Customer Reviews

Jackie After Jack: Portrait of the Lady

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

My favorite part about this book is the fact that it gave such a refreshing look at someone who could, so easily, be idealized. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was human & possessed all the failings of a human being. I don't think she saw herself as anything else, & reportedly, could be very self-deprecating among her friends. The Kennedys & all of their family will forever fascinate our imaginations, but this book was a look at a very real woman, who withstood many challenges. She was able to present herself to the world as almost superhuman, which may have been her greatest failing. As they say, everyone is fascinated by power & strength, but too often rejoice in seeing those who possess those qualities topple from grace.

After the tragedy in Dallas, Jackie Kennedy became America's national hero and inspiration. Author Christopher Andersen takes us into a fascinating and often controversial journey into the real Jackie. The book wastes no time in getting to the action. It begins just seconds after John Kennedy has been shot. No story could be more heartbreaking than the the tragic journey back to Washington, DC and the days after Kennedy's death. According to Andersen, both Jackie and John relied heavily on Max Jacobson, also known as Dr. Feelgood, to relieve their pains and stresses. Jackie was kept well sedated during the funeral to become the brave grieving widow who inspired the world. JACKIE AFTER JACK is a surprising revelation. The widowed Jackie has numerous affairs often with married men and is always drawn to wealthier men. She shatters her golden image by marrying the wealthy and much older Aristotle Onassis. Jackie is portrayed as a woman who demanded loyalty and would end friendship over any perceived slight. Her shopping sprees and extravances were a strain to both her husbands. Although the book can weaken one's admiration for Jackie, it doesn't last long. By the end of the book, no one can feel anything but love and respect for a very remarkable woman. It's a fascinated and well-researched book.

This book is full of drama. I'm sure a person my age shouldn't read it considering all the cussing, sexual senerios, etc. But I was intrigued by the Kennedys and decided to read the 400+ page book. It was a time consuming book but it is well worth the time. The only thing is, the books comes in with a pop and sort of leaves you hanging at the end. It starts with JFKs murder and then leaves with a bunch of stupid stuff. I recommend it to people who can remember the assasination, unlike myself.

This is a very good book, the author seems to bring Jackie O to life right before you. You see all sides of the most famous First Lady in America's history. You see the person behind the famous smile and sunglasses, her grief and depression after JFK's murder, her restless traveling and fascinating and ultimately unsatisfactory marriage to Ari Onassis, her rediscovering herself after Ari's death and her final years with the true love of her life, Maurice Templesman. The author makes you realize that this was a real life person, not some Goddess from Mt. Olympus. She was a flawed human being, but then again, aren't we all? I highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn about this fascinating lady.

This was the first book that I read about Jackie, and the one that will probably stick out in my head the longest. I love reading about Jacqueline. I can't seem to get enough. If only I was alive to see her, atleast on television, I would be a truly happy person. lol. But life, is as it is. And I'm only 15. Hopefully as I get older I will be able to learn more about her, and get to see what she was really like. (Their are so many things that you never learn about her) But this book gets really close to letting you sit right next to her, and have a little chat with the former First Lady herself. E-Mail:Switchbladexo

This book is a page turner from the beginning. I have never read Christopher Andersen before, and now am reading another novel of his, "An Affair to Remember" detailing the love story between Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. As someone who was not alive when JFK was shot, I never really understood this country's fascination with the Kennedy family. After reading this book, I now have a hunger to learn more about our "royal family." This is an easy, entertaining, poignant read.

The author treads a fine line between adulation and exposure. The portrait that results is of a woman molded as much by societal influences as by her own choices. Those carefully orchestrated days of Camelot left a bad taste in the after math of truth. Jackie represented a style that no longer dominates perceptions. She was raised to bask in the reflected glory of her husband. Her own identity became submerged in his. It comes as no surprise that her choice after Kennedy's death was to remain in the seats of power, even if that meant marrying Onassis.

Being very interested in the Kennedy family I am usually a sucker for new titles. This was no exception.As soon as I saw it in the bookshop yesterday I bought it and sat down to read. I found it a very disappointing experience. There really wasn't very much in the book that is new - some of the more sensational bits were little short of irritating. I am getting sick of writers who put in such information as the so-called affair with Onassis before marriage, and with Brando etc. later, with either no back-up evidence at all OR ON THE UNSUBSTANTIATED EVIDENCE OF A SINGLE PERSON. These things are presented as fact simply because IT HAS BEEN SAID! (One on the evidence of Mrs. Lincoln who seems to have had a bone to pick anyway as aluded to in this book). Easy to make these statements about people who are dead isn't it! Some of the information was fairly interesting but I had to wade through so much old hat stuff to get there. And this writer is trotted out as an expert on Jackie! He had enough here to write a pamphlet and he's stretched it as far as he could. He obviously belongs to the Andrew Morton school of writers - milk a topic for every possible cent. Also writes in the gosh, golly, wow style that I find so irritating in the magazines. His first book wasn't so bad but this is a real pot-boiler.

I will give this book the compliment of readability, but I hesitate to go further than that in its praise.

As a voracious reader of biographies, and having read all other Jackie novels I could get my hands on, I would rank this book as low to middling in its portrayal of the former first lady.

Granted, no one, even an autobiographer, can paint an entirely accurate portrait of a biographical subject, but this book does, I think, fall well short. Do I think Jacqueline Onassis held Aristotle in contempt, as Anderson says? I find it easier to believe Kiki Feroudi Moutsatsos's comments in her book The Onassis Women than those of Anderson; Mrs. Moutsatsos WAS quite closer to Ari and Jackie than Christopher Anderson ever was. Do I think she slept with Marlon Brando? I find myself more inclined to believe, for example, J. Randy Taraborrelli in his book Jackie, Ethel, Joan, as his account makes more SENSE than Anderson's... Jacqueline's character in THIS particular book screams with inconsistency. I think that was Anderson's point, as she was a woman bereft and hunted. However, considering the sum of Jacqueline as a biographical subject, this book's dissonance in the face of the greater context is difficult to reconcile. But it is entertaining.

This book was so hard to put down! I definitely learned a lot about the Kennedy's. It's so strange how they were able to keep so much of what JFK did from the public back then. Imagine if Clinton were President at the time. He would've been set! Anyway, excellent read. I highly recommend it.