and his disillusionment with the war. He also details the outrageous, dishonest attacks on his war record. The first time that happened, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt spoke up for him. The second time, during Kerry's presidential campaign, Zumwalt was no longer alive to do so, but almost everyone who fought with Kerry did.

Also moving is Kerry's account of how he and Sen. John McCain became friends and worked together to double-check everywhere they could to bring back the bodies of Americans who had died in Vietnam and to ensure that there were no POWs left alive, and that the American people knew that.

Kerry laments the passing of the time when the Senate was a collegial body. He tells of working and forming friendships with senators of both parties, even of helping each other spiritually in Senate Prayer Breakfasts.

Also fascinating are Kerry's descriptions of his work trying to bring peace to Israel and the Palestinians and of negotiating with Iran. Both accounts are detailed and should be full of interest. His efforts for peace were endless and unflagging.

Kerry admits that voting to allow President George W. Bush to make war in Iraq was the worst political decision of his life. Kerry says he had assumed that Bush would make it more of an international effort. Kerry, who was then thinking of running for president, also thought that if he were president, he would want Congress to support him. I think that showed faulty reasoning.

He also writes about his personal life to some extent. The way that he and his late ex-wife worked together to give their daughters a secure childhood without trying to pressure them to take sides was gratifying.

I'm very sorry that Kerry never had a chance to be president, but I'm very glad that he wrote this book. I wonder whether he might have won if he had written an autobiography sooner.

[Dean Cummings · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Forbes Kerry lived a superabundant life.

As I read his self-effacing narration of his recollections, I couldn’t help but think he must have taken the advice of legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon who was quoted as saying that a writer should, “Find a quiet place…and use a humble pen.” It is in part because of Kerry’s unpretentious tone that I perceived his many accomplishments and experiences as all the more extraordinary.

The man’s public life was a tour de force of friendships, amazing encounters and a front row seat to the dramatic tragedies and triumphs of the last four decades of the twentieth and first two decades twenty-first centuries. His three-quarter century of personal life is equally captivating, he weaved both together in such a way that I found myself pulled into the wonderful “confluence” of his personal and public experiences. To me this was a big part of why I enjoyed Kerry’s style of storytelling.

As far as Kerry’s public life was concerned, it seemed to have begun on the days following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, and it was as the black and white images of the slain president’s funeral flickered on his television set that Kerry made a life decision, which he described in this way:

“That is the night I made a commitment to myself that I would pursue a life of public affairs. I didn’t know what I would do or how I would made a difference, but I vowed I would."

For me, the moment of that quiet pact marked a “before” and “after” in Kerry’s life. Both of which were packed with unforgettable experiences. I was transported as I read his “before” childhood tales of reenacting the battles from Kirk Douglas’s film “The Vikings” at the real life location of the storied Fort La Latte on a peninsula at the southern border of the English Channel. His later stories of transatlantic voyages, school in Switzerland and the “soaring sport” of skiing captured my imagination, as did “The magic of wind and sail” of sailing, his “Search of Hemingway” at the bullfights of Pamplona, all of which were memorable. I thought I might have been reading one of my favorite “Hardy Boys Mysteries” when I read of Kerry and his friends finding a way to enter an empty Naushon Island mansion in order to unlock the mysteries of a piece of American history that was kept there.

But by far my favorite of Kerry’s “early” encounters was the occasion of his first face-to-face meeting with a sitting U.S. President.

The background story was that Kerry had become friends with Janet Auchincloss, Jackie Kennedy’s half-sister. One day Janet invited John for a day of sailing at their family home, Hammersmith Farm, in Newport. Janet mentioned that the President might be there as well, visiting to watch the America’s Cup yacht races. He describes the meeting itself this way:

“I arrived at the imposing driveway to Hammersmith Farm where a single Secret Service guy waved me through. I drove up to the front door under the covered entryway and told the one other Secret Service agent who I was and then walked into the house - no identification requested, nothing.”

He’d entered an apparently empty house.

As I read this, I tried to imagine how strange it might be to be invited to a friend’s home, then find myself wandering through the house in search of someone who might be there. After some time, Kerry finally encountered another person:

“Off to the right I could see someone in white pants and a blur polo shirt standing by the large dining room windows with a glorious view down the lawn to the water and the narrow spit that marks the entrance into Narragansett Bay and Newport. The person turned around and walked toward me, hand outstretched to say hello.

It was President Kennedy.

I reached out and said, “Hello, Mr. Kennedy.” I did not know to call him “Mr. President,” That’s how fresh and naïve I was. He didn’t flinch but said, “Hi,” and asked me what I was up to. I told him, “I’m working for your brother in the Senate race.” He said, “That’s terrific – I think it’s going pretty well,” or something close to that. Then he said, “Where are you going to college?” I told him Yale and rolled my eyes with a laugh as if to excuse myself that it wasn’t Harvard. He smiled and without missing a beat said, “Oh, that’s okay, - I’m a Yale man myself now,” He had just received his honorary degree at Yale and made his famous comment: ‘I now have the best of two worlds – a Harvard education and a Yale degree.’

To this day, I am grateful for the conversation we had and for the grace and ease the president showed to this young volunteer and friend of a relative of his.”

I found myself rereading this amazing moment in John Kerry’s life. I use the word amazing not only because of the uniqueness of this special moment itself, but also because of the way it was allowed to unfold. Like most people, my impressions are based on the images of the presidency I’ve seen in T.V., movies and the Internet. But I’ve also had the chance to hear a story of an encounter with a man who was the Vice President of the United States and was in the process of running for president.

The person who told me the story was none other than my wife Leanne.

