Customer Reviews

Janet and Jackie: The Story of a Mother and Her Daughter, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am an avid reader/collector of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis books, and I would recommend this book to someone who wants to better understand her. A great deal has been made about the relationship between Mrs. Onassis and her father, but not much was ever published about her mother. The author has accessed materials from the Auchincloss family, and has also talked with members of the family who can give insight into the complex woman Janet Auchincloss was. There are some extraneous details, but I learned a lot about the family dynamics, and how they affected some of Jackie's behaviors and tastes.
Janet Auchincloss has usually been portrayed as a social climbing, volatile, meddling woman with whom Jackie had little affection. This book makes Mrs. Auchincloss much more real, and clearly shows the impression she made on her eldest daughter.

Most bios of JBKO treat her relationship with her mother only superficially, concentrating instead on how she adored her charismatic father. This book shines the light on Janet, which is a welcome change. While I applaud the new approach, I'm afraid it's not entirely successful. It includes many Janet stories, and almost as much about Jackie, but disappointingly little about Janet AND Jackie. I also wish that Lee and her relationship with Janet and Jackie had been explored more. Still, this book is an entertaining and credible read. I especially appreciated the part where Janet confronts her Senatorial son-in-law regarding his behavior after Jackie loses a baby. Mrs. Auchincloss behaved just as my, or other good mother, would.

All books I have previously read portrayed Jacqueline Kennedy's mother, Janet, as rather a one dimensional character whose main focus in life was social climbing. Ms. Pottker has fleshed her out into a real human being with foibles and strengths like everyone else. I would have liked to see more of the dynamics between mother and daughter, but nevertheless found this book interesting. Even though Jacqueline herself seems to have had more love and tolerance for her father, it was her mother that was the bigger influence in her life. In divorce the non custodial parent quite often spends the time spent with the children in
pursuit of giving the children a good time, buying things, etc. However, it is the custodial parent who has to establish discipline, study habits, etc. Consequently the children recall more fondly the good times versus the day to day normalacy. The author has given a new look at the life of Janet Lee.

I rather liked this book. Just a few things kept it from being 4 stars. I found this book a very level-headed look at Janet Norton Lee Bouvier Auchincloss. I have read so many biographies of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and heard very little good about Mrs. Auchincloss. Rarely is an ambitious woman treated fairly by press and history. This book was a no nonsense look at the real power behind JBKO. Imagine the dinner with DeGaulle without her command of French, as taught at table. Mrs. Auchincloss demanded that her children speak French only at table and required them to ask for things in French. This served Jacqueline very well in the years ahead. Mrs. Auchincloss like things just so, and so did her daughter.
The only problem I had with this book, and I hate to criticize the author, but it is a problem for me, is the fact that this book is generally favorable in tone to both mother and daughter. Then, for no reason, somewhere in a story, the author would take a potshot or some gossip that was unfavorable to the general tone of the book. It's not a fatal flaw that would prevent you from enjoying this book, and in truth, I probably fault Ms. Pottker's editor for not catching the incidents.

I recommend this book. After reading just about every book about Mrs. Auchincloss and her two famous elder daughters, I find this one to be the most even-handed in relation to Jacqueline's mother, and these little foibles will not detract noticibly from that story.

Reading this book makes me feel as if I were in a time capsule back into the era when Janet Lee Bouvier Auchincloss lived..this book is an excellent biographical sketch of who and what shaped our future First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy..the book has historical value into the era of the 20's and 30's...the author writes beautifully, with interesting phrases..pg 99 "One martini, two martinis, three martini's, floor" !! I enjoyed it very much!

A family tree diagram would have helped as the author spends the first several chapters discussing the genealogy of all the families invloved. Also, how much everything--homes, furniture, etc. cost while Jackie was growing up and before her time-- (thousands) and what it would cost today (millions). After her divorce from Jackie's broke, philandering, alcoholic father Janet Lee Bouvier looks around for a man who would ensure a stable and wealthy future for herself and her daughters. She finds him in Hugh Dudley Auchincloss Jr., founder of a Washington, D.C. brokerage firm. Together they build a good life for his children, hers and the children they have together. Jackie had a loving and close relationship with her stepfather; her relationship with her mother had its ups and downs. Janet was definitely a social climber of the first order: when her daughter Lee announces her engagement Janet is thrilled because the fiance might be the illegitimate son of a member of a royal house! Nevertheless, she is a caring mother--always there for Jackie and her children through good and bad times. Jackie resents her mother for separating her from her father and keeping him away from her wedding to JFK, but she is never afraid to stand up to her when their opinions differ and she is there for her mother when Janet develops Alzheimer's disease. Not much new info for Jackie fans and it could have done with a little less who-married-who, but an enjoyable read anyway.

