I cannot imagine the hours of research that went into this book. Talk about thorough! I knew some of it, but not all! There is so much behind the scenes that this author talks about. JFK and Jackie’s relationship was not what I assumed. Well, maybe parts of it. But there is so much the author brings to light. It just makes it more understandable for someone on the outside looking in. And don’t get me started on her reason to marry Onassis. I would do it too!

Jackie Kennedy was a truly amazing woman. I have met her daughter Caroline and she is as sweet and she appears. I would have loved to have met her mother. I admire her more after reading this book.

One thing brought out in this book that I really had no idea about was the doctor approved drug use. How I missed this, I will never know.

The narrator, Elizabeth Wiley, could not have been better. She is “Matter of fact”! And I loved it!

Need a fantastic written book about a national icon…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review. ( )

This incredibly depressing account of the Kennedy presidency, concentrating on Jackie Kennedy, utterly reveals the couple’s publicly-perceived “Camelot” to be as mythical as the original.

Author Barbara Leaming routinely swaps her researcher’s hat for an armchair analyst’s notepad, painting a portrait of two profoundly dysfunctional people whose marriage was in many ways an utter sham, yet was based on an almost pathological need for one another, but on extremely unusual terms. Jack Kennedy is shown as a man without a moral center – a serial adulterer, overwhelmed early in his presidency by the Bay of Pigs disaster, and so crippled by decades-old charges of cowardice against his father that he was unable to develop a foreign policy of his own. Jackie doesn’t fare much better, as Leaming draws a sympathetic but devastating portrait of a young woman whose self-confidence was gutted by a mother who convinced her that she was physically ungainly and essentially unlovable.

The book traces Jackie’s path through the early days of Kennedy’s presidency, when she was determined to remain out of the political spotlight and concentrate on creating the perfect private and public stage at The White House, and shows her coming into her own as a partner in Kennedy’s foreign influence and a constant emotional support when he was under attack by political rivals. Yet through it all, Jackie was aware of – and in many ways, complicit in – her husband’s constant infidelities. They certainly lived as husband and wife – she underwent five pregnancies, three of which ended in heartbreak – but he seemed constitutionally incapable of (or uninterested in) monogamy. These casual couplings – with few exceptions, one can hardly dignify them as “affairs” – were constant, and an open secret not only among the couple’s circle of friends, but throughout the White House staff and press corps.

One can only ask, time and time again, why Jackie would put up with this kind of behavior – why she didn’t end the marriage, or at least why she would choose to arrange her schedule so as to provide Kennedy with party times unencumbered by the presence of spouse and children in the vicinity. Leaming’s repeated assurances that the couple had a deep and unique (if not particularly sexually satisfying) love, tends to wear thin around the edges.

No study of the Kennedy presidency, of course, can avoid its abrupt and traumatic end. Leaming’s minute-by-minute description of the assassination, replete with minute and graphic details, is utterly devastating to read. And even though Jackie takes front and center stage from this point onward, her genuine devotion to her husband, and her single-minded determination to create a safe environment for their children is constantly the foundation for the subsequent life choices she makes.

A brief epilogue carries Jackie through her brief flirtation with an ambassadorial career, with her support of Bobby Kennedy’s doomed presidential campaign, and into her controversial marriage to Aristotle Onassis.

Students of mid-20th-century history will find much to consider within these pages. Readers for whom Jack Kennedy was “their” first president may be shattered at the depth of the deception that went on out of the public eye. And anyone who struggles to understand the complexities of our most intimate relationships will come away with more questions than answers. ( )

This is a very detailed insight into the marriage of Jackie and Jack Kennedy. There were quite a lot of references to Jack's near constant cheating, including trysts in their bed when she was away from home. Secret service personnel were privy to the many indiscretions. If his usual bevy of beauties were not available, staff members would fill in. The media could have covered these details, but at the time the role of a journalist was very different from that of today.

With the exception of one long-term relationship outside of the marriage, all women were simply there for his needs. When Jackie learned that Jack was emotionally bonded to his particular woman, she made sure this person was not included in state dinners, or not to be anywhere near Jack.

