Sonja’s Pick
November 2025
JACKIE: A NOVEL
Dawn Tripp
Random House, June 18, 2024
I happened upon a friend who had just finished this book, and it was offered to me to read. I accepted. She made sure I knew it was a NOVEL. I never was a big fan of Jackie O, but I was intrigued and enjoy biographies.
I’m totally a fan now! It’s as if Jackie is speaking to us. Her thoughts, desires, her absolute love for her husband even knowing his nuances and trysts with other women. Amazingly well read and educated, she actually was a great asset as a president’s wife. Calming, listening, editing.
She meets Kennedy first at 21 and thinks him not her type–too good looking, too confident but she is drawn to his humor and drive. A drive possibly enhanced by his family’s quest for a president in the family. We find her at ease with the senior Joseph Kennedy, and she is caught up in the family’s holiday reunions.
She is forever lamenting those 3 seconds on November 22, 1963, when those bullets ended life as she knew it. It was a very tough chapter to read, bringing back so many memories. She became more introverted and turned to caring for her most precious children. Some men were very good to her–Onassis–almost father like though they turned on her after. She wanted to be left alone by the journalists and shielded her children from their constant chatter.
Truly an amazing story.