I don't think anyone else would "get it". But Jackie followers will like it. This book actually had little tidbits I hadn't heard before (didn't think it was possible!). Some new source must have blabbed. It certainly presents Janet in a kinder light - and Black Jack Bouvier is looked at more critically (zero IQ - really!!). Buy it, Jackie lovers - you'll get your moneys' worth.

This book sets out to tell that it was Jackie Kennedy's mother that instilled strength in her daughter. What she acctually did was instill a self-hatred. There is a great book called "Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years" by Barbara Leaming. In that book the author states repeatedly that her mother treated her older daughter horribly. Onassis's mother would tell her daughter that her hair was too kinky and she had big feet her eyes were too big, her hands were too big and that no man would marry her because she was so unattractive in every way. Her mother may have been saying these things to make sure her daughter would act wisely so she could land a man, but it is obvious that these taunts had a neg. effect on her daughter. Onassis thought that her marriage to JKF was a faliure because she believed his cheating was the result of all the neg. things she thought she was, all those neg. things her mother said she was. Jackie thought that she had to stick out the marrage because she was lucky to have found a man that could look past her "ugly" looks. Hopefully the readers of this book will not be suckered into believing that this woman, Janet A. was a great woman. She was cruel to many people. The only good thing I can say about the subject is that she is a prime example of how far woman have come in this society. From being raised as Janet A. was to "land a man" to finding fullfilment within and not through wealth and marraige.

The life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis remains a favorite subject of tabloid journalists and biographers. Although the former first lady and her family have been scrutinized for decades, Jacqueline's mother, an extremely influential figure in her life, has been largely ignored. In the noteworthy but badly written Janet & Jackie, Jan Pottker analyzes their relationship and illuminates Janet Auchincloss's supportive presence in Jacqueline's life.
Pottker humanizes Janet, a woman usually portrayed by Jackie's biographers as a shadowy, mercurial, and abusive figure. Born into a generation of "well-mannered young ladies wearing pearls," the unconventional Janet Lee attended college and raced horses. At the age of 20, she married the dashing John "Black Jack" Bouvier. However, after the birth of their two daughters, Bouvier's alcoholism, gambling, and flagrant infidelity prompted Janet to divorce him. Janet's fabled volatility is depicted largely as a result of the extraordinary social pressures she faced as a 1930s divorcee. Desperate to secure the financial future of her young daughters, Janet married Hugh D. Auchincloss, one of America's wealthiest men.
Through Pottker's narrative, Janet emerges as a supportive figure in Jacqueline's turbulent life. It was Janet who rushed to Jackie's bedside after a stillbirth. Following the
assassination, it was Janet who placed the bloodstained pink suit in storage. After Jacqueline's marriage to Aristotle Onassis, it was Janet who publically supported the union, despite her private misgivings. While Jacqueline's marriages both lasted no more than a decade, Janet remained a constant, supportive presence in her life for sixty years.
Though informative, Janet & Jackie is marred by Pottker's appalling writing. Janet Auchincloss's affection for horseback riding leads to many unfortunate equine comparisons. According to Pottker, Janet reacts irritably to financial constraints "much like a thoroughbred would fret at being reined in at the gate." Even worse are Pottker's attempts to hold the choppy narrative together through absurdly tenuous links. A paragraph about Jackie's chain smoking is connected to her volatile temperament through the suggestion that "Jackie's temper could ignite, too."
Pottker's method of establishing simultaneity is also distracting. She often interrupts the narrative, interjecting parenthetical information that is seemingly connected only through random association. Although the facts are interesting, Pottker relies on this dumbed-down method all too often to establish obvious age differences. It is a senseless disruption of the narrative and quickly becomes tedious.
The poorly written Janet & Jackie remains noteworthy simply because it is the only work on this subject to date. Hopefully one of Pottker's readers, frustrated by the equine metaphors, will conduct a more thorough, well-written study of the relationship between these provocative women. Until then, the lackluster Janet & Jackie will have to suffice.

Janet and Jackie was a very interesting book. It is one of the only to exmaine the relationship of Janet Norton Lee Bouvier Auchinclosss Bingham and her daughter, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, while painting an intersting biography on Janet.