By: Dawn Tripp
Narrators: Linda Jones, Karissa Vacker
Random House Audio
ISBN: 9780812997217
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: 06/18/2024
Format: Other
My Rating: 5 Stars++
In this mesmerizing novel about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, acclaimed author Dawn Tripp has crafted an intimate story of love and power, family and tragedy, loss and reinvention.
The world has divided my life into three:
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.
Book Club Kit
LOVE!!
My Review
“Dawn Tripp’s meticulous research and masterful storytelling are as eloquent and captivating as the timeless, elegant, and iconic Jackie. A classic! Top Books of 2024.”
The world has divided my life into three:
~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."
About...
JACKIE was a beautiful, grand, inspiring, and fascinating woman who led many lives as Jackie, Jacks, Jacqueline, Miss Bouvier, Mrs. Kennedy, and Jackie O. Women everywhere loved her chic elegant style. But there was so much more to the woman behind the man.
She was intelligent and charming, a wife, mother, lover, grandmother, and First Lady. She adored her children and grandchildren. She did not plan on falling for an American man or politics, but she fell in love.
A popular first lady, she endeared herself to the American public with her devotion to her family, dedication to the historic preservation of the White House, the campaigns she led to preserve and restore historic landmarks and architecture along with her interest in American history, culture, and arts.
The author takes readers from before she met Jack, her life, loves, dreams, intimate thoughts, and desires to their complex marriage, the birth and loss of her children, the assassination, the grief, her close relationship with Bobby, brother-in-law, and her marriage to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, its problems, and later an independent career woman in a publishing house as editor getting to share her love of books to her diagnosis of cancer.
JACKIE is the story of a woman who has endured incredible trauma and loss and strives to forge an independent life while balancing societal and cultural expectations.
The author's unique approach to reimagining Jackie's voice, thoughts, and interactions with her circle of family, friends, and acquaintances brilliantly captures her beautiful spirit. This fresh perspective adds a new layer of understanding to how she felt and perceived those around her.
From the complex nuances of her heart, wit, vulnerability, and intellect—the intimate realness of her as a human being— reimagining those moments from her point of view as she might have experienced them.
My thoughts...
As a baby boomer who doesn't love Jackie? It was like yesterday in the sixth grade when the teacher came into the room crying when we learned of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. And our thoughts of Jackie. They were married one year after I was born, and my mom used to talk fondly of Jackie and even dressed like her—very tasteful.
Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, Jackie was a woman we admired. She worked to shape her own identity and brand in progressive ways.
I enjoyed the parts about Jackie and her personal thoughts, dreams, and love of books. The author brilliantly explores the complex politics of power, love, marriage, and gender throughout the novel. Jackie’s fierce love for her children shaped her determination to create a stable sense of family despite the extraordinary circumstances she faced.
An impressive lyrical masterpiece!
I devoured this dazzling portrait of Jackie Kennedy an American icon.
“The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like.”
—E.L. Doctorow
Indeed, the author exceeds all expectations, exploring all facets of Jackie in an appealing and intimate way. JACKIE is one you will want to read more than once.
JACKIE is vivid, gorgeously written, and meticulously researched, offering a dazzling inside look into this fascinating woman. Jackie would be proud. I have read many books about Jackie's life; however, Dawn Tripp's reimagining of Jackie is my favorite. I loved this book! Dazzling.
Absorbing and affecting, ideal for book clubs. Check out the extensive and fascinating Book Club Kit and resources, recipes, a letter from the author, discussion questions, a playlist, a couple's favorite books, and more. I enjoyed the Author's note and the additional reading sources. I LOVED the playlist—all of my all-time favorites.
I loved Tripp's GEORGIA Georgia O’Keeffe, (5 stars); however, JACKIE is a (5 Stars ++). I highly recommend both
A mesmerizing must-read in all formats!
~Hardcover (a classic for any bookshelf)
~e-book (to highlight all the many quotes)
~Audiobook (characters come alive with favorite talented narrators: Linda Jones and Karissa Vacker).
