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There are currently 22 member reviews
for Jackie & Me
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Sandra O. (Alexandria, VA)
Jackie & Me
Oh, what a read! It is fiction so close to fact that one could believe it all. It was narrated by Jack Kennedy's close friend, Lem Billings. He tells how he stood in for Jack taking Jackie every Sunday to art galleries and parties while Jack was busy entering politics. He mentions all the stores and restaurants I remember here in Washington in the 1950s. Jackie's encounter with Joseph Kennedy is fascinating. A real page turner, it feels like you are inside the trio's love affair and complicated marriage. And because the media was not on 24/7, much of their private life was quiet to those of us on the outside.
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Shawna (TX)
Friendship and Courtship
For those who love historical fiction, this is an intriguing read of Jaqueline Bouvier's life before and her courtship with the Kennedy Family. Louis Bayard acknowledges this is a fictional work, but enough of the story rings true that it holds your interest and you wonder just how much Jackie Bouvier understood what marrying into the Kennedy family meant. The relationship between Lem Billings and Jackie is fascinating and at the center of the novel. For book groups, there would be many subjects to discuss.
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Jackie H. (Naples, FL)
JACKIE & ME
JACKIE & ME is a very engaging book. The author provides so much information behind the facade of the Camelot-like life of the Kennedys...who would have dreamed! The handling of her friendship with Lem was a cornerstone of the story.
As a college freshman when JFK was elected, I wanted to be like Jackie.
As much as I enjoyed reading THE COURTSHIP OF MR. LINCOLN, JACKIE & ME is better. Enjoy the read and recall the era!
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Gail K. (Saratoga Springs, NY)
A Successful Foray into Alternative History
Because I am of an age that I remember Jackie Kennedy Onassis, from her White House days to her death, I wasn't sure how I would like this "alternative history" written by Louis Bayard. Much to my surprise and delight, I enjoyed it enormously. I'd like to think that Jackie might have had a stalwart friend in Lem, the first person narrator, and that she was as strong and independent as she was portrayed. As for Jack, he is shown for the scoundrel that I suspect he was. At times funny and at other times quite poignant, this is a book I'll recommend, especially to my friends who might like to ponder what the pre-Camelot days might have been like. Kudos to Mr. Bayard for blending just the right amount of fact and supposition to produce a most enjoyable read.
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Marie C. (Medford, NY)
Jacki O or No?
Bayard's "memoir"had its moments:sentences that were great writing, glimpses into the Kennedy life that felt like a well-directed film, and characterizations that rendered the famous pair as true-to-life as the fan magazines made them for decades before and after his death. But some of what I saw and imagined was gratuitous, making the narrator and his thinking more important than the characters he was attempting to bring to life in a nuanced manner. I was disappointed. As a Jackie O fan, I felt cheated of reality. I felt the sometimes snide judgments of the narrator as unnecessary. And, although well written, the book sometimes read like a Kitty Kelly tell all, where the narrator is more impressed by his own cleverness and access to the the "stars" than he is at peeling away the character's depth. Some of the observations even came across as sophomoric, looking to gossipy asides for accurate portrayal. It is an alternative portrayal for sure, but not one that engaged me.
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Wendy P. (Jourdanton, TX)
New Point of View on Jackie Onassis Kennedy
This book was a bit of a slow start and I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I thought I would. I did like hearing from a different perspective. It was hard to remember that this was a work of fiction so I was constantly wondering how much artistic license the author took. Probably a good fit for readers who are big fans of Jackie O.
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Mary Jane D. (Arlington Heights, IL)
Unlikely Friendship
Jackie and Me is the story of an unlikely friendship between JFK and his "fixer" Lem Billings and his relationship with Jackie. It adds some fictional drama to the historical facts that we know about Jack's philandering ways up to and after the wedding to Jackie. In the acknowledgments, Louis Bayard states that the book is a fictional work and an exercise in alternative history.
I wouldn't recommend the book to fans of JFK and the Kennedy's although Jackie is portrayed in a sympathetic manner.
I did not find the book compelling.It was a slow read for me and weighed down with some long passages that lost my attention.
I lived through the Kennedy years and I'd rather read historical fiction about events and people from periods I haven't experienced.
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