Customer Reviews

Jackie: Beyond the Myth of Camelot

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

It must be noted that the research for the PBS film 'Jackie Behind the Myth' and the book 'Jackie Beyond the Myth of Camelot' was donated and accepted at The John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. The research on the book is completely factual, and finally a writer has explored Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as a visionary in the area of culture.

Sadly some people don't know about this aspect of her life, and therefore should read this book to find out what Jacqueline Onassis really cared about. This book is quite wonderful, and the research is completely accurate.

I love how seamlessly K.L. Kelleher weaves between different writers, quotes, poetry, and prayers, to name a few, all the while telling an dazzling story that you won't read or hear about (in such a presentation) elsewhere in the internet or bookstores. It's very intimate, and I really appreciate the detailed research and re-creations of Jackie's life as an artist, muse, and supporter of the humanities. I read a LOT for work, a lot a lot, and this book was such a relief, such a great escape into another world.

The Wall Street Journal book review of December 18, 2010 in an article titled "Rewriting Her Legacy" stated the following:

"It's hard to imagine that there's more to say about the extraordinary life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, but it turns out that there is: Two dueling books tell the story of the last third of her life spent as a literary editor in New York, with JFK and Ari just ghostly presences in the background.

William Kuhn's "Reading Jackie" and Greg Lawrence's "Jackie as Editor" are seemingly the same book--chronological accounts of her 19-year career at the publishers Viking and Doubleday--but they are actually very different."

I, however, believe that K.L. Kelleher's book "Jackie: Beyond the Myth of Camelot, A Passion for Artists & Authors", which appeared on the market 11 years ago, is well written, researched, insightful, engaging and certainly worth reading! Kelleher's book is a bye product of her PBS documentary, with the same name, which debuted on November 29th, 1999.

I found this book to be a wonderful new addition and a rare description of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis love of books. It's nearly impossible to find a book like this one.

The thing that irritated me most about this book is the fact that the author does not know how to punctuate sentences or use correct verbage. It seemed to me like a fifth-grader wrote it and forgot to use the spell check. Also, the author gets bogged down in details that really had nothing to do with Jackie Kennedy Onassis (the Bossa Nova section almost put me to sleep).

I suggest you save your money and buy the video instead.

Has anyone ever wondered why so few journalist explore Jacqueline Kennedy's testimony at The Johnson Library to discover the truth about the murder of her husband. At least this author mentions that Mrs. Kennedy stated in 1974 that "they gave messages to Adlai Steveson" and others warning President Kennedy not to go to Dallas. I thought this was one of the most thoughtful and well-researched books on Jacqueline Kennedy.

I happened to know how difficult it is to reveal the religious beliefs of celebrities in post-modern America, and salute this author for capturing a complete understanding of all the books Onassis read, including the Bible.

I found that this book was poorly written-- some of the information might be useful, but it really isn't a good resource if you're looking for a general biography of Jackie. I think Sarah Bradford's biography, America's Queen, is a thousand times better than this book!

This book is poorly written and riddled with inaccuracies (though harmless ones, such as that JFK taught Caroline the poem "Fig" when she herself has stated that her mother taught it to her to recite to her father); however, it contains valuable information about Jackie's years as an editor. It is too bad that this book did not have a decent editor. The author wanders far far afield repeatedly wasting pages on too much detail about such things as Viet Nam and the bossa nova...when a few paragraphs would have sufficed (the book is about Jackie, remember?). I was truly surprised that other readers were not more critical. Actually one might do better to skip the book and view the video of the same name.