This is not just another Kennedy biography. It's a hefty book that took the author ten years to research and write, and a significant portion of it is devoted to very detailed notes and footnotes. This telling of Ted Kennedy's life gives much more complete insight into his place in the family, the emotional challenges and neglect he had to deal with, and his lifelong process of growing up than have most previous bios. It's no surprise to anyone with a minimal familiarity with Kennedy's life that he experienced more trauma and shock that most people, and that his apparently privileged (but actually neglectful) upbringing left him unprepared academically, relationally, spiritually, and emotionally to deal with an average life let alone one filled with deep losses. Kennedy's failures to do the right thing, from cheating in Harvard to Chappaquiddick to his inability to be emotionally present in his first marriage, are not excused or minimized but seen in context. A major virtue of this book in my view is that Gabler offers versions of important events in Kennedy's life, but he also offers an opinion in many of them as to which seem most likely to him based on the many interviews he conducted with firsthand witnesses. Gabler's last opus, a major biography of Walt Disney, was researched and written with the same depth and thoroughness as this book and richly deserved its acclaim. I highly recommend Catching the Wind as a very gratifying reading experience for anyone with an interest in the Kennedy family or even in twentieth century American political history.

I don't know when I was more moved by a biography. I was inspired and I suffered and cried along with Ted Kennedy. I was informed and I understood how we got to 'here'.
The "Shakespearean tragedy" of the Kennedy family is experienced through this youngest son. The most affable Kennedy, the pleaser, the people person, the least son, inherited a heavy mantle.

When President Kennedy was assassinated, Bobby took up his cause and legacy, grew into the liberal leader role with a heightened moral awareness. And when Bobby was assassinated, it was up to Ted to finish their work, and he became the liberal lion of the Senate, the moral consciousness of America politics.

Neal Gabler's biography Catching the Wind reads like a epic poem, the flawed hero doing battle for the least and the lost. The story is a tragedy, the hero's fatal flaws bringing his downfall, but in this story, the hero gets up over and over to take up the sword once more.

This volume delves deeply into the Kennedy family character and history as the formation for the development of the children.

Finding his way to the Senate, Ted found his place in life, but the pressure to run for the presidency was both a siren call and a warning. Ted was sure he would be the target of one more assassin's bullet.

Ted was a workaholic, and a drinker, and he had girlfriends and a wife who felt lost and, like her parents, resorted to alcohol. Then there was the encounter with the bridge on an island that gave his enemies the weapon they needed.

Liberalism has been under attack for most of my adult life. I embraced it since mock voting in junior high; a classmate explained that Goldwater was a hawk and LBJ wanted to end poverty. My faith and my politics embraced the values of fighting for the meek and the weak and the downtrodden and the stranger and the impoverished.

Following Ted Kennedy's career, Garbler shows how racism and fear led to the rise of 'law and order' after the social unrest of the 1960s, the anti-war and black rebellions in the cities.

I lived through much of this history, my first awareness of politics coming with John Kennedy's presidential run, Ted's nightmare Chappaquiddick occuring when I was in college, the Watergate break-in carried out on my wedding night.

As a teenager I was resentful of these conflicts and the pressure to politicize my life when all I wanted was to 'grow up'. I was also sympathetic, for I had seen the inner city and the racism espoused by working class neighbors. I was too naive to understand the racist implications of 'law and order'. And as I entered young adulthood, I watched in dismay as liberalism was abandoned by Americans.

Joe McCarthy's fear-mongering populism, Nixon's deep hatred of all persons Kennedy leading to his dirty tricks, and the fact that America ultimately rejected them, brings some hope that we can and will do so again.

I can not wait for Garbler's second volume. I usually read several books at a time, but I was so immersed in Catching the Wind I could not read anything else.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

This book is the first of a two part biography of Edward Kennedy. It is well written and well researched. It counters a lot of common belief about him and the reason for his escapades. It digs deeper into this early background and experiences which helped to shape him in later life. This is not a book for the casual reader of the Kennedys. The chapters are very long and somewhat dense at times. It takes dedication, focus and periodic breaks in order to get through it, but it is worth the time.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog.