What do readers think of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis by Barbara Leaming? Write your own review.

I really enjoyed this biography of Jackie Kennedy. Taking the view that she suffered from PTSD, the author sheds new light on Jackie after the assassination through that lens. I found most of it fascinating. There was a section where the emphasis was on the politics of the time and I felt that moving away from the " personal Jackie" weakened the book. Yet, it was definitely worth reading.

I think this book was very well written and the author made a point of documenting everything. Unfortunately for me, a lot of what she wrote about, made me have to rethink the way I have always thought of Jackie Kennedy. I always thought of her as a princess, indeed, a resident of Camelot. But the back story here instead reveals what a self centered person she really was. It seems that she used people quite a lot, and that she was the most important person in her life. As I said though, the author is quite talented, and the story is interesting and thought provoking in many ways. At the end, I'm not sure she had a very enviable life.

The book is very good and well worth reading. I am old enough to remember the Kennedy years and the term "Camlot" for the White House. While this is very interesting, it is also about a woman who had a sad life. She wanted a safe marriage and life with Jack was certainly not that and recovering from his death was a life long project.

This book was interesting to me because it changed my idea of Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis. She was often shown by the press to be haughty and unfeeling,especially after the death of her husband. At that it was hard to understand why she married Onassis. The diagnosis of PTSD was not familiar at that time and it certainly explains much of her behavior.

When I first started reading the book I almost gave up because I thought the author was just "digging up dirt ". As I read on I found a whole new perspective on the tortured life of Jackie and her children.
I don't know how younger readers will react to this book but for those of us who were adults at that time it clears up many negative feelings toward her. That is one reason the book is worth reading.

I became a young adult during the Kennedy era and shortly before JFK's election saw him in person. It seemed like a golden era--during his years in office and later in retrospect. Then, after the nightmare of his assassination and the subsequent murders of politicians in the 60's, there came the cracks in the Camelot myth. Their marriage was far from perfect, JFK had many health problems, and political mistakes were made. But somehow the myth endured. I found some new things in this book and some were disturbing. It was a political marriage of convenience on JFK's part from the beginning. I really was disturbed by the great friendship between Jackie and McNamara and her lack of interest in the Warren Commission's findings and the author's avoidance of how the PTSD affected Jackie's relationship with her children. I am wary when there is a thesis at the outset, in this case, PTSD, which seems viable but then everything in the person's life is seen only through that lens. No one in the book came off well. I think I had limited sympathy for Jackie because the author reiterated her PTSD thesis at every juncture. There are other factors which influenced her and were ignored.

I read with interest this biography of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Having grown up in Massachusetts, and being in 4th grade at the time of the assassination, I was unfortunately one of the many who was fascinated with everything that she did.
This book gave me a new, more human and sympathetic view of her as a person. My heart went out to her as I read of the political manipulations on both sides.
However, I do think the theory of post traumatic stress was a bit overdone...there are many soldiers and other people who have horrific things happen in their life, and are able to move on without it affecting every aspect of their lives.

Several of the strongest images from my youth were poignantly visualized in this book. The JFK assassination, Jackie Kennedy in her blood stained clothes, the black shrouded widow silently walking behind her husband's casket to St. Matthew's Cathedral, the murders of Bobby and Martin Luther King, and the Vietnam War. Leaming's observations and well-documented research takes the reader to the aha moment when, 31 years later, Jackie's life is understood by our growing knowledge of PTSD. This reader recommends this book for the reader seeking an understanding of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, American history, and the effects of history's accompanying traumas on the mental health of society and our leaders.

Truth be told, I didn't believe that I could finish this story. What I wanted to remember of Jackie Kennedy is not portrayed in real events. It is difficult to imagine the grief experienced by someone as she did in witnessing the murder, assassination of her husband as Jackie witnessed on that November day in 1963. How do you remain resolute and strong for your children, the extended family, the people of the US, the world and yourself? This is a sorrowful story, yet insightful. The political ramifications of the main event were as tragic as Jackie's personal issues. As the years progressed it was evident that the personal tragedy never quite eluded the daily events of her life, as politics continued to play out in some manner. Staying with the story, I learned more about depression, PTSD and life altering events to empathize with those who find themselves unable to cope without support.