It was in the fall of 2000 and she was on a business trip that took her to a medium sized city in Upstate New York. Her flight landed at the airport, and unknown to her it was the same airport that Vice President Gore was stopping at. It was right in the middle of his campaign for president.

Leanne told me that she was first to pass through the gate and into the main terminal, where there was a strange kind of hush hanging in the air. It was almost a “military type” sense of seriousness. She stopped walking, then took a look to her right where there were dozens of black suited men standing close by. She looked to her left to see even more serious looking security agents, and among them, about fifteen or twenty feet away, was Gore himself. They made eye contact, and a second later he smiled. She wondered if it was due to his amusement at her surprise.

Even as I write this, I’m reminded of how different Leanne’s encounter was from John Kerry’s, but even so, that didn’t diminish my amazement at how informal, easy and relaxed was this young man’s chance meeting with one of the major “history shapers” of the twentieth century.

As to another of the “after” period stories, I was enthralled by Kerry’s ability to “paint a picture” of his time of naval service during the Vietnam War. He was an officer-in-charge (OIC) of a Swift Boat at the time and was under orders to make the trip with his boat and crew from An Thoi (Cos Div. II Operations Office) to Cat Lo. He describes his experience this way:

“The start of the trip from An Thoi to the tip of the Ca Mau Peninsula was pretty smooth, but one we rounded the cape and met the northeast monsoon seas head-on, things became tough. Swift Boats were designed for the calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, not the South China Sea. With a short bow, we’d crest a wave and, before the bow could pop up, it would run into the next one head-on, with each wave smashing against the pilothouse, breaking over the gun tub and cascading back along the boat. The gun tub was fitted with only a canvas cover. Seawater would seep through, spraying inside, dripping on whoever was steering the boat. Ultimately, everything was soaked. We did everything we could to tighten the hatches but nothing worked. The humidity was 100 percent and the windows dripped with water.

The Swift Boat travelling with us had started the journey with a non-functioning radar. No sooner did we round the point into the South China Sea than a huge wave swept over the bow, knocking out our radar too. It was such a black night that it remained impossible to judge the size of the oncoming waves. The key was to find the right speed, to try as best as possible to stay above the wave, but the waves often came at different intervals and heights. When there was a moment of hesitation on the crest of a wave, an extra push upward, we knew that the boat was going to slam down with a resounding crash, sending our spines through our skulls, inspiring a cacophony of four-letter words from the men hanging onto the decks below. The helmsmen’s seat had a seat belt, keeping him from levitating every time the boat hit a wave. If you were standing, the force of the crash could drive you to your knees.”

I closed my eyes and imagined the sheer terror I would feel in this circumstance. Soaked, shilled to the bone, sickened by the vomiting and swearing of the frightened crew and that feeling deep in my gut that this boat would crack apart, sending me screaming into the teeth of the dark and violent sea.

Apparently many Americans were similarly moved by Kerry’s written accounts of his time of service in the Vietnam War. For Kerry, it was the drama of the events themselves, his growing doubt in the ideological “Domino Theory” rationale for the war, his escalating mistrust of the senior officials, both military and civilian that were misreporting the “success” of the war and finally, the deep pain of losing friends in the field of battle. It was his friend Dick Pershing’s death in battle that galvanized Kerry’s very vocal protests of the war itself.

His written accounts, “Letters to America” also struck a chord with many people who were disenfranchised with America’s military involvement in East Asia. And after he was home awhile, the force of his war tales, combined with his vocal opposition to the war lead to a number of doors opening for him. His prospects became even clearer when he earned his law degree.

The telling of his rise from his rookie Congressional run, his role in helping the first Catholic priest to ever be elected to the House of Representatives to his days as Assistant District Attorney in the Middlesex office all move along at a rapid, but brilliant pace. As did his time as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts and later his successful run for the office of United States Senator.

I was moved by his story of finding his faith in the United States Senate, and was captivated by his accounts of the Iran Contra Affair. I was inspired by his dedication to helping the long distraught families of MIA and POW Vietnam Veterans get answers to the questions they had been asking for so many years when he created and headed up the Senate Select Committee on POW and MIA Affairs. As a “Senate Investigator” Kerry spent a lot of time in Vietnam and, unexpected to me, a meeting with a Gorbachev advisor named Yevgeny Primakov to help unlock clues to Russia’s involvement with American POW and MIA’s from the Vietnam War. This part of the story was particularly colorful.

It was a whirlwind tale of service as a United States Senator and later The Secretary of State in the Obama Administration. I was moved by Kerry’s tireless commitment to promoting peace though his role as a senior diplomat. I was amazed at the man’s ability to remain optimistic, even in the face of the weeks, months and even years of the “Three steps forward and two steps back” atmosphere of many of the trickiest international negotiations for peace.

John Kerry met Pope Francis, who referred to him as “The ambassador for peace” as he shook his hand. That said it all for me.

I finished Kerry’s book feeling buoyed by optimism and hope.

I highly recommend “Every Day Is Extra.”

[Mike Robbins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Politicians sometimes write memoirs to paint their careers in the best light. I picked up this book wondering if that was what I’d find in here, or whether it would – as I hoped – give an insight into the man, his motivations and beliefs, the era in politics, and where America may be going next.

In fact Every Day is Extra is a mixture. There is some, maybe too much, explanation of some of his actions as Secretary of State. The book also gives less insight than it should have done about what Kerry really wants for America, his ideology, and how it was formed. Still, it isn’t just an apologia; it’s more interesting than that.

