All Too Human : The Love Story of Jack and Jackie Kennedy

Rating:
Summary: A Touching Report
Review: ALL TOO HUMAN is a touching history of the marriage of John Fitzgerald Kennedy to Jacqueline Bouvier.

In hindsight, Jacqueline had as big an impact on modern culture as did her first husband, perhaps simply because her life lasted longer. Yet this is not to belittle her actual influence; an entire generation of women modeled themselves on her style. Her dignity, her educational standards, her appreciation of the arts, all proved to be an inspiration to the world.

Author Edward Klein has turned writing about the Kennedys into a cottage industry. This particular biography is a nice balance to many other harsher reports, focusing here as he does on the good points of the marriage of this President and his First Lady.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful tribute to the King and Queen of Camelot
Review: I like to think of myself as a Kennedy expert- I know almost every little detail about the life of this amazing family. Actually, it's become a major fascination over the last few years. I wrote an extensive report on the family and did a great deal of research and came across this book, which I just reread. Again, I was completely mesmerized by this wonderful book by Edward Klein. He was really lucky to have know the family and have such an intimate relationship with these very tortured people. Many seem to forget that they were human like everyone else and had their share of problems and upsets in life. Klein, as a friend of both Jack and Jackie's, makes the story come alive with word for word converstaions from those who were closest to the Kennedy's. I was especially touched by the end of the book where Jack is shot on that fateful day in November of 1963. I cry everytime I read it and think how horrible it must have been for Jackie to not only witness her husband's death, but move on after the tragedy with grace and dignity. I highly recommend this book and if there is anyone who has a similar interest in the Kennedys, please e-mail me. This book is really worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: A great love story
Review: I love biographies, and have read several on the Kennedy's. This is one of my favorites. It gives you a very in depth look at the real relationship between Jack and Jackie, which is, as the title says, "All Too Human". The book, which reads almost like a novel, starts with the first meeting of Jackie and Jack, and carries you all the way through until Jack was assassinated in November of 1963. Edward Klein was a personal friend of Jackie's for a number of years, which made him privy to alot of information. Some points of interest include Jack's affairs and womanizing, Jackie's feelings on being a politician's wife, Joe Kennedy's role in their relationship, how the death of their son, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, brought Jack and Jackie closer than they'd ever been before, only to have it taken away on that fateful day in Dallas, and Jackie's relationship with her parents. Of course, there is a ton of other information in this book, but these are just a few. After reading this book, I read "Just Jackie: Her Private Years", which is also by Edward Klein. It picks up where "All Too Human" leaves off (shortly after the assassination of JFK). I highly recommend both books to anyone interested in reading about the Kennedys and Jackie O.

Rating:
Summary: The Myth of Camelot
Review: Jackie was Edward Klein's editor at Doubleday. The book opens with chapters that present a detailed biographical sketch of Jackie's pre-JFK life and then proceeds into how Jack and Jackie came to be. Joe Kennedy needed to find a suitable wife for John if he was to advance in politics. He turned to his good friend Arthur Krock of The New York Times who suggested Jackie Bouvier. Joe approved so Arthur contacted newspaperman Charlie Bartlett, Jackie's friend, to arrange an introduction.

John was the [fun loving person] of Washington with one of the worst attendance records in the House of Representatives. He found girling and parties much more interesting. Jack liked the challenge of conquest but once conquered he soon lost interest and was incapable of sustaining a prolonged relationship. He stated that he wanted to have children but he wanted to marry a woman who was chaste because he was worried about being compared to other men.

Both Jack and Jackie's families had way too much control over their adult children's lives! Joe Sr. even picked out Jackie's engagement ring. At the luncheon where the mother's were to discuss their wedding, Jack acted like a scolded child. It was pretty clear that he didn't want to kiss bachelorhood goodbye and that he wasn't in love with Jackie.

Janet Bouvier Achincloss, Jackie's mother, felt her daughter was marrying beneath her and was putting up a fight with Rose about how the wedding should go. Joe Kennedy intervened. He sneered at the Archinclosses because they were old money but were unable to maintain it and keep living in style. In the end, Joe got his very public very politic wedding.

Jack treated Jackie as the means to an end: the White House and children. Jack even had a brief fling with Jackie's sister Lee while Jackie was in the hospital. Friends implied that the Cuban Missile Crisis caused Jack to take a renewed emotional interest in his immediate family and that he and Jackie very close. Yet he still had a mistress? Please!

This book has it all scandal, [physical attraction], drugs and lies! It takes an intimate look inside the world of old money WASPs and of the newly moneyed and their views of each other. Klein used primary sources including interviews with many of the people in Jack and Jackie's life. One thing Klein never discussed was what Jackie's feelings and beliefs were surrounding the conspiracy theories that have grown up around JFK's murder. A great companion book to this is The Day John Died by Christopher Andersen, which focuses on really both JFK's children's lives before and after the assassination. I simply could not put either book down!

Rating:
Summary: A Casual Read about Jack and Jackie
Review: This is an very readable book about the marriage of one of the most famous US President's and his glamorous wife. The book opens with a short story about Jackie and details her early life very throughly. The book continues on telling how Jack and Jackie met, courted, and their marriage, ending with the death of President Kennedy. The book tells about the birth of the Kennedy's second son, Patrick who only lived a few days, how the Cuban missle crisis helped to define JFK, and JFK's hidden illness. The book is written in very easily understood prose which makes the book pleasurable reading. On that note, I do not think this book would be considered a piece of scholarly work. This is a good book for those looking for an easy read about the John and Jackie Kennedy.