Customer Reviews

The Secret Memoirs of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Princess bride, queen, mother, widow - in this fictionalized memoir of Jackie O's life, Ruth Francisco does for Jackie what Joyce Carol Oates did for Marilyn - that is, capture the complex, passionate, intelligent woman behind the various archetypes she inhabited so fully throughout the stages of her life. Francisco delves into the not-so-glorious aspects of the life of an extremely private public figure, whom everyone "owned" and who no one really knew. I believed this was a real memoir from page 1. Loved this book, as I did Ruth Francisco's previous novels - I think she is a major literary talent in the making. Looking forward to her next book.

In the author's note at the end of "The Secret Memoirs of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Novel," Ruth Francisco states up front that this is definitely a work of fiction. Although most events which take place within these pages have a basis in historical fact, they have been "filtered through Ms. Francisco's imagination." She tells her readers she "approached Jackie's fictional persona as an actor approaches a new role...by writing in her character's voice and imagining her thoughts and feelings." Obviously, her goal was to portray a three dimensional woman. She succeeds brilliantly!

Now, I am a confessed Jackie groupie - but a respectful one. Although I used to see her from time to time on the streets of NYC, I would never have approached her, especially knowing how important privacy was to this most private of women. I have admired Mrs. Kennedy since I was in 8th grade and so hoped that Senator John F. Kennedy and his Jackie would win the 1960 presidential election and become our first royal family. Yes, I was very young when Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy became First Lady of the United States...but I vividly remember watching her husband deliver his inspiring inaugural address on TV and later, that same evening, watching the news as photographers followed this glamorous young couple to document their victory for posterity as they made the rounds of Washington D.C.'s celebratory balls. This was a first - American royalty. And Jackie was a glorious young queen. She was just 31 years-old. I was a starry-eyed kid.

In the intervening years, with all the tragedy that has befallen the Kennedy family, I mourned with them, truly mourned. I have read various bios of Jackie and Jack, of RFK, and Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., the patriarch - some scholarly, some lurid. We as a nation were so much more innocent back in the early 1960s. What did we know of JFK's illnesses ... his obsession with women, the painkillers and meds, the heartbreak experienced by the loving and capable young wife and mother who was also the very public First Lady of the United States? What did we know of the late blooming love that flowered between Jackie and her husband...alas...too late?

Jacqueline Kennedy, the woman who brought culture, sophistication, elegance, savoir faire to the White House and the country, was always an icon to me - but never quite real. Many times I tried to align what I knew to be factual incidents from her life with the smiling, poised woman who graced the pages of newspapers, magazines and TV screens. Ruth Francisco, to my delight, has brought Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to life on the pages of "The Secret Memoirs." Fiction or not, I get a much more realistic feel for who she was as a person, a woman, not just what she represented. And I like and admire her more for knowing.

The author writes that her intention in writing this book was not to violate Jackie's privacy - but "to get a sense of the woman behind the myth, the human behind the icon." I thank her for doing just this and doing it well, tastefully, with superb writing. But it finally comes down to a matter of taste, doesn't it? There are many who will pan this novel because they will believe it is intrusive, vulgar - that autobiographical fiction, should never have been attempted with this dignified protagonist. I respect those who feel thus. I don't, and easily give the book a 5 STAR rating.

The story is told in the first person with Jacqueline, "Jacks," as narrator. We become acquainted with her as an adolescent. Pulled between her beloved father Black Jack, who became increasingly dissipated with alcohol, age and too many women, and the ever materialist, pragmatic Janet, her controlling mother, the young girl longed to be on her own - to travel. But money was always an issue. Her competitive relationship with sister Lee is fascinating, as are her years of freedom and study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Obviously, extensive parts of the novel deal with her courtship and marriage to JFK. The author does a realistic job of keeping Jackie in character as she copes with what every woman fears most - a philandering man. She does so with elan and a sense of humor. I did not feel like a voyeur while reading any of this...and the novel IS unputdownable.

The assassination, the funeral, Jackie's relationships with RFK, Aristotle Onassis, her beautiful children and the loving care she bestows upon them, her own neuroses and fears...everything is here and written in a most credible manner.

Some high points: Jackie in Paris as First Lady, when she translates for Jack and DeGaulle and is a major hit with the French - a wonderful personal victory; Jackie's dealings with Marilyn...interesting and it jives with biographies I have read.

Francisco's prose is outstanding and although this is a work of fiction, it rings true. The characters, especially Jackie, are alive on the page. Most of the dialogue is excellent. When she reproaches Jack for messing-up so many women, (after Marilyn Monroe dies), he says, "I've never asked a woman to do something she doesn't want to do. I don't want to discuss this anymore, Jackie." Jackie, to herself, "I feel ashamed, for Jack, for myself. I've won the battle, but not the war. Why can't I accept his philandering as some kind of cortisone-induced stress relief? I think of what they say about the Blonde, how she's slept with hundreds of men, not for money, but out of a pitiful desperation for love. Is that it for Jack? Is it power? Sadism? I want to pound his chest, to demand to understand."

There are occasional inconsistencies, fatuous remarks, that distract. For example, when Bobby tells Jackie that LBJ will not be running for a second term, Jackie asks, "Why not?" To which Bobby responds, "Who in the hell cares? It leaves the pathway open for me." As if they did not already know the events leading up to Johnson's decision and the political opportunities that then opened for RFK. Overall, however, this is a real winner!