Kerry was born in 1943; his father was a diplomat and he was brought up partly in Washington, partly in Massachusetts and partly overseas, spending long periods at private boarding schools in Switzerland and New England. He moved around a lot and it was an unsettled background, but seems to have been a happy one. He was also very privileged. This was to be a target on his back in the 2004 Presidential election: John Kerry the wealthy patrician. It’s something he doesn’t really address in the book; we are taken through private schools and Yale and hear of his journeys in Europe (including a mad one through France in an old London taxi), but he doesn’t really acknowledge the extent of that privilege, or say how he relates to (say) the aircon tech in Ohio or the miner in West Virginia.

Maybe the patrician charge does stick, especially given his links to the Kennedy family and especially Edward Kennedy, with whom he shared a power-base in Boston – where his Irish surname of Kerry and his Catholic faith will have been useful. Ironically, his grandparents were actually Jewish immigrants from Central Europe who converted to Catholicism and adopted the surname Kerry when they arrived in the US in 1901. Kerry has always said he only found this out when a reporter told him in 2003. He says very little about it in the book.

It’s when Kerry joins the Navy from Yale that Every Day is Extra starts to come alive. He was not drafted but knew he might be, so joined up voluntarily so he could choose which service he went into. He may also have felt that, as an American, he could not leave the fighting to others. He commanded a Swift boat in 1968, patrolling rivers and estuaries in South Vietnam. His service there would later be questioned during the 2004 election, but there was no evidence for those smears; in fact, Kerry was awarded the Bronze Star for his actions and would be wounded three times. After the third wound, as was customary, he was posted away from Vietnam. On his return to the US he became an anti-war activist, organizing other activists and testifying before Congress. This brought him into mainstream politics.

Here there is something missing from the book. What actually turned him against the war, and why did he so strenuously oppose it when he came home? To be sure, he saw fellow-sailors killed and wounded, but it was a war and he will have expected that. There is one moment that is very vivid – in Da Nang, he is walking back to his ship when he sees, some yards away: “A bunch of Viet Cong bodies were stacked like a woodpile …The dead bodies I had seen before – at a wake, at a funeral, in a casket laid out in their Sunday best – were nothing like this: cold, stiff, distorted, heaped one on top of the other. Where the hell was I?” He does talk a little more of his reaction to the war – of reports from other officers that the villagers were not political and wanted to be left alone, and of his feeling that the US presence was just driving people into the arms of the Viet Cong. But his feelings about this are never quite conveyed with the strength he must have felt. I think that is a fault of Kerry as a writer, not as a man. I don’t doubt for a moment his actions were sincere. Kerry’s anti-war activism when he returned home will have drawn real hostility, and won’t have been lightly undertaken. It’s just that in this book, his anger at what he had seen never quite comes across.

I sensed a certain reticence at several other points in the book as well. Again, this is a weakness of the writing more than anything else; Kerry seems to lack passion on paper. But there may be other reasons. He wasn’t in office when it was published in 2018, but hadn’t formally ruled out a run in 2020. (In the event he backed Biden early on, before the primaries.) He must also have known that even if he didn’t run, he might come back in some role, as indeed he has (as Biden’s climate-change envoy). So this is a book by a public figure with something to lose. That doesn’t mean this book is just self-justification; there is some, but it’s mostly better than that. But Kerry never really shows us what drives him. He does talk about his personal life, including his divorce from his first wife and her eventual death from cancer, both of which clearly upset him badly. But he has a knack of being frank briefly.

Where Kerry does go into detail is on his service as Secretary of State. At this point he abandons the narrative structure of an autobiography and recounts the key episodes by chapter – one on the Israel/Palestine negotiations, another on the nuclear weapons deal with Iran, a third on the Syrian civil war (in particular the chemical weapons attacks and Obama’s shifting of his ‘red lines’), and the Paris climate-change conference. This episodic approach will be useful for future historians, but can frustrate the reader a little as one becomes immured in a single topic for 40 pages at a time. Yet these chapters do give an insight into just how hard diplomacy, done properly, can be.

Iran and Paris were successes for Kerry, but he leaves you in no doubt as to how hard they were to get done. And Syria was dealt with less well by the Obama administration; it was also very dangerous, as it could have been a flashpoint with Russia. In the Israel chapter one must read between the lines. It is no secret that the Obama administration’s relations with the Netanyahu government were poor. But Kerry does not say overtly what he seems to have really thought, which is that Netanyahu kept moving the goalposts because he did not really want a two-state solution – but wouldn’t say so. Neither does Kerry voice a suspicion that one suspects crossed his mind, which is that Netanyahu’s real long-term aim was an integral Israeli state that included the West Bank. One thing he is clear about is that Congress should never have invited a foreign leader to Washington without the White House’s agreement, and Netanyahu should not have come.

Kerry leaves some other things unsaid in this book. There’s not much on his views on domestic policy, and in general he is not that interested in it. As for Obama, he seems to have liked him from the time he first met him (in 2004) but doesn’t say much about working with him – was it harder than he expected? What was life like inside the Obama administration? Or does he think it is too early to talk about this? I also noted that although he is complimentary about Hillary Clinton, he says very little about her – although she was his predecessor as Secretary of State and they were together in the Senate for years before that. It may be that Kerry’s decision to endorse Obama in the 2008 primaries caused a mutual wound, and he admits he found it hard to tell her of his decision. Politics can be rough. Also, although he is frank about the changing nature of the Republican party, he could have been a great deal ruder had he chosen to be. There’s an air here of someone whose business is unfinished, and does not want to burn his boats just yet.

