Just Jackie: Her Private Years - Softcover

Klein, Edward

3.93

630 ratings by Goodreads

9780345429148: Just Jackie: Her Private Years

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345429141 ISBN 13: 9780345429148

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1999

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

In this journalistic tour de force, bestselling author Edward Klein, a friend of Jacqueline Onassis's for many years, takes us behind the public image to give us a story that has never been told before. For this myth-shattering portrait, Klein has amassed a wealth of exclusive information from private documents and correspondence; FBI files; and hundreds of interviews with Jackie's friends, the associates of Aristotle Onassis, and people familiar with her longtime companion, the mysterious diamond merchant Maurice Tempelsman. Many people break their silence here for the first time.

Much more than a portrait of a famous celebrity, JUST JACKIE: HER PRIVATE YEARS captures the essence of a captivating woman whose passion for wealth was matched only by her deep need for privacy.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

According to Klein, the author of All Too Human: The Love Story of Jack and Jackie Kennedy, Aristotle Onassis began courting the widow less than 48 hours after her husband's assassination, but she made him wait, which drove him crazy. Soon she got drunk with Marlon Brando and later with Clint Hill (the agent had thrown his body on top of hers during Oswald's fusillade) at D.C.'s fanciest restaurant. Brando she took home to seduce by dancing to Wayne Newton's "Danke Schoen," pressing her thighs against him, but he fled into the night. Cowboy-handsome Clint Hill and Jackie were seen necking and petting, occasionally disappearing beneath their banquette. Klein (the spoilsport) says Jackie didn't sleep with Ros Gilpatrick, Lord Harlech, Frank Sinatra, or Bobby Kennedy, even though Ethel was told, "He's spending an awful lot of time with the widder."

The book is arranged in bite-sized mini-chapters, and there's a naughty treat in almost every bite. Though Ari didn't kiss Jackie at their wedding, an alleged accidental eyewitness calls their lovemaking "energetic and creative"--maybe because, unlike with his previous girlfriends, Ari didn't burn Jackie with cigars or wear her clothes. Jackie may have spent over $2 million (in 1998 dollars) on clothes, but hey, her pal Bunny Mellon spent $6 million.

Klein offers lots of intimate alleged facts, like her three face-lifts in the '80s, but the best thing about the book are the quotes, some of them Jackie's. Her friend Brendan Gill poses the central question of her life: "How does one live publicly in a world where one has to lie?" Some of the truths are probably in this book. --Tim Appelo

About the Author:

Edward Klein is a well-known writer with a distinguished career in American journalism. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller All Too Human: The Love Story of Jack and Jackie Kennedy. He covered John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign, served as a foreign correspondent in Asia, and was foreign editor of Newsweek. During his eleven years as editor in chief of The New York Times Magazine, it won the first Pulitzer Prize in its history. His articles have appeared in New York and Parade, and he contributes regularly to Vanity Fair. He is also the author of the novel The Parachutists. He lives with his wife, Dolores Barrett, in New York City and Bridgehampton, Long Island.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.