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A review by brooke_review
Jackie and Me by Louis Bayard, Louis Bayard
3.0
Imagine being the wingman of JFK, the womanizer who would marry Jacqueline Bouvier and become the 35th President of the United States only to be assassinated 2 years into office. Such is the life of Lem Billings, a closeted gay man who happened to be John F. Kennedy’s best friend and closest confidante. But in Louis Bayard’s Jackie & Me, we also learn that Lem had a close relationship with Jackie, serving as the go-between for JFK and Jackie as they courted and eventually married.
Told through the eyes of an older Lem Billings some 30 years after the events, we learn about Jackie and JFK’s early days, and how their relationship might have been quite possibly arranged to give JFK greater political power. After all, what’s a future President without a wife, especially one as enchanting as Jackie?
Jackie & Me is narrated in an old-fashioned, distant kind of way. You can almost envision this novel playing out as a movie with Lem narrating the story off-screen. To be honest, I had a difficult time connecting with the story in the first half because the writing style was so vague and unusual, but I became quite hooked once the tale traveled into more familiar territory and I could fill in the gaps with the history with which I am already well-acquainted. It is quite an engaging, banter-filled novel; albeit one that is difficult to follow at times.
Told through the eyes of an older Lem Billings some 30 years after the events, we learn about Jackie and JFK’s early days, and how their relationship might have been quite possibly arranged to give JFK greater political power. After all, what’s a future President without a wife, especially one as enchanting as Jackie?
Jackie & Me is narrated in an old-fashioned, distant kind of way. You can almost envision this novel playing out as a movie with Lem narrating the story off-screen. To be honest, I had a difficult time connecting with the story in the first half because the writing style was so vague and unusual, but I became quite hooked once the tale traveled into more familiar territory and I could fill in the gaps with the history with which I am already well-acquainted. It is quite an engaging, banter-filled novel; albeit one that is difficult to follow at times.