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Jackie & Me

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Jackie & Me

By: Louis Bayard
Narrated by: Sean Rohani
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About this listen

This "absolutely irresistible" historical romance imagines the courtship between Jacqueline Bouvier and the future American president she loved (People).​

In 1951, former debutante Jacqueline Bouvier is hard at work as the Inquiring Camera Girl for a Washington newspaper. Her mission in life is “not to be a housewife,” but when she meets the charismatic congressman Jack Kennedy at a Georgetown party, her resolution begins to falter. Soon the two are flirting over secret phone calls, cocktails, and dinner dates, and as Jackie is drawn deeper into the Kennedy orbit, and as Jack himself grows increasingly elusive and absent, she begins to question what life at his side would mean. For answers, she turns to his best friend and confidant, Lem Billings, a closeted gay man who has made the Kennedy family his own, and who has been instructed by them to seal the deal with Jack’s new girl. But as he gets to know her, a deep and touching friendship emerges, leaving him with painfully divided alliances and a troubling dilemma: Is this the marriage she deserves?

Narrated by an older Lem as he looks back at his own role in a complicated alliance, this is a courtship story full of longing and of suspense, of what-ifs and possible wrong turns. It is a surprising look at Jackie before she was that Jackie. And in best-selling author Louis Bayard’s witty and deeply empathetic telling, Jackie & Me is a thrilling story of friendship, love, sacrifice, and betrayal—and a fresh take on two iconic American figures.

©2022 Louis Bayard (P)2022 Algonquin Books
Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Romance Tear-jerking Witty
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Critic reviews

"What a pleasure . . . Bayard is such an exuberant storyteller . . . This stylish, sexy, nostalgic story will linger like Jackie’s signature scent of Pall Malls and Chateau Krigler 12. It’s a complicated bouquet of bitter and sweet."—Elisabeth Egan, The New York Times Book Review

“A delight…a poignant, late-summer-afternoon kind of novel. ...a story perfectly tuned to our ongoing fascination with the Kennedy marriage—and a novel, like Jackie herself, with charm to spare.”The Washington Post

“Lem Billings was John F. Kennedy’s prep school roommate and a close friend. He was also gay. This captivating work of historical fiction offers an intimate look into Lem’s relationships with the charismatic young senator and the budding journalist Jacqueline Bouvier, whom JFK enlists Lem to vet.”People (Book of the Week)

Sean Rohani gives an upbeat narration of this fictionalized insider’s view of the lead-up to the marriage of John Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier . . . Rohani delivers a scorching description of Jackie’s first encounter with the highly competitive Kennedys, as recounted by Lem. And Rohani’s bitchy tone is spot-on as Lem recalls Ethel Kennedy’s classist nastiness . . . Rohani’s soft, fragile voice fits Jackie’s, and, amazingly, he makes Jack sound different from Bobby—Massachusetts accents and all. —AudioFile Magazine

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Godawful people

There aren’t exactly any heroes in this book. The most likeable character appears in one short section trying to warn Jack Kennedy that he’s given her the clap! The rest are dangerous, sociopathic or the most pathetic hangers on. I’m not sure what it says about the reader who reads all the way to the end but it’s very well done. Points off the narrator for mispronunciation of a lot of words

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