Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years

Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years
by Barbara Leaming

Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years
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Book Summary Information

Author: Barbara Leaming
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2002-09-24
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Free Press

Book Reviews of Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years

Book Review: Really juicy, although I should take a star away for repetition
Summary: 4 Stars

Like any good little Catholic girl of the 1960s, I have read and read and read all kinds of books on most of the Kennedys, but have a fascination with Jackie. I must say that when I picked this book up, I expected more treacle and baloney. But it really offers exceptional detail of Jacqueline Kennedy's daily life as First Lady and a straightforward presentation of her torment in light of her husband's exceptionally loose zipper. I was frankly astonished and I didn't think I could be astonished at these people anymore.

Leaming is a pretty good writer, and has done her homework. However, for some reason she repeats various facts CONSTANTLY, as if she was writing for idiots. God, it is annoying.

Nevertheless, I give this one four stars because of the incredible amount of research Leaming includes about the details of day-to-day life, the rather shocking details of drug usage in the Kennedy White House (I found this very alarming), a fresh approach to Papa Joe, Kick Kennedy stories (repeated endlessly, alas)and the analysis of JBK's association with her mother, her husband's paramours, and the tactics she used to keep her sanity in the face of all this (escape, look good, escape, dress well, escape, entertain brilliantly, escape, read another book, escape, escape, escape).

Leaming is a Jackie partisan, so paper doll Jackie stars here hoping to arrest Jack's attention for more than five minutes. I understood, when all was said and done, what HAPPENED to her -- that is, what acted upon her -- but less than necessary about how she actually felt, what she thought, what she believed.

Jackie refused to keep a diary or tell her own story, so we will always be left to guess what really made her tick. I ended thinking tha the two of them, JFK and his wife, were clearly flawed but absolutely in control of their images. They could easily be nothing but really lightweight puff pastries whom we have endowed with our own craving for an Olympian combo of beauty, glamour and brilliance. This book gives us ample reason to pity their pathos while applauding their skill at impression manipulation, but like all the others, it just can't cough up the whole chihuahua -- ie ever WAS a whole chihuahua between them.

Summary of Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years

Drawing from recently declassified top-secret material, as well as revelatory eyewitness accounts, Secret Service records, and Jacqueline Kennedy's personal letters, bestselling biographer Barbara Leaming answers the question: what was it like to be Mrs. John F. Kennedy during the dramatic thousand days of the Kennedy presidency? Brilliantly researched, Leaming's poignant and powerful chronicle illuminates the tumultuous day-to-day life of a woman who entered the White House at age thirty-one, seven years into a complex and troubled marriage, and left at thirty-four after her husband's assassination. Revealing the full story of the interplay of sex and politics in Washington, Mrs. Kennedy will indelibly challenge our vision of this fascinating woman, and bring a new perspective to her crucial role in the Kennedy presidency.

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