Personal note...
My apologies for the delay in posting my review. Like President Kennedy—I, too, have Addison's Disease, a condition affecting stress hormones with adrenal insufficiency and low cortisol levels. My cortisol levels, since last week, are at an extremely low, life-threatening level (2) with severe fatigue and other issues that warrant back on steroids (with all its nasty side effects). However, you have to be careful not to get too much cortisol or develop Cushing's disease (the opposite, which I have also experienced). I am running behind on reading, work, and writing reviews.
Thanks to Random House for the privilege of reading an advanced digital copy via NetGalley. Also purchased the hardcover and the audiobook.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: June 18, 2024
My Rating: 5 Stars ++
Praise
“Readers will devour this richly-detailed novel about the heart and soul of the most famous woman of the twentieth century.”
—Melanie Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of California Golden
“What a wondrous accomplishment Jackie is. I would say the tale feels as if Dawn Tripp took dictation straight from her subject, except that would diminish the work and skill underlying every word of this hypnotic, intelligent, deeply felt accounting of what it may have been like to be the woman who never wanted to be the myth.”
—Therese Anne Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
“In her lyrical fever dream of a novel, Tripp offers a glimpse into the heart and soul of a thoughtful, brilliant woman who reluctantly stepped into the spotlight and was dogged by tragedy before ultimately coming into her own. From its gripping opening scene to the final page, I found myself entranced by Tripp’s prose and barely holding back tears. . . . Electrifying.”
—Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Spectacular
“Society Bride. Mother. Fashion Plate. First Lady. Saint. Curse. Jackie Kennedy Onassis has been assigned more labels than possibly any other woman in American history, occupying an incomparable status in the collective imagination and historical record. I relished each page of this gorgeous, poetic, and piercing journey into the depths of an iconic woman’s heart, mind, and soul.”
—Allison Pataki, New York Times bestselling author of Finding Margaret Fuller
“The reason we read historical fiction is because sometimes the facts just aren’t enough. A brilliant, beautiful book like Dawn Tripp’s Jackie touches the soul in ways conventional biographies can’t. I devoured this novel and felt the power of history and a remarkable woman.”
—Chris Bohjalian, New York Times bestselling author of The Princess of Las Vegas
“This meticulously researched and lyrically written portrait of Jackie will appeal not only to baby boomers who experienced the historic events of her life but also to anyone who appreciates intimate novels about women’s hearts, minds, and souls. A must-purchase.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“With a fitting sense of elegance and poignancy, Tripp’s expert and insightful fictionalization of Jackie’s life manages an authenticity equal to any biography, making it a requisite addition to the Jackie canon.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Ethereal . . . Tripp, who appends an extensive bibliography, has clearly done her research and integrates it seamlessly into the novel. . . . An elegiac and meticulously crafted ode to a still somewhat mysterious figure.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“An intimate portrait of Jackie Kennedy during her courtship and marriage to JFK. . . . Tripp brings Jackie and Jack’s romance to life through carefully crafted scenes, and offers a humanizing portrayal of Jackie’s complex love for her husband. Camelot devotees, take note.”
—Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Photo, Ivan Tripp
Dawn Tripp is the author of the novel Georgia, which was a national bestseller, a finalist for the New England Book Award, and the winner of the Mary Lynn Kotz Award for Art in Literature. She is the author of three previous novels: Game of Secrets, Moon Tide, and The Season of Open Water, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. Her poems and essays have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Harvard Review, AGNI, Conjunctions, and NPR, among others. She serves as an officer on the board of the Boston Book Festival, and on the board of Gnome Surf: A 501c3 non-profit Surf Therapy Organization focused on creating a culture shift towards kindness, love, and acceptance for athletes of all abilities. When she is not writing, more than likely she is in the ocean. She graduated from Harvard and lives in Massachusetts with her sons. WEBSITE
