Books In Review

Books in Review
by Adrienne Petterson © 2004

Autobiography / Biography Travel / Places Cooking / Food Other / General

Farewell, Jackie
by Edward Klein
Viking
ISBN 0-670-03331-6
Published April 2004 - Hardcover - 212 pages - $23.95

This is author Edward Klein's fourth book on (or about) the Kennedys, this one claiming to be an account of Jackie Kennedy Onassis' last few months before she succumbed to cancer. Although she's been dead for 10 years, the world's fascination with Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis seems never-ending. Her decline in health all began with a foxhunt in Virginia where Jackie rode an unfamiliar horse and fell off. She was dead six months later. Klein writes about "the men" in her life as if there were zillions. He mentions her French friend John Phillips Marquand Jr., her "first serious romance", and so what! She was a normal young woman and had men friends like any other woman. Big deal. Her choice of men throughout her life however, did take a dip when she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis in the late sixties. Her longtime friend Maurice Templesman, born in Belgium, was the one who stood by her till the end without them marrying each other. A strange arrangement but one that seemed to work, and, who are we to judge what others do? They appeared to be devoted to each other, which in my book, counts for so much. Klein quotes Jackie's friends on tidbits about her and manages to pull of a nice little book. Jackie, it seems, did all she could to live a normal and private life, sadly always in the limelight. How much more will be dug up to be written about this woman?
Conclusion - A nice look at a fascinating woman.

Review copy not supplied by publisher - library copy reviewed.

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