Jackie After O is an exciting and original portrayal of the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis through the lens of one remarkable year, a time of reinvention both personal and public, as she shook the world's expectations and pursued her dreams in middle age.
After reading Jackie After O by Tina Cassidy I found it difficult to refer to the subject of the book by anything other than “Jackie”. Not that she doesn’t deserve the respect that goes along with being Mrs. Kennedy or Mrs. Onassis, but in my eyes it somehow diminishes the woman that she really was. So I will refer to her as simply, Jackie.
This book is a beautifully written intimate portrait of Jackie in her later years, after the deaths of her husbands. The book details how she made the decision to reinvent herself and live out the rest of her life as the strong, dignified woman that she always was.
Many of the stories that were told in the book revealed things that I had never known about the former First Lady. I didn’t know that Jackie toured the White House the very day after she had given birth and was treated with nothing but contempt by Mrs. Eisenhower. Jackie was a preservationist and was passionate about preserving landmarks in New York City. Jackie was incredibly smart, elegant and graceful and she devoted her life to her family. It is remarkable to me that when she found herself on her own she was strong enough to begin to devote some much needed time to herself.
Getting a job as an editor at Viking Press and then Doubleday were moves that shocked many people. After all, she was Jackie O, why in the world did she want to work among the common folk? Jackie didn’t have anything to prove to anyone. She wanted to work for her own peace of mind. She could have spent her days lunching and shopping and no one would have batted an eye but that wasn’t who she was.
I enjoyed this book because it just reinforced what I always believed about strong women: that we can do anything if we put our minds to it. Through all the adversity that we have to face, as long as we hold on to who we are and conduct ourselves with dignity and grace we can still lead happy, healthy productive lives.
Jackie After O, published by Harper Collins and written by Tina Cassidy is on sale now and can be purchased where books are sold.
1 comment:
I had heard about how much of a pill Mamie Eisenhower was to Jackie Kennedy and how she responded with class. I don't get how a woman as intelligent as she was bought everything J. Edgar Hoover told her and her husband, lock stock and barrel, but hey, nobody is perfect.
Post a Comment