Would he have been a good president? My gut feeling is probably yes, but he would have been heavily biased towards foreign policy. The nuts and bolts of domestic policy interest him far less. Partly for that reason, the charge of out-of-touch patrician would have come back to haunt him. I also wonder if he would have sweated the details a bit too much (something President Biden is said to do). His long experience in the Senate would also have helped - though in these polarized times that is not the asset it was for LBJ, as Biden is now finding.

Did I like this book? Mainly yes. It’s too long; he could have done with more concision and focus at times. Also, Kerry does pull a few punches, and there are times when he doesn’t tell us what really motivated him. But he does give us a vivid insight into the business of diplomacy, in almost too much detail – and illuminates some key foreign policy decisions of the Obama administration. This will be a useful book for the historian. But it is a good book rather than a great one.

[Owlseyes]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcri...

[Laurel Starkey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not sure why John Kerry wrote this book. Really. It’s long. It rambles. It manages to turn dramatic material into something so dull I had to force myself to finish it. It’s very partisan, he only discusses in excruciating details the hot liberal topics de jour: negotiations for peace in Israel/Palestine, Syria and the refugee crisis, the Paris Climate Accords, for example. When Obama briefed Trump, Obama said the biggest problem the US faced was North Korea (from the Bob Woodward book “Fear”). Not a peep about Korea except for during the 50s.

Who should read this? Anyone interested in the American prosecution of the Vietnam War. Policy wonks who are interested in Middle East negotiations. Students of Congress. People who are nostalgic for the traditional WASP sense of nobless oblige and doing one’s duty.

He seems like a decent guy — proper, intelligent, and politically ambitious. A leader in some circumstances. Always discrete. Presidential material? No. After reading 600+ pages I still don’t know what his guiding moral principles are except getting the next job, and peace in the world.

[Brian Bridgeforth · Rating 2 out of 5]

As someone who reads a lot on US foreign policy, I make sure to read the memoirs written by former Secretaries of State from both sides of the aisle. I have never been a fan of John Kerry and his elitist liberal policies. I had to hold my nose while reading this book as he whines and claims he was duped into voting for the Iraq war, whines about his 2004 loss to Bush in what he says was a rigged election, and pretend he didn't have his ass turned into mincemeat by Putin over Syrian chemical weapons. His account of events are myopic and only represent his narrow political views which is probably to be expected by someone who is more partisan politician and not the national security or foreign policy maven he claims to be. But even with that, there are some accounts that have important takeaways and the struggles to find solutions to difficult problems are real. It is important for those interested in national security to at least consider what he has to say.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am afraid I found his writing very boring. But what an interesting life he lived. I admire people who are handed privileges in their lives and then decide to give back by serving their country and humanity. John Kerry was that kind of man.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kerry has always been one of my favorite politicians. I have always been impressed with his determination, eloquence, intelligence, and commitment. I was pretty disappointed when he was not elected president in 2004 - he would have been a good one. His personal story is interesting too - this man certainly has not led a boring life, that much is clear.

Born to a government official and attorney and to a woman from the wealthy Forbes family, Kerry was raised mostly in suburbs of Boston, but also in prep schools, Cape Cod, and Normandy, France. After college at Yale, he served in the navy during the Vietnam War, seeing much action and getting wounded more than once. Upon returning home, he became an anti-war activist and began getting a fair amount of media attention. He eventually became a prosecutor and then a local politician before getting elected to the U.S. Congress, and then the Senate, and eventually becoming Secretary of State under President Obama.

I won't try to recap all his political work because he does it very well in this book, and keeps things moving briskly, never getting bogged down. He does come across as a man of action. There are a number of amusing anecdotes, but this book is not a tell-all. It certainly seems honest and straightforward. A few of the things that stayed in my mind were: his youthful story of meeting President Kennedy, the failure of his first marriage (his wife struggled with depression), his resentment towards his former running mate John Edwards, whom Kerry saw as not sufficiently committed to the cause, his recollections of his senior Sen. Ted Kennedy's humor and personality, his good relationship with President Biden (the two are longtime friends and allies), his discovering that his grandfather was a Jew who committed suicide (which had been hidden from the children) and his subsequent hilarious speech at a Boston political dinner ("I bet you didn't think I had the matzoh balls to show up here tonight").

I can recommend this one whole-heartedly, especially the audio version. Kerry reads it himself, and he has a good speaking voice as well as knowing how he wants his story to sound.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is SO well done. Kerry has a life story that's made for biography, with a key role in basically every impactful event in American history in the past two generations. As a personal bonus, I volunteered for the Kerry campaign in 2004 so this brought back lots of devastating memories of that election. More rage, just what I needed!

[Jacob Stelling · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable memoir from a politician I knew little about before reading. This book feels almost like a tribute to a long-past era of consensus politics, and you really get the feeling that Kerry witnessed the slow death of political ideals of working together and public service.

While certain sections did feel overlong and his prose style tended to be rambling and overwrought, overall I enjoyed reading about his experiences in Vietnam, the Senate and as Secretary of State. This is a fairly good political autobiography even if it represents a bygone era.

[Sarah E Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

While John Kerry can get a little self-important, I think this book accurately displays a passion for life coupled with a hard-pressed desire to understand oneself.

John Kerry makes a point to discuss his short-comings and moments of self-reflection, both good and bad, throughout the book; to me, that gives this book a shining amount of character and grace.
He is long-winded, like someone who has to tell every unassuming detail of their day, but it all comes together well in the end.

