The Summer I Met Jack

The Summer I Met Jack by Michelle Gable   528 pages

I started following author Michelle Gable’s career when “A Paris Apartment” first came out in 2015.  If you haven’t read, I highly, highly recommend it. The next two novels were good, but not great…it was hard to follow her mesmerizing debut. But now, Gable has returned to a novel that I simply couldn’t put down. Thankfully, for hubby, I saved it for a road trip. The miles flew by as I immersed myself in this a little known story.

This time around, Gable takes on that still-golden family, the Kennedy’s. After reading more than 200 books to get to the truth about the family of Joe, Sr. and his wife, Rose, Gable is able to create a realistic view of the family that we still want to be flawless, no matter how many faults come to life.

Actually, “The Summer I Met Jack” is less about JFK than it is about Alicia Corning Clark, who seems to be, at least in this story, Jack’s first true love.

Alicia escaped Nazi Germany, ending up in Hyannis Port, working in a movie theater as a concessioner. A friend of her who is a maid at the Kennedy compound gets her on as a maid. Alicia is dazzled by the young Massachusetts congressman. Joe Sr. doesn’t seem to mind the pair as a couple until Jack wants to marry her. Marrying a displaced person, immigrant, Jewish girl will stop Jack’s political career dead in its tracks. Joe forces the couple apart.

Brokenhearted, Alicia departs for Hollywood, where she has affairs with actors (like Gary Cooper), princes, athletes, and becomes close friends with Katherine Hepburn. All the while, no matter the city or country she is in, Jack weaves in and out of her life. While she marries several more times, it is Jack who truly holds her heart. The last time they meet is on the eve of Jack’s presidential inauguration.

When Alicia discovers she is pregnant, she flees to Rome, a hotspot for the socialite set. Could the baby be JFK’s?  Alicia seems to sleep around almost as Jack does. That’s the major question behind this novel.

One of the things that I really liked (and saved me hours of Googling the info) was that a small pamphlet was included in the book that laid out the fact from the fiction.  I loved this story and could not put it down.  “The Summer I Met Jack” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.