Jackie was emotionally damaged by her mother who told quite often told her how ugly she was. Her big feet, her wide forehead, her wide hips -- all were noted and were focused upon by her mother. Jackie's father was a good looking man who also was a serial cheater. He liked alcohol almost as much as women. Jackie's mother divorced her father and quickly married another man who was quite wealthy.

Her nasty childhood left her with the ability to look the other way when Jack quickly went to the pool for a group of women to provide his fun. She was greatly hurt and damaged by his actions, still she stayed with him because she deeply loved him.

The author also noted many errors that Jack made during his presidency. Primarily the way in which he handled the Cuban invasion when all went awray. Hiding the fact that he sent military personnel to the shores of Cuba, all too soon, they were surrounded by Cuban military, and in fact Castro sent military who killed American soldiers, and destroyed both ships and airplanes. In order to cover his wrong decision, he allowed good men to be slaughtered.

Kennedy's error was that he acted out of a mission to prove he could right his father's wrongs when his father held an important position in England. Appearing to take the side of the Nazi's, his father warned about involvement in sending
personnel into Germany and Poland. Jack wanted to be unlike his father. The problem with Jack's mission is that he covered it up, and in fact lied, and then at the time of need, he did not send help for the men who were cornered by Cuban soldiers. Going into Cuba was a mission doomed to fail, and Kennedy knew this going into it.

In many actions, not limited to his blatant cheating on his wife, he did not seem to have a moral compass.

The book also goes into great detail of his assassination, including the fact that 1/2 of Jack's face was blown away. The details are very graphic and disturbing.

After reading this book, which is very different from others, I was very disturbed by President Kennedy and his lack of a moral compass. ( )

I received this in my first box of books from the Books by Mail service for shut-ins. A great service for those of us with mobility and, in my case vision problems as they send me large print books when possible.

I read “Mrs. Kennedy The Missing History of the Kennedy Years” because over the years, I have read many books about the Kennedy family and there is an enthrall that the family has over people in a certain generation. I was in grade 11 when Kennedy was shot and it became a marker in my life.

This book is about Jackie and how she reacted to JFK's election to the presidency, his many, many mistresses, some for an afternoon in the pool and one for a number of years that Jackie had to entertain in her home. It is hard to believe that a woman of the caliber of Jackie Kennedy would let a man treated her in such a way and she would accept it. It is easy to think a person like Jackie had everything, money, looks, confidence and a handsome husband, all the elements of a perfect life. But she didn’t have confidence in herself and she had poor self-esteem as a result of her childhood and the way she was treated by her parents as the built up to a divorce over a number of years. This was to have a major impact on her adult and married life.

“Mrs. Kennedy” is about the working partnership a married couple developed when they can’t meet on other levels in their marriage. Jackie has the ability to reach out and touch individuals and lay the groundwork for others to have serious discussions with them. Her steps in the statesperson role started in Europe where she made state visits to France, England, and Italy and met with Khrushchev in Austria. She was much better at this than her husband. She did her homework, paid attention to the details and knew the way to approach each person.

After a period of time this was taken from her and she looked for other areas to which she could apply her skills. She did not want to go to Texas in November 1963. She had not been involved in campaigning at home but she saw this as a way she could assist Jack as he prepared for the 1964 election.

This is not a book you would read unless you had an interest in the Kennedy family and had some understanding of how the family worked. I saw a new, different view here of Jackie than from the other books I had read. This is, I think, truer to her life as the first family moved through John’s term as president. Better editing would remove repetition in the script, for example, Jack’s visits to the swimming pool, and still put the idea across.

It doesn’t provide a positive picture of either Jack or Jackie. It does show Jackie’s attempts to be a working partner with her husband. For John it paints a negative picture of his regard for life, if a few moments of carefree sex, or a quick injection of a mix of drugs makes him feel good it is good. As a result of this and his lack of a strong moral fiber being instilled in his childhood he was carelessness in making decisions and not thinking through the outcome. Yet he wanted to be admired for his decision-making and remembered in history for the rightness of them.

This slice of life portrait takes two educated, rich young people with some sense of public service and places them and their actions in the world political events of the early 1960’s. ( )

If the author can be believed this book gives a fabulous incite into this woman's life. In my opinion there was too much of a focus on Jack about 3/4 of the way through. ( )