April 29, 2024
Tripp (Georgia) offers an intimate portrait of Jackie Kennedy during her courtship and marriage to JFK. The story starts in 1951 when Jackie has just graduated from Vassar and hopes to break into magazine publishing. Friends and family members try to set her up with Jack Kennedy, but initially she’s uninterested in the boyish congressman, perceiving him as the type who “loves a game and will leave it once he’s won.” As the two keep running into each other socially, she starts to fall for him, and eventually breaks off her engagement to stockbroker Johnny Husted. She and Jack begin dating as he hits the campaign trail in his bid for the Senate and get married in 1953. Jack’s infidelities, the death of their third child, and the stress of the Cold War cause fractures in their relationship, which are only beginning to heal in the months before their fateful trip to Dallas in 1963. 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. Agent: Kimberly Witherspoon, InkWell Management.
Starred review from May 1, 2024
Tripp's latest (after Georgia: A Novel of Georgia O'Keeffe) explores the inner life of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. The novel grabs attention from the start, with the horrific scene of Jack Kennedy's assassination, leading Jackie into memories of the past. Jack and Jackie met in 1951 and embarked on their brief life together. As Jackie experiences the love, joy, sorrow, and sacrifice of her time with Jack and beyond, history is being made. After Jack's death, the world moves on, but Jackie's feelings of grief and loss never leave her, coloring the rest of her life. The historic political violence that took Jack's life continues and deeply affects Jackie, especially the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Tripp's conception of Jackie's interior life--the life of a woman who was not just part of the Kennedy mythos but also cultured, charming, and creative--is incredibly detailed, moving, and poignant. VERDICT 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 into women's hearts, minds, and souls. A must-purchase.--Barbara Clark-Greene
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from May 15, 2024
Inspired by a rare photograph capturing a tender moment between a young Jack and Jackie Kennedy, Tripp imagines what might have happened in the moments before the shutter clicked. From the heady days of their courtship through the halcyon and harried months of Jack's presidency to the horrific moment of his assassination and the chaotic years of its aftermath, Tripp conjures the magic behind their transcendent love story. It's a tale bursting with boundless joy and endless grief, exposing crises of doubt and faith as it examines the confluence of destiny and chance. History often reduces Jackie to a cardboard trope--those sunglasses, that pink suit--but Tripp infuses her with an aching vulnerability and refreshing humanity by imagining a deeply nuanced interior life. Not only do readers experience the storied couple's romantic, emotional, and intellectual connection; they also accompany Jackie on her singular journey from elfin ing�nue to international icon. As importantly, they witness her growth into a formidable, independent, and accomplished woman in her own right. 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.
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May 15, 2024
An ethereal novel imagines the interior life of Jackie Kennedy from the time she met Jack, her husband-to-be, to her death. After beginning with the horrifying scene of President Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the novel backtracks to 1951, when Jack is a congressman from Massachusetts and Jackie is about to spend a summer in Europe with her sister before taking a job at Vogue. It follows them year by year, homing in on significant scenes from each, moving through their complicated courtship, early marriage, the birth of two children and the loss of two others, the presidency, the assassination and its aftermath, Jackie's marriage to Aristotle Onassis, her work as an editor in New York, and her cancer diagnosis. The novel is mostly narrated in the present tense by Jackie, with occasional interludes reflecting Jack's thoughts about her and their relationship, which is perpetually roiled by his affairs. Tripp, who appends an extensive bibliography, has clearly done her research and integrates it seamlessly into the novel, which comes across as sympathetic to Jackie but not cloyingly so. The presidential years are the least compelling with Jackie as the protagonist; it's hard for thoughts about refurnishing the White House to compete with the drama of the space race and the Cuban missile crisis. For better or worse, she comes into her own after the death of the president, as she makes an escape from the role of icon to her messy marriage to Onassis and a satisfying life as an editor. If the novel sometimes drifts into cliche--Jackie dreamily sees Jack as "six feet of casual stardust," for instance--it's redeemed by the close, intelligent, and not always generous attention that Jackie, often forced into the role of passive observer, pays to those around her. An elegiac and meticulously crafted ode to a still somewhat mysterious figure.
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