Jackie & Me

By: Louis Bayard

Narrated by: Sean Rohani

Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

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

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

The person who read the book.

I couldn’t get past the reader. I listen to books all the time but there was something about his voice, his manner and especially his gasping every time he took a breath. I feel horrible saying all this but felt I needed to pass it on. It could be why I didn’t enjoy the book as much as the members of my book club did.

Narration Terrible

This book was well written and I might have enjoyed it more except for the sub par narration. I cannot recall when I have heard so many mispronunciations and weird emphasis in certain phrases and sentences. It was so hard to tolerate that I would have returned it to Audible except that I got it for a book club.
As to the book, it was well written but I was just not as interested in the subject matter as I thought I would be. Also, Lem was such a sad character that it was pretty depressing.

Easy to follow

It took me a few minutes to get used to the Voice changes. Once I listened for a bit, narrator Sean Rohani made the story more interesting and easier to understand the different characters. I enjoyed the book very much.

Narrator

I was looking forward to this book. It was an interesting take on Jackie deciding to marry. The narrator ruined it for me. There were several mispronounced words and trying too hard on foreign words. The real issue for me was the way he spoke for the women and the Kennedys. It would have been so much better if he had just used his normal voice.