And They Called It Camelot

 

And They Called It Camelot by Stephanie Marie Thorton   480 pages

 

For fans of Melanie Benjamin’s “The Aviator’s Wife,” Paula McLain’s “The Paris Wife,” and for those interested in President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis.

 

It dawned on me while I was reading this that there are generations of Americans who may not know who the Kennedys were and the magic spell they had cast over the nation. They were our version of the royal family. They were a new generation, way back in the early 1960s, who were leading the United States. “A new generation of Americans, born in this century.”

 

Framed by deaths of her husband, JFK, her brother-in-law, RFK , and her second husband, Aristole Onassis, this novel focuses on Jackie, her losses (and there were many), her gains and the struggles she had to carve  a place of her own in the world.

 

Told for in first person, from Jackie’s point of view, the story opens in 1952. I felt a little cheated when Jackie referred to her fiancé, John. It turned out that it was John Husted. But this is also the time that she meets Congressman John F. Kennedy from Massachusetts. And this is the story of Jackie, the woman she was, the wife and mother she became, the woman grew to become.  Perhaps most importantly, this is the story of one of the greatest love stories of the 20^th century.

 

As I was reading, I felt like I was a fly who had perched on her shoulder and stayed there for more than 25 years. I felt her happiness and her sorrows.  I also learned a lot about the woman who was the 35^th First Lady and why the world fell in love with this shy and intelligent who would rather stay home than go to a State Dinner.

 

I grieved over her miscarriage, the stillborn birth of a daughter, the death of an infant son, and that bloody day in Dallas so many years ago that is seared into many American’s minds and defined a generation. (One of the things on my list to ask God, should I be granted a seat in heaven, is who “really” killed JFK?)

 

I felt the wind in her hair as she rode her beloved horses. I felt how she grew into a fierce lioness who did what she had to do to protect her children, even if it included marry a Greek jerk with more money than God.

 

I loved this novel. I loved how it went behind the scenes at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, the calamity of the Bay of Pigs, the urgency of the Cuban Missle Crisis and her devastation at the loss of her beloved Jack.

 

I would have like it to go on until her death, but the last two sentences sum it up best: “With Ari’s death, I was no longer Jackie Kennedy, or Jackie O. I was just Jackie.”

 

I HIGHLY recommend  “And They Called It Camelot.” It receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Kennedy Debutante

The Kennedy Debutante by Kerri Maher   384 pages

I have to admit that I don’t have much general knowledge about one of JFK’s sisters, Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy. Maybe because she was only twenty-eight years old when she died in 1948.  Maher’s debut novel tackles the elusive subject of the Joseph and Rose Kennedy’s nine children (John was second in line).

When her father was serving as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Kick made many friends in London and was the "debutante of 1938,” which is probably how Maher decided to title her story. There isn’t a lot about her early years in America in this novel, and that’s okay. It was fun dropping in on the eighteen year old as she is presented to the King and Queen of England.

Broken into three parts, from Spring 1938 through Winter 1944, readers are treated to watching Kick grown into a strong female. She wasn’t as confident as her two older brothers, but she did her best, especially when she went up against her formidable father and her rather harsh mother.

Readers get to watch Kick fall in love with England, even with war rising on the horizon. And readers get to watch as Kick falls in love with Billy Harrington, the future Duke of Devonshire.

Her family and Billy’s family frowns on their relationship. Kick is almost staunchly Catholic has her devoted mother, while Billy’s family is equally dedicated to their Protestant faith. If the young couple is allowed to marry, Kick must agree to raise any future children as Protestant, even if she herself did not convert.

I felt this novel was rather light-hearted and didn’t seem to have the depth that was needed to make Kick jump off the page. Maybe it’s not fair, but I read Michelle Gable’s “The Summer I Met Jack,” has a much deeper sense of actually knowing all the Kennedy’s personalities. For those reasons, “The Kennedy Debutante” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

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.