Harry

May 14, 2018
Journalist Levin (Diana’s Babies), who interviewed England’s Prince Harry for a Newsweek cover story in 2017, provides an admiring, if not all that revealing, look at the popular royal’s life from the tragic death of his mother to his romance with actress Meghan Markle. Much of the material will be familiar to anyone who has followed the history of the royal family. Levin describes Harry as a withdrawn child. Alongside his elder brother, William, he endured what Levin calls a “troubled, toxic” home life prior to the divorce of their parents in 1996 when Harry was 11; the boys had to mourn the death of their mother in the public eye the following year. Levin portrays Harry’s difficulty fitting in with his peers at Eton College boarding school, where he felt “stupid” in the shadow of his brother. She glosses over some of Harry’s rough edges—the drinking, the vandalism, the Nazi costume party attire—and posits that these were evidence of emotional disturbance rather than simple bad behavior. Levin provides fresh and nuanced coverage of the prince’s military career, his mental health issues (including frequent panic attacks), and his ideas for modernizing the institution of the royal family. This is a sympathetic glimpse of the personality and personal demons of the vulnerable man behind the handsome smile and royal title.