[Snidely · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've generally liked John Kerry over the years. Through this book, the reading of which was enhanced for me by having the audio version read by Kerry himself, I learned many interesting things. That he had an extremely unusual, privileged and perhaps even exotic path to adulthood. I never knew that his family background included a grand family mansion in Brittany. That he went to school for a time at a boarding school in Switzerland because of parents living in various places because of his father's Foreign Service work. Interesting insights concerning his college years, his Navy experiences including a year in Vietnam. All these unusual things provided an interesting and suspenseful reading experience. For part of the book.

Then on to the overly dramatic wonky-ness and overstatement of his own accomplishments and his massive overstatement and misunderstanding of the role (really a non-role) that politicians and politics play in the daily lives of most people. Here's a list of overstated accomplishments:

)No, Mr Kerry, your testimony to Congress after you'd left the Navy didn't of itself bring an end to the Vietnam war. It wasn't monumental and few in the country even learned of it, there were a lot of protests going on at the time.
)Does he really think that a phrase or a position he came up with for a speech during some I don't remember which campaign made the difference between winning and losing? (multiple similar instances)
) Does he really think that his 2 day trip to (fill in the blank) led him to an in-depth understanding of a place or a problem that allowed him to bring a result no one else could do? (multiple examples of that).
)That he singlehandedly was responsible for changing Pakistani public opinion to love the US instead of to hate us during a 3 day visit?
)That his bold efforts to do what no one else dared to do repeatedly produced results in the Senate no one else could have done?
)That his lecturing Afghan tribal leaders living in medieval cultures benefited from his lecture on how they should be more like the democratic US?
)That his facile moralizing and philosophizing with foreign leaders was viewed as anything other than naive?
)That only he, and no one else, had relationships and persuasive powers with foreign leaders that could accomplish what no one else could? He sometimes acted as though like Batman with the Bat Signal in the sky, he would be called because only he could solve the most difficult problems. Sorry, no.

And on and on.

No, Mr Kerry, you're not a master strategist, the savior of the world at key times, or the Master of the Senate (that was LBJ).

I still like John Kerry the same but am simply disappointed by chapter after chapter of self-aggrandizement. Despite his worldly upbringing and very extensive diplomatic travel experiences, he remains a naive American without the profound understanding of geopolitics that the average run of the mill European politician has. I really hope he doesn't take himself so seriously. The writing of the book was fine, it was the contents that brought me to the two star rating. Ugh.

[Fergie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always regretted the fact that John Kerry was never able to fulfill the dream of becoming President. He is the perfect blend of intelligence, experience, compassion, and courage. He's a proven leader who's never been shy about making tough decisions. Throughout his years of service to the country, whether it was joining the Navy during Vietnam, coming home to advocate for peace, or serving his state or country in any number of ways (political or otherwise), Kerry was always led by a profound sense of justice and guided by a strong moral compass that he would never abandon.

Kerry's memoirs are deep and offer a well of insight. He doesn't back away from choices he wish he could change. An honest life demands reflection and acknowledgement aided by the grace of wisdom. Kerry's book begins with the formative years of his youth; one that very well could have allowed him an entitled existence. Instead, his mother's love of nature and the environment, and his father's work in foreign service provided him with a solid foundation for the sort of politician and leader he would later become. Like President Obama, his early, educational years were spent abroad, offering him the benefit of exposure to other cultures and nations. These years and experiences helped shape the empathetic humanistic approach to his later style of leadership.

Democrats are often charged with the assumption that they are weak-willed and naive. Kerry's life is a contrast to this. He sought service from a young age, joining the military during the Vietnam war when many of his class sought deferments. When confronted with the unjust harshness, lies, and nefarious governmental agenda behind the war, he used his voice to speak against it and in return was unfairly branded a traitor by those who lacked the firsthand experiences of war as he had. His bravery went beyond the battles of war as he remained steadfast throughout his political career to the tenants and principles in which he espoused.

John Kerry is a stand-up American; one for whom I will forever be proud to have given my vote when he ran for President. I attended one of the rallies he spoke about in his book in Scranton, PA, following his acceptance of the Democratic nomination for President in 2004. I believed in his vision and what he said then as I still believe in him now. His inclusion in President Biden's administration as a climate envoy should all help us sleep a bit easier at night, knowing that a man of honor and integrity is fighting for the sustainment of a better world for us and our children.

[Patty Dowden · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Kerry was my senator, and I lived 1 block from him in Boston. I wasn't always a huge fan - however his life story is fascinating - and I particularly enjoyed hearing the audiobook because he reads it. I consider myself middle of the road, but hearing how many years and how much thought went into foreign policy a few years ago makes me weep for our diplomats and the current state of foreign affairs. His last chapter on the Paris Accord and climate change is particularly hard to hear given the US pull out. However, Kerry himself talks about how the US has always faced challenges, there has never been a perfect time - and gives hope that things are improving even with the (hopefully historic) anomaly that resides in the white house.

[Shayan · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب بسیار جالبی بود ، متاسفانه به دلیل مشغوله یک مقدار طول کشید تمومش کنم ولی بسیار کتاب روانی بود و ترجمه بسیار خوبی داشت .
از لحاظ محتوا کتاب به نحوی نگارش شده بود که با بسیاری از روابط ریز و درشت در شالوده سیاسی علی الخصوص آمریکا آشنا می شدی ، نتیجه فشار افکار عمومی رو بر روی دیکتاتور ترین آدم ها هم میشه از این کتاب متوجه شد .
کتاب توی بیشتر موارد از جلسات و توافق نامه ها با جزییات زیاد صحبت می کنه ولی قسمت توافق برجام اصلا این طور نیست ، که البته من نمیدونم در نسخه ترجمه شده بخش هایی از اون زده شده یا خود نویسنده طبق توافق خیلی مطالب رو باز نکرده.
البته کتاب بشیار یک طرفه نوشته شده و در مواجهه با هر کشوری یا بحرانی کری اعتقاد داره که نیت و رفتار آمریکا درست و خیر بوده که قطعا قابل پذیرش نیست .
در کل کتاب بسیار خوبی هست و ارزش ۷۰۰ صفحه خوندن رو داره

[Pedram Lajevardi · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading this book, I think John Kerry is a genuine person with principles. I feel he is honest and although I disagree with him on some specific issues (mostly on foreign policy) I think he is a very good person.

