Thank you Algonquin Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of Jackie and Me in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: June 14, 2022
Summary:
Master storyteller Louis Bayard delivers a surprising portrait of a young Jackie Kennedy as we’ve never seen her before.
In 1951, former debutante Jacqueline Bouvier is hard at work as the Inquiring Camera Girl for a Washington newspaper. Her mission in life is “not to be a housewife,” but when she meets the charismatic congressman Jack Kennedy at a Georgetown party, her resolution begins to falter. Soon the two are flirting over secret phone calls, cocktails, and dinner dates, and as Jackie is drawn deeper into the Kennedy orbit, and as Jack himself grows increasingly elusive and absent, she begins to question what life at his side would mean. For answers, she turns to his best friend and confidant, Lem Billings, a closeted gay man who has made the Kennedy family his own, and who has been instructed by them to seal the deal with Jack’s new girl. But as he gets to know her, a deep and touching friendship emerges, leaving him with painfully divided alliances and a troubling dilemma: Is this the marriage she deserves?
Narrated by an older Lem as he looks back at his own role in a complicated alliance, this is a courtship story full of longing and of suspense, of what-ifs and possible wrong turns. It is a surprising look at Jackie before she was that Jackie. And in best-selling author Louis Bayard’s witty and deeply empathetic telling, Jackie & Me is a page-turning story of friendship, love, sacrifice, and betrayal— and a fresh take on two iconic American figures.
My thoughts:
I have always been fascinated by the Kennedys and Jackie O, so it was a no-brainer that I would take part in this blog tour. I have a whole collection of books not only on the Kennedy clan, but also on Jackie herself and after reading this book, I definitely plan to get to those books sooner than later.
I loved that this book really delves a bit more into Jackie’s earlier life, which I didn’t know too much about. This book is about Jackie outside her marriage to JFK and I really appreciated that. I had heard of Lem Billings from some of the many other Kennedy books I have read, but I’m not sure I realized just how close a relationship he and Jackie actually had prior to reading this book. This is why I love reading so many different books on the same topic because I always feel each author sheds a new light onto something that I may have missed or just overlooked, as is the case here.
This is also the first book I’ve read by Louis Bayard and I absolutely loved his easy, engaging writing style. It was almost is if I was sitting down with Lem and he was recounting a story – that’s how captivating this book was. If you love the Kennedys and Jackie as much as I do, I highly recommend picking this one up. It’s such a fascinating read and, as I love when reading historical fiction, has left me wanting to know more about this interesting woman, and even Lem himself!
