Council Literary Series with Dawn Tripp

Jackie

Jackie is the story of a woman—deeply private with a nuanced, formidable intellect—who forged a legacy out of grief and shaped history even as she was living it. It is the story of a love affair, a complicated marriage, and the fracturing of identity that comes in the wake of unthinkable violence.

When Jackie meets the charismatic congressman Jack Kennedy in Georgetown, she is twenty-one and dreaming of France. She has won an internship at Vogue. Kennedy, she thinks, is not her kind of adventure: “Too American. Too good-looking. Too boy.” Yet she is drawn to his mind, his humor, his drive. The chemistry between them ignites. During the White House years, the love between two independent people deepens. Then, a motorcade in Dallas: “Three and a half seconds—that’s all it was—a slivered instant between the first shot, which missed the car, and the second, which did not…A hypnotic burst of sunlight off her bracelet as she waved.”

Praise

“An intimate, episodic narrative…Tripp’s wonderful, pointillistic skill with physical description and the deft, empathetic leaps she takes—jumping off from letters, contemporary memoirs and photographs snapped of the former first lady—gives ‘Jackie’ undeniable emotional punch…Tripp’s book stands out for its psychological acuity…notable for its admirable emphasis on the intelligence and grace of this valiant American woman.”
—The Washington Post

“Readers will devour this richly-detailed novel about the heart and soul of the most famous woman of the twentieth century.”
—Melanie Benjamin, The New York Times