In his political life, I appreciate that he has stood for what he believes in and he has clearly made a difference.

On a personal level, he comes across as a real person that I can connect with. For example, the way he describes his relationships with his wives, especially with his first wife after his second marriage, is very respectful and I admire him.

[Margaret Worsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea how profoundly interesting John Kerry is until this wonderful memoir! It’s a fascinating adventure with some descriptions as beautiful as a Steinbeck novel. Every Day Is Extra is clearly a love story to the environment (especially the Sea) and a love story to the American people.

[Maya Skagegård · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bra bok. Han är så mycket mer ödmjuk i sin text än vad jag förväntade mig. Favoritdelen var hans erfarenhet av Vietnamkriget samt hans arbete i Mellanöstern som Utrikesminister. Lärde mig så mycket nytt om Israel & Palestina, Syrien, Iran m.m.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts were extremely interesting, especially his experience in Vietnam. Some of the later stories, I found myself drifting. Glad I read it, but slightly better than ok.

[Wayne Carpenter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found Kerry’s book contains a great deal of insight about Kerry’s life and decision making. If you are truly interested in major political events of the last half century I recommend it. It certainly reinforces my opinion that he would have been a much more successful president than the man who narrowly defeated him in the 2004 election.

[Foggygirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

An informative read

[Wuttipol✨]

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I heard an interview with Kerry and picked up his book on an unlikely whim. I figured that he lead an interesting parallel path to Obama, Bush, Trump and a few other bios I’d read in the last few years.

I found his interview compelling and interesting and in it, sensed his thought leadership. That didn’t come through as much in the book, where he seemed a bit dull and didactic. He also shines his way through losing a "rigged" election and other episodes like voting for the Iraq war.

I particularly didn’t care for his characterization that the current division is the Republican’s fault, and the ease with which he characterized ramming Obamacare down the Republican’s gullet without compromise as “necessary.”

A decent man. A bit of a self serving autobiography. Ok read.

[Bettie]

05:09:2018: Kerry sees 'new era of accountability' heralded by 2018 races. Former Secretary of State John Kerry reacts to the news of the upset victory by Ayanna Pressley over long-time incumbent Michael Capuano in a Massachusetts Democratic House primary, and talks about the importance of the 2018 primary as a repudiation of Donald Trump.

[Bibi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a long tome and very detailed - 590 pages of small font - I persevered through this book and surmised that Kerry must be a meticulous note-taker and diligent diarist to capture events with the type of granularity found in the book (I read later at the end of the book in his acknowledgements that a small team helped him with research, writing, editing and fact checking). Not to detract from the fact that Every Day is Extra is an enlightening memoir from a devoted public servant and patriot.

John Kerry was a privileged kid who attended boarding school in Switzerland, skied the slopes there, drove in style through Europe, enjoyed retreats in Saint Malo and at his grandfather's property on a promontory in Saint-Briac-sur-Mer, soaked up the idyllic French countryside, and when in the US, was able to luxuriate in New Hampshire or Narragansett Bay or Newport or Naushon Island off the main land of Upper Cape Cod. Not surprisingly, given the circle in which Kerry orbited, he sailed with President Kennedy in Narragansett bay when he was merely nineteen years old. Kerry' father was a foreign diplomat and legal advisor and was obviously a role model. His mother was part of the wealthy Forbes clan. I enjoyed reading the personal aspects of his life since much of his public life - well, was public.

A five term US senator and a presidential nominee, his last role was as Secretary of State in the Obama administration. This book was well-written and Kerry's Yale education and legal background shone through alongside his humour and wit. Kerry wrote extensively on his service in the Vietnam war and his references of places such as the Mekong Valley, the Hanoi Prison, Saigon, and Da-nang resonated with me as I had visited Vietnam early this year. From his war service to his passionate opposition to the war, plus the extra-ordinary blessing he ascribed to himself for surviving while grieving the loss of friends who perished in the war also contributed to the title of the book. Kerry feels lucky for every day he has been given. At 74, his memoir is a candid and honest story of his life through the years.

There is much information on his time in the Senate, his campaigning efforts, the herculean efforts to secure consensus both at home and later abroad as Secretary of State. Kerry generously provided his perspectives and wrote about monumental events and issues ranging from Pakistan to Afghanistan to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, the Syrian debacle, the Iranian nuclear ambitions, the Cuba policy shift, Columbia politics and the cartels, the Ukrainian crisis, and finally global warming, the environment and our precious planet. In Kerry's own words, it was diplomacy in a dangerous world:

"The world we live in today doesn't leave you much choice anyway. It's vastly more complicated because change comes at us faster than ever before. It's more crowded, more interdependent, less hierarchical, more influenced by nonstate actors, and filled with connections between economic issues and social, political, and security concerns. Technology has brought the world closer together, while also empowering anyone and everyone to spread messages of hate far and wide with the click of a button.

