And
They Called It Camelot: A Novel of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis.
Stephanie Marie Thornton. Penguin Publishing Group. March 2020. pb, 480 pp.; ISBN #: 9780451490926.
Welcome
to the world of Jack and Jackie – a romance beyond romance! It’s a world where we see Jackie’s sense of
humor and mostly grit. She knew what she
was marrying into but she married Jack Kennedy anyway. She knew he was a
womanizer but he swore she was his only woman and proved it. It reads like an
intimate memoir. It brings the reader to
share in her tears and deepest fears.
She
met his family and got along with everyone of them. She had miscarriages and trials but kept her chin
up until she had her children, Caroline and John. When
she drives through Texas with Jack, we know how mind-numbing his assassination
is and what it does to her. It takes her
to levels of grief and yet it is her family and his that offer the support that
keeps her going. Yes, it is Bobby who is
there for her and gives her strength that she takes time to turn into her
own. From then on, her stoicism guides
her through the tragedy of Bobby’s assassination.
From
then on, she gets to raise her children and decides to travel to Greece. There she eventually marries Aristotle much
to the chagrin of the Kennedy clan and Aristotle’s children. She does this for her children’s safety and
it works. But marriage to Ari isn’t what
she had hoped and she is hopelessly entangled in a stay at home, European style
marriage and it isn’t until his death that she feels free.
She
then has the money and the dreams to become an editor, a successful one at
that. Jackie has been married three
times and spends the rest of her life doing what she loves. Throughout the book she shares her love of
poetry and prose in small ways with each of her families, but only after life
has taught her through joys, pain and
trials does she celebrate her literary life with the world.
Many
readers do not know Jackie’s life but now they can get to know her intimately
in a way that gives her reality a way to remember the days of Camelot – and
beyond. Wonderful historical fiction!