Unless the thought of reading a novel about Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis disturbs you - "The Secret Memoirs" are not to be missed.
JANA

This book takes us behind the widow's black veil, behind the fashionable large sunglasses into the mind and heart of an American Icon. Jackie is no longer a distant figure. Ruth Francisco presents Jackie as a woman with real feelings: passion, grief, alienation, success and fear. We, the readers are voyeurs, in the life of a woman so familiar yet so mysterious. A must read for fans of Jackie, historical fiction, love and romance or woman's studies.
With each Chapter we can conjure up in our minds the pictures of that particular time in Jackie's life that was also a part of American history from her early days as a schoolgirl to her final walk with Maurice in Central Park we get inside Jackie's mind and heart with a depth that will give you new appreciation for the suject and the author. Don't miss this one.

Ruth Francisco is a beautiful writer. In this novel she unveils for us the shy, brilliant, funny, and extremely courageous woman who was Jackie Onassis. From childhood on, the novel gives us a first hand account of a very difficult and poignant life. It is the first time I have felt the woman behind the icon, the flesh behind the stereotype. I loved with her, cried with her, and understood why she made her choices. Although I knew it was an imagined diary, I believe Ruth Francisco captured much of Jackie's soul and humanity. I was riveted from Page 1.

From the very first pages of this "fictionalized memoir," I was captivated. First of all, I have been a big Kennedy fan for years and watched the beautiful couple inaugurated in early 1961, and then, like a series of photos in an album, I saw portraits of the first family, with the adorable children; Jackie's restoration of the White House, depicted on TV; and, of course, the tragic events in Dallas, with the memorable images of the bloodied pink suit.

Even later, when scandalous allegations came to light--infidelities, mobster connections, and more--I still felt a special affinity for this family. They were, after all, human and subject to all the flaws and foibles of real people. Our iconic views were very unrealistic, and even today, I see this tendency to vilify political figures when they act as real people.

Told in the first person narrative voice of "Jackie," the author takes us through the early days of "Jacks," with a very realistic portrayal of her relationship with her father; her frustrations at the whole "debutante scene," and her desires for a life in Paris, with artistic opportunities; her rebellion against the pressure to marry well (rich, social register).

The early years of her relationship with Jack Kennedy explored her feelings about him in the beginning, and how she finally succumbed to his charms, while knowing his flaws, even then.

The Secret Memoirs of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Novel is divided into sections, beginning with Jackie's childhood and adolescence; then her years with Jack, followed by her years as the Widow. Her time with Onassis (The Greek) seemingly fulfilled, for awhile, anyway, her need to escape the Kennedy brand and its tendency to shine a probative spotlight on all her private needs.

Overall, the story plumbed the depths of one woman's need for privacy while living a very public life, and revealed how she coped through fantasy thoughts and feelings. After the assassination and when she feared that the image and historic significance of her husband's presidency might be tarnished by rumor and innuendo, she brought in a reporter she trusted and painted the "Camelot" image. She told the reporter her thoughts about Jack Kennedy's mission: "More than policy or social programs, Jack empowered our imagination. He led us to believe that each one of us could become something greater and could contribute to society. Jack used to love to listen to this old Victrola we have, late at night. His favorite song was from Camelot, and I've been thinking about the lyrics: `Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief, shining moment that was known as Camelot.' There will never be another Camelot."

Knowing the book was based on journals kept by Jacqueline Kennedy and turned over to an editor, who then, eventually, secured a writer for them (many years later), added credibility to the "imaginings." It didn't take long into the book before I felt as though Jackie, the person, had entered the scenes and led me through the life that many envied (at first), revealing a very down-to-earth woman trapped in her iconic façade.

Five stars....definitely! Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys portrayals of public figures, especially when there is controversy.

I think that this author did an excellent job in making her novel believable and interesting. It does contain some sordid details, but, then there WERE some sordid details in Jackie's life.

I was truly engrossed in this well written and well researched piece. I am not a jackie-o-phile and I had bought this book to use as a gift. I had not heard of it and never saw it anywhere; but I was looking for something to read one day and ....WOW nothing I have ever read
of that period (Camelot and beyond) has ever put me there so well and made me feel like I wasn't just a puppet of the press approved articles. My compliments to Ms. Francisco---thank you and nicely done

After you read this book, you may not like Jackie or anybody that she knew. Not a kind word for any character, except maybe Caroline.

Even Jackie looks like a nasty hypocrite.

I'd pass.

She always said, "I want to live my life, not record it." In this fictional memoir, however, we see what could have been, behind Jackie's famous, oversized sunglasses.

From childhood to death and through many a bedroom, Francisco imagines the most intimate moments of her life with skillful, poetic imagery. Tragic at times, sensationalist at others, this novel rings with the possibility of truth.

You know what? I liked this book. The story is told in the first person, as if Jackie was telling her life story. I know this is a work of fiction, but it really makes you think about her side of the story. I think that Jackie always got a bad rep for being an "ice queen". After reading this book, I can understand why she was percieved to be that way and why she gave people that impression. You can't take anything in this book as fact, but it does bring up things we always wanted to know; did she know about Jack's affairs? If she did, how could she stay with him? If she didn't, was she dumb? Did she have an affair with Bobby? What did she see in Ari, besides his money? Why did she shy away from the public eye? How did she feel about the Kennedy family?
Unfortunately, Jackie never wrote a book so we will never really know the true answers to these questions. This book offers good answers to those questions on how she "might" have thought.