Conflicts are fought using an eclectic mix of weapons and often by combatants who wear no uniforms and have no permanent address. The world is more prosperous than it has ever been, but the overall picture matters little to those left outside the prosperity: the debate over income inequality is overdue and rages in almost every country. Each day , there are more people in the world, putting additional pressure on limited natural resources. Big chunks of the Middle East, Central America and Africa are torn by violence, creating a record flow of refugees. The age-old problems of nationalist ambition and religious extremism are testing the resilience of the rule of law. And the devil's marriage of technology and terror means thirteenth century battles are fought with twenty-first-century weapons. "

Kerry is an extra-ordinary individual who worked hard towards peace and reconciliation. I feel he would have been an excellent President. His personal journey was juxtaposed in the book alongside his public life. And he shared personal bits about the dissolution of his first marriage, his commitment to his daughters and their upbringing, health issues fought and won, personal losses, the unflinching support and love from his wife - Teresa, and more.

An interesting read if you are interested in major political events, major world personalities, and about this devoted statesman - his integrity, his quest for the public good, and his service to his country and the world. One last and relevant quote:

"Our democracy is challenged. . . It is constantly changing, growing and reinventing itself. But its well-being always--always--depends on citizens to keep it alive. The strength of the United States is derived not from a party, not from a leader, but from a natural resource that is truly renewable: the resolve of our citizens and their commitment to make the American ideal a reality."
Four stars.

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written story on the evolution of a statesman for our times. Surprisingly, John Kerry's life growing up was not much distinguished from his Senate colleagues particularly from the Eastern seaboard: educated in the French boarding school his father attended in his youth yet enough time in the states to acquire his family's love of sailing, Ivy League post- secondary education, and the expected law degree post military service. (Prior to law school, his college life appeared to be quite care free and socializing appears to have been his number one priority. I do not remember him even telling what he majored in.) His early years were marked by his father's work as a diplomat on a variety of assignments which would not only take him far from home for long period of times but also lead to his being uprooted from any where he had made friends and a life for himself if you will. He still regrets not being able to become a Cub Scout and having to attend 10 different high schools. Unlike some of his Congressional colleagues, he volunteered for military service ending up in the Navy (at the recommendation of his father) and ultimately, supervising a PT Swift boat crew in the Vietnam War where he earned the life- long respect of his fellow comrades. A " forever family "that he was not able to develop otherwise who would come to his support him while running for public office as senator and president.

Surprisingly, he was raised Catholic by his Protestant mother who took her vow to do so very seriously helping to create a person of principle who took his faith seriously and upon which he relied for strength for many loses in his life, most notably, the loss of his comrades in Vietnam and fellow college buddies also serving at the time. He would later have to go through the emotional trauma of a divorce from his college sweetheart and adjusting to life as a live apart dad from his two daughters. Another major loss was the passing of the Senior senator from Massachusetts Ted Kennedy his mentor, confidant and life long friend with whom he served for 27 years. His second marriage to the daughter of the Heinz magnate was interrupted by her developing a seizure disorder that would keep her away from him in all of his travels throughout the globe. Thanks to his campaigning for public office, the opposition uncovered a Semitic heritage on his father's father's side of which he was totally unaware up until that point in time. It was brought up to use against him by the anti-Semitic around him. Interestingly, he was schooled with Bob Mueller at St. Pat's in eighth grade and secured a friendship with Benjamin Netanyahu "Bibi" during his undergraduate college years.

An objective story evolves as John Kerry steps through his life hurdles both meeting and missing his goals along the way demonstrating compassion, tolerance and dedication to peace on the world stage and close to home as well yet he diverge somewhat when delivering his take on the Israeli-Palestine situation during his time of negotiations. He gives more time and attention to the needs of the Israelis and gives little credence to the plight of the Palestinians. In re reading that chapter, I did note that he acknowledged his bias on many occasions citing Israel as "our" friend and most important ally yet acknowledged a relationship with Abbas's right hand man Saeb Erekat as well. He also made a concerted effort to pull into the negotiation processes a variety of experts from different sectors ie Ambassador Jim Cunningham, George Mitchell, Special Envoy for Peace under Obama, Martin Indyk (experienced negotiator UK born, raised in Australia and a naturalized American citizen) and General John Allen and include a variety of people and avenues (London Track a back-channel attempt to draft a framework for agreement as he described it). Only after experiencing the disillusionment of Netanyahu when he announces the development of West Bank settlements after receiving 38 million dollars in US aid does Mr. Kerry rightfully sympathize with the Palestinian cause. He did do what others have not done and acted against the advice of US Ambassador at the time Jim Cunningham and visit the Gaza Strip. The trip was made sans security in the smallest of UN vehicles. The trip had the desired effect per Abbas's words "That picture of you walking amid the rubble was worth more to the Palestinian people that a thousand statements." A step forward in showing trust. Israel's violation of agreements they made to the UN ( resolutions times 3?) is hardly mentioned at all which initially bothered me. However, after re reading that chapter, I have come to the conclusion that the interests of the current placeholders on each side must be considered to move forward. One of Kerry's important caveats for how he approached negotiations in general whoever the parties involved was to have no pre-conditions. I do appreciate all his considerations in attempting an agreement between Israel and Palestine: economic incentives for Abbas, regional security for Israel, preservation of the third most holy Islam site Haram al-Sharif located in East Jerusalem, release of political prisoners, and possible land swaps for the final border. The later was an issue for Israel because the 1967 lines were made without. There were Israel developments in 3 or 4 areas near the border that they felt would have to be integrated into Israel. It was sad to learn of the Israel announcement of new Israeli housing units in EAST JERUSALEM

I appreciate John Kerry as Secretary of State for his perseverance in negotiations when others so no hope President Obama included. He has served our country well. Anyone reading this book will leave with an appreciation for the delicate and hard work of diplomacy. His efforts and dedication are corroborated in Wendy Sherman (US Iran Negotiator)'s book Not for the Faint of Heart: lessons in Courage, Power, and Persistence which I highly recommend for all. Two true diplomats of our time.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Kerry's memoir covers his entire life, from his privileged childhood to his service in Vietnam, his long service in the Senate, the 2004 presidential campaign and his service as Secretary of State during the second Obama administration. Kerry is a Senate institutionalist, and he is very critical of the hyperpartisanship that has characterized US politics in recent years. The memoir is opinionated, without being nasty or bitter, and he offers a useful insider's perspective on the politics of the last forty-plus years.

