America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis eBook: Sarah Bradford: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Amazon.co.uk Review

Fresh from her well-received life of Queen Elizabeth II, the historian and biographer Sarah Bradford turns her hand to America's own answer to royalty, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Painstakingly detailed, impressively fair, the result is the most definitive account yet of a woman who captured the imagination of the American public like no First Lady before or after her. Bradford seems to have interviewed almost everyone who had ever been intimate with Onassis, including George Plimpton, Gore Vidal, Joan Kennedy and even a few ex-lovers. Most notably of all, Jackie's sister Lee Radziwill speaks with unexpected frankness about the mixture of rivalry and affection that marked their relationship since childhood. Jackie-lovers, take note: this is no hagiography, and its subject certainly comes off as no saint. As gracious as this American icon could be, she also had moments of coldness and even greed, including a particularly shocking moment by the bedside of Aristotle Onassis's dying son. Yet, in the end, non-airbrushed anecdotes like these only serve to make this most private of public figures even more fascinating.

Jackie was, as Bradford writes, "a complex woman of many facets, concealed insecurities and intricate defence mechanisms, a strong urge toward the limelight contrasting with a desire for privacy and concealment.... Behind the mask of beauty and fame lay a shrewd mind, a ruthless judgment of people, antennae finely turned to any sign of pretentiousness or pomposity, and a wry, even raunchy sense of humour". The figure who emerges from subsequent pages is as compelling as the heroine of any novel, and it is to Bradford's credit that she doesn't seem to have fallen completely under her subject's spell. Her approach is sympathetic, but never fawning; candid, but never sensationalist. For those who are curious not about Jackie's glamour but about its source, America's Queen offers an unprecedented look at the flesh-and-blood woman behind the Camelot myth. --Carlotta DeWitt

Review

The Kennedys were - to a very great extent still are - America's Royal Family. Like the real thing, their reputation has taken a considerable bashing in the last couple of decades: JFK using the White House as a knocking shop; Edward's drunkenness and womanising, not to mention Chappaquiddick and Monroe's death. Jacqueline Kennedy first blotted her copybook when she married Onassis, a move that was seen as having more to do with avarice than love. But she was largely forgiven - after all, she had suffered for her country. But her married life accounts for only 17 years in total, and Bradford here examines the not uneventful balance of her existence. The grieving widow, the working mother, the greedy shopaholic, the intensely private public figure who, from 1963 until her death, never gave an interview. Yet even her detractors would testify to her loyalty and generosity of spirit, setting her faults against her difficult childhood and the tragedies of later life. The publishers are keeping the content securely under wraps but they are saying Bradford draws on interviews with those who knew Jackie and Jack which paint "a chilling picture of rich people running a country". There are, apparently, many revelations about her personal life, and Bradford sheds new light on the question of Onassis' will, over which Jackie and her stepchildren argued in the funeral cortege.

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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

all that glitters is not gold 3 July 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This is a book that I would normally give a wide berth. I received this as a Christmas pressie and I have to say that I was for the most time, thoroughly absorbed in a candid text that sought to deconstruct the myth that was Jackie. Some chapters of the book offered little new - her early life and her craving for validation particularly from powerful men. The book confirmed some of my worst suspiscions about the lady herself, and the mass of contradiction that made up her character and influenced her life; Her fear of poverty ran counter to an almost insatiable desire to spend. Her emotional warmth, beguiling wit and intelligence were coupled with a scheming edginess and skittish treatment of people she would often mistakenly class as minions. I found the book intriuging; as it drew to a close I felt little envy towards the women who on several occasions appeared to have held the world in the palm of her hand. Rather I had sympathy and a sense of frustration towards the icon of American Dreams. Sarah Bradford has done her research well and the title of the book is a retrospective challenge to the sad and tortuous underbelly of Jackie O's life. I felt there could have been less attention to financial fripperies and more serious reflection on the psychology of someone such as Jackie who was driven in all aspects of her life. This was what I wanted to know more of. Nevertheless I felt that the writer managed to balance all elements of a fascinating life without descending in mawkish sentimentality. Incidentally I was impressed with her deft handling of the momentous political events taking place around Jackie, and her ability to demonstrate chameleon like qualities in such serious backdrops, uber-charming campaigning for JFK's Presidency in the aftermath of miscarriage and infidelity. If you enjoy a gutsy life story with plenty of razzamatazz, glamour, sexual intrigue and tears, as well as interior design (Jackie was obssessed with decorating and Bradford lets you know this) then I would recommend it.

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

An impartial biography 21 Jan 2001

Format:Hardcover

.I have just read this book and am left with a mixture of thoughts about Jackie. She was obviously a very intelligent and perceptive woman. She had great style and elegance which has inspired women ever since. She seemed to be highly sensitive and on occasions individuals could be 'frozen out' if they said the 'wrong thing'! She was a very complex woman and I am sure there were unresolved areas in her emotional life that drove the extremely ambitious side of her nature and also gave her the intense desire for copious wealth. Having read about Jackie, warts and all, I still feel admiration for her. I still like her.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

Compulsive reading 24 Aug 2007

By M. Williams

Although not perhaps what could be called a 'scholarly' account of Jackie's life, Bradford's light and chatty prose makes for very easy yet satisfying reading - like the best kind of gossip, I was frequently agog to know what would happen next. Bradford succeeds brilliantly in conveying the glamour and allure of the White House years, as well as the horror and sorrow of November, 1963. Nor does the light-weight tone suggested by the bright pink cover mean that Bradford hasn't done her homework. She uses an incredibly wide variety of source material and seems to have identified and interviewed many of those who were closest to Jackie, JFK and Onassis during their life-times.

This chunky biography is one of the most beguiling and effective 'page turners' I've ever come across and I would unhesitatingly recommend it as a beach or pool-side companion.