Donald Spoto’s Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life covered her birth in 1929 until her death in 1994. Spoto wrote it six years after her death in the year 2000. She was better known as Jackie Kennedy and was widely known for being an inspirational first lady. The book deals mostly with her life as the first lady but also goes into detail of her childhood and life after the white house.
One of Jackie’s grade school teachers stated, (page 50) “ Jackie was the most inquiring mind we had in the school for thirty-five years - otherwise, we might not have kept her.” The teacher was referring to Jackie’s extreme cleverness but also her constant acting up in reaction to her unloving family life. Jackie often spent time alone just drawing and writing stories. She enjoyed getting away from her parents’ hostility and bickering through her arts. She attended a very prestigious young girls school, which was unusual in her days for girls to get such a good education. From the very beginning, her teachers saw a great deal of intelligence and potential in her. She led a rewarding school life and at the age of twenty-two she became an assertive journalist.
After meeting Jack Kennedy for the first time, Jackie stated to
one of her friends that she knew Jack (page 118) “would have a profound influence on her life”. After that evening Jack and Jackie did not speak for quite a while because of Jack’s busy schedule. They met up almost one year later at another party, which had a different result then the year before. They started to see more of each other and admired a lot about one another. It seemed nothing would lead to a marriage because of Jack being devoted to his pleasures of bachelor life and busy with his battle for a senate seat. Jackie realized his undevoted love for her and knew about the other woman in his life, but she did not care. Jackie’s emotional history showed how much she loved and how little of love she expected back, which could explain her devotion to him. Jack later proposed to her, mostly because of his nagging father. He believed a wife would be good for his political campaigning.
This book had value to me. It was a very touching and surprising story of a life that seemed so perfect. I was very surprised to find out about her horrible family life and cheating husbands. Her life touched many people and is a good role model for anyone. One positive aspect in this book is the way the book gets into detail of her whole life. It was easy to compre
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