AMERICAN ADULTERER

Book ID/图书代码： 11701208B25888

English Summary/英文概要： “The subject is an American citizen holding high elected office, married, and father to a young family….”
From its opening line, AMERICAN ADULTERER examines the psychology of a habitual womanizer in hypnotically clinical prose. Like any successful philanderer, the subject must be circumspect in his choice of mistresses, and employ careful calculation in their seduction; he must suffer extraordinary efforts to conceal his affairs from his wife and jealous rivals. But this is no ordinary adulterer. He is the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
JFK famously confided that, if he went three days without a woman, he suffered severe headaches. Jed Mercurio takes inspiration from the tantalising details surrounding the President’s sex life to imagine an intimate perspective on Kennedy’s affairs with Marilyn Monroe, Mafia moll Judith Campbell, libertine Mary Meyer, and his flings with numerous White House staff, including his tryst with a nineteen-year-old intern whose unofficial role was to provide sexual release for the man who was Leader of the Free World during the Cuban Missiles Crisis.
Yet the author never demonises his subject. We receive a moving account of a man not only crippled by back pain, but enduring numerous hormonal and digestive crises, a man overcoming constant suffering to serve as a highly effective Commander-in-Chief, dedicated to an idealistic vision of America. But each affair propels him into increasingly murkier waters. President Kennedy fears losing the wife and children to whom he’s devoted, and the office to which he’s dedicated.
AMERICAN ADULTERER presents a sympathetic portrait of a virtuous man enslaved by an uncontrollable vice. Through its study of an important historical figure, the novel poses controversial questions about society’s evolving fixation on the private lives of public officials, and, ultimately, ignites a polemic on monogamy, marriage and traditional family values.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 本书调查了习惯性爱情玩咖的心理。大多数成功男人对于选择情妇十分谨慎，恰到好处地响应她们的诱惑，对于自己的妻子和心怀嫉妒的竞争对手，他们必须极力来隐瞒他们的情事。但是他是一个与众不同的情夫，他正是美国第35届总统John Fitzgerald Kennedy。
JFK曾说过倘若他三天不碰女人，就会痛不欲生。作者从这位总统富有挑逗性的性生活细节描述中得到了灵感，描绘了一幅Kennedy与各种身份的女性，从妓女到白宫里的女性员工，发生暧昧关系的亲密景象，其中还包括玛丽莲梦露和一名19岁的实习女生。这些小人物为在古巴导弹危机的领导者提供了性欲的释放。
尽管如此，Jed并未丑化这位伟人。作者叙述了不但被背痛折磨，还要忍受无休无止的激素和消化疾病的主人公。此外，他必须克服这个总统职位所带来的巨大压力，并且投身于美国理想主义社会的建设。但Kennedy的每件情事都把他推向更黑暗的深渊。他害怕失去他致爱的妻儿和辛苦建立起来的事业。作者向这个善良但又无法控制恶癖的男人致以最深刻的同情！
本书通过对重要历史人物的研究，就富有争论性的问题---公众要员的私生活进行讨论，点燃了一场关于就一夫一妻制、和谐婚姻这些传统家庭价值观念讨论的战争。(RY)

Awards/获奖情况：AMERICAN ADULTERER: UK: Cape (pub spring 2009); US: Simon & Schuster; Brazil: Record; France: Plon; Holland: Mouria; Italy: offer; Spain: Anagrama.

Praise for previous title, ASCENT (前一部小说ASCENT的书评): “storytelling of a high calibre, fully imagined, finely crafted… Mercurio’s understated empathy, his starkly elegant prose and his instinct for juxtaposition lift it far above a Boy’s Own adventure”---The Guardian (“一部高水平发挥，充满想象，经过精心构造的作品。Mercurio善用叠字法，将独特的描述蕴涵在表达直接但文风优雅的行文中，低调深沉又令人难忘。”---The Guardian)

“as impressive a piece of creative writing as you will ever read… riveting”---The Daily Telegraph (“从未读过如此印象深刻的佳作，让人铭记在心！”---The Daily Telegraph

“Mercurio is a master of precision, armed, like Yeremin, with a razor-sharp eye…fighting-fit, muscular prose, which carries no dead weight… that rarest of things - a highbrow book that’s vertiginously thrilling.”---Observer (“Mercurio是一位计算精确的‘武装’大师，有使人眼前一亮的敏锐目光。巧妙地用无形力量创造出这部耐人寻味、意义深刻的作品，震撼心灵！”---Observer)

“An unforgettable novel...it’s about men and machines, coolly violent yet invested with a strain of boyish idealism in it’s vision of frail men and frail machines lost in the vastness of space”---The Sunday Herald (“一部过目难忘的优秀作品！反映人与‘机器’相互间的角色转换，透着一股冷暴力。作者用带有少年理想主义色彩的笔锋刻画迷失在广阔宇宙中变得脆弱不堪的他们。”---The Sunday Herald)

About the Author/作者介绍： Jed Mercurio trained as a doctor and became a full-time writer in 1994 following the success of his semi-autobiographical BBC medical drama Cardiac Arrest. His first novel, BODIES, was chosen as one of the five best debuts of 2002 by the Guardian. He adapted it for television and won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Drama Series of 2005. He published his second novel, ASCENT, in 2007
Jed Mercurio，原职医生。他带有半自传性质的医疗剧《Cardiac Arrest》在BBC播出后，凡响热烈。于1994年转行为全职作者，首部小说《BODIES》被Guardian杂志评选为2002年5部最佳处女作小说之一。随后Mercurio将它推广到电视银幕上，并荣获了2005年英国皇家电视学会奖最佳电视剧奖。2007年第二部小说《ASCENT》面世。

Format:HARDCOVER

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE(到期可授)

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：

原文第一章内容：暂无

手稿：暂无

大纲：暂无