We talk about Eleanor Roosevelt’s funeral the week before. I mention the piece I read by James Baldwin in The New Yorker, “Letter From a Region of My Mind.” We talk about Thanksgiving plans, the children’s birthday parties, Palm Beach at Christmas. We talk about the opening of the Mona Lisa at the National Gallery in January. Jack laughs when I tell him that, every night, I dream of that painting heading toward us across the Atlantic.
The evening air is cool against my face. I’ve found a piece of land where we can build in Middleburg, Virginia, on Rattlesnake Mountain – acres of rolling hills and field, a dizzying stretch of expanse looking out outward the Blue Ridge Mountains.
“We have Glen Ora,” Jack says.
“We only rent that. This will be ours. The house will be modest, I promise.”
He rolls his eyes.
“And when it’s finished,” I say, “we’ll call it Wexford.” Wexford is the name of his family’s ancestral land in Ireland. I can tell it makes him happy I’d suggest that.
Jackie was always true to herself.
Official synopsis:
Life with Jack
Life with Onassis
Life as a woman who goes to work because she wants to.
My life is all of these things, and it is none of these things. They continue to miss what’s right in front of them. I love books. I love the sea. I love horses. Children. Art. Ideas. History. Beauty. Because beauty blows us open to wonder.
Even the beauty that breaks your heart.
Jackie is the story of a woman—deeply private with a nuanced, formidable intellect—who forged a legacy out of grief and shaped history even as she was living it. It is the story of a love affair, a complicated marriage, and the fracturing of identity that comes in the wake of unthinkable violence.
When Jackie meets the charismatic congressman Jack Kennedy in Georgetown, she is twenty-one and dreaming of France. She has won an internship at Vogue. Kennedy, she thinks, is not her kind of adventure: “Too American. Too good-looking. Too boy.” Yet she is drawn to his mind, his humor, his drive. The chemistry between them ignites. During the White House years, the love between two independent people deepens. Then, a motorcade in Dallas: “Three and a half seconds—that’s all it was—a slivered instant between the first shot, which missed the car, and the second, which did not. . . . A hypnotic burst of sunlight off her bracelet as she waved.”
This vivid, exquisitely written novel is at once a captivating work of the imagination and a window into the world of a woman who led many lives: Jackie, Jacks, Jacqueline, Miss Bouvier, Mrs. Kennedy, Jackie O.
Truly enjoyable historical fiction reads like fiction, with a cohesive plot and compelling character development, and facts blended into the entertainment. Jackie definitely fulfilled all of the criteria. Without necessarily knowing which anecdotes were factual and which were created from knowledge of Jackie’s life, everything led to the development of Jackie from a young single girl making monumental decisions about how her life would go, to marrying JFK and contributing her insights to his political career and presidency, to her marriage to Aristotle Onassis, and finally her choices to continue the path of her life as she wanted to, regardless of the public’s expectations based on her previous relationships and persona.
The story also gave a glimpse into other well-known figures, like Joe (JFK’s dad) and Bobby (his brother), as well as potential impressions of other historical figures like Martin Luther King Jr.’s family and the Clintons. Overall, the book was both educational and enjoyable and earned a high 4 out of 5 stars. The book would be a good read for history buffs or fans of fiction from the era.
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Becki Bayley is a wife and mother who likes just getting by. Reading is a great way for her to relax and escape, without leaving home. Check out what she’s up to when not reading on Instagram, where she posts as SweetlyBSquared.
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Jackie, by Dawn Tripp
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