The book is long, but never gets boring. As a writer, Kerry has a knack for carefully examining events without getting bogged down in details that are of minor importance after many years. Perhaps the most interesting section of the book is the last one, where he discusses, in fairly extensive detail, his service of Secretary of State and his role in Israel - Palestine relations, the Iran nuclear agreement, the conflict in Syria, and the climate change negotiations that resulted in the Paris accords. Kerry offers candid opinions on these topics and doesn't pull punches too much. He was clearly exasperated by various actions of Israel, mainly having to do with the West Bank settlements, and, while generally an admirer of President Obama, he makes it clear that he favored a military response to the chemical weapons attacks in Syria, only to be overruled by the White House.

There were a few aspects of the book that were a bit lacking, in my opinion. While Kerry discusses his Vietnam War service in pretty good detail, along with his subsequent role in protesting the war, he never clearly articulates why he volunteered for Vietnam War duty in the first place. Similarly, while he spends a lot of time discussing his run for President in 2004, he doesn't really explain the vision that led him to run for President and what he hoped to change or accomplish if elected.

There were also some obvious examples of what I would term blind spots. Kerry is a great believer in Senate collegiality and "working across the aisle." He persists in those beliefs even though he was continually betrayed by Republicans with whom he sought to work. He continues to sing the praises of Lindsey Graham, even after Graham backed away from his support of proposed legislation to address climate change because he feared a right wing primary challenge. Kerry seems to think that Graham's elevation of his own personal interests over the interests of the entire country and future generations is perfectly understandable. Even more baffling was his decision after voting regularities were discovered in Ohio in 2004 to not challenge the Ohio result in court, even though winning the state would have elevated him to the presidency. Instead, the gentlemanly Kerry refrains from challenging the result "for the good of the country." Really? It was good for the country that it spend the next four years under Republican leadership? In this section, and a few others, Kerry treats the two political parties as rival clubs or fraternities, rather than as parties with radically different policy positions and visions for the country.

Kerry also seemed to not realize that he had a very wealthy and privileged upbringing. As if everybody's family owned an island and regularly traveled internationally.

Despite these flaws, the book is well worth reading. Kerry has been in the middle of many important issues for a long time. He is a man who obviously loves his country and has worked hard for many years to bring about better, fairer policies. He has been deeply involved in foreign relations for many years and gained a lot of knowledge that he passes along to readers.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Kerry is a remarkable man and his memoir is a story of honor, truth, and public service. His story is a contrast to the political expediency that characterizes today’s polarized, win at all costs system of governing.

Kerry came from a background of exceptional privilege. His father, as a State Department foreign service officer, set an example of representing the United States in foreign policy as a member of the establishment class. Family wealth made it possible for John Kerry to attend expensive boarding schools and then to Yale.

Yale University, still at the time of Kerry’s graduation, stressed responsibility along with the privilege of the establishment elite.

Thus Kerry became a Naval officer as the Vietnam War was heating up and he sought at once to be assigned to the most dangerous Navy duty as a Swift Boat commander in the muddy rivers of Viet Nam. Kerry chronicles the firefights that resulted in fellow sailors killed or wounded, and provides an account of the action that won him a Silver Star. He debunks the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth who tried unfairly and inaccurately to discredit his brave service.

Kerry saw first-hand that the dangerous brown river missions were inconsequential in wresting control of the area from the Viet Cong, as were many other search and destroy missions throughout the country. He returned from the war disillusioned. The book reprints his eloquent testimony before Senator Fullbright’s Foreign Relations Committee at the time of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War march on Washington in April, 1971.

Kerry became a U.S. Senator in the waning days of civility, when occasions of bi-partisanship and commitment to getting things done were not rare events. Granted, the seniority system ruled. But senators could and often did slowly change with the times. There was ideological diversity within the parties, if not among the white male members of the Senate itself.

As Senator, Kerry staked out a specialty in foreign affairs and although he failed in a bid for the presidency he was tapped by President Obama to be Secretary of State. Thus he provides a first-hand account of the major international crises and foreign policy decisions over the 32 year period from 1984 to 2016. These include one regret: his vote to support President George W. Bush in the invasion of Iraq; and a major success: the START arms reduction agreement with Russia. We get detailed, sometimes perhaps too detailed, accounts of the twists and turns of negotiations on Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Nicaragua, Pakistan, and Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Kerry is proud of his role in achieving the Iran nuclear agreement, since rejected by President Trump. He writes about his disappointment that President Obama didn’t take swift and decisive action against Assad when the Syrian president deployed chemical weapons on innocent civilians.

Overall, Kerry comes across as a quaintly hopeful policy wonk. There isn’t much insight into the other personalities with whom he served, such as President Obama or the other members of the Obama cabinet. While the detailed account of various foreign policy debates is enlightening, at times the narrative is weighed down by verbiage. I finished this book of nearly 600 pages wondering if it would have been better, and more engaging, if it had been trimmed to 400 pages. But I also finished it with renewed respect for John Kerry and his service to his country.