Ted Kennedy’s autobiography, True Compass, was released three weeks after his death. “With so many books about the Kennedys, my father wanted to tell his story” said Ted Kennedy Jr. Much of the information in this book is very familiar. What is different is the way it is told.

Ted Kennedy had a great love for his family, especially his mother and his brother John who also was his godfather. Another passion was the United States Senate where he had a trail blazing career in which he championed legislation such as the Voting Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. He continued to work for passage of universal healthcare (the cause of his life) until his death. The book is dedicated to his wife Victoria whom he married in 1992 and whom who described as “the woman who changed my life.” Beginning with the title, there are many references to his lifelong love of sailing and the many hours of enjoyment and relaxation that this sport gave him.

Born in 1932, Ted Kennedy was the youngest of nine children. Although the book is fiercely loyal to every member of the close-knit family, there are occasional acknowledgments of their harshness. He remembers his father whom he both feared and adored warning him at age 13: “You can have a serious life or a non-serious life, Teddy, I’ll still love you whichever choice you make. But if you decide to have a non-serious life, I won’t have much time for you.”

The book does not gloss over Kennedy’s flaws: his expulsion for a year from Harvard, his responsibility for the death of Mary Joe Kopechne and the failure of his first marriage damaged by womanizing and the couple’s shared abuse of alcohol.

Kennedy settled scores with those he believed had wronged him, including CBS newsman, Roger Mudd, who asked him why he wanted to be president in 1980 and former president, Jimmy Carter, whom Kennedy described as a “difficult man to convince of anything.” Before challenging Carter in 1980, Kennedy had differed from Carter on healthcare and Carter’s refusal to appoint Archibald Cox to a vacancy on the First Circuit Court of Appeals in 1979.

He speaks poignantly of the period in June 1968 – when having already lost older brothers Joe and Jack, he eulogized his brother Bobby at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He writes of that dark hour: “Life and politics went on . . .but not me. I was shaken to my core.”

On a lighter note, anyone who remembers Senator Jim Eastland will enjoy Chapter 9 of the book, entitled, “Drinks with the Senator.” He describes his first meeting with Eastland. As Kennedy writes, “My education in the ways of the senate reached another colorful plateau.”

This book is honest, gripping and in many parts, exceptionally moving. As he tells the story of his life, we see how Ted Kennedy’s hard work and perseverance helped to establish an enduring legacy of public work that finally eclipsed his private failings.