Jackie O: On The Couch
Inside The Mind and Life of Jackie Kennedy Onassis
Alma H. Bond, Ph.D.
Bancroft Press
Baltimore, MD, 21209
9781610880213, $21.99, www.bancroftpress.com
In this fascinating psycho-biography, Dr. Alma H. Bond takes us into the eloquent and complex mind of the unforgettable Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. A much-remembered fashion icon throughout the 1960s, and famously reticent first lady of the assassinated president, John F. Kennedy, her voice is finally available for readers. Exploring Onassis’s lavish but demanding upbringing, two marriages, and one final relationship, Bond proves that this mysterious woman’s voice is worth listening to. In addition, the book demonstrates how this glamorous but grieving widow deserves the appreciation and respect she did not always receive during her lifetime. Written in the first-person, Jackie O: On the Couch demonstrates convincingly what Onassis’s voice would have been like if she had actually written an autobiography. The reader discovers how this woman distinguished herself as a dedicated wife and mother, and later, as a hard-working and devote d book editor. Onassis lived through some of the most important times of history and attempted to pick up the pieces of her life after frequent mourning, and sometimes frequent media criticism. Fleshed out beautifully through descriptions and sentiments, this alluring icon’s identity is, ultimately, fully and finally unveiled to readers—it is a gem of a book that many readers the world over will find irresistible.”
Clara Roberts, Towson, MD
“Extremely entertaining. Totally and convincingly busts the long-held perception that, from a sexual standpoint, Jackie was the proverbial ice princess all her life.”
Margaret Richman, Denver, CO
This book is a triumph of scholarship and will stand the test of time and those who refuse to take a fresh look at this extraordinary woman.
“I came into the world on July 28, 1929, six weeks late. I haven’t been on time since.” So begins Alma Bond’s Jackie O On The Couch Inside the mind and life of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Bond is a psychotherapist, prolific writer, and familiar face to readers of the Midwest review. In twenty finely wrought and sensitively drawn chapters, Bond creates a voice worth hearing.
Her Jackie O is no cookie cutter card board creation. Not the stuff of tabloids or stoic first ladies keeping their chin up while their real voice goes unheard instead Bond gets inside Jackie’s head and gives us a real flesh and blood human being with her own ambitions, desires, contradictions and a sensuality and psychology all her own.Right from the get go Jackie tells us that “life has always been more important to me than writing about it.” Even so, Bonds insightful psychoanalysis reveals a Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis we can hardly imagine. In this book she takes us on a star spangled, celebrity studded journey through a series of constellations that dare to go where few writers have had the guts to venture before.
Bond a practicing psychoanalyst with more than 60 years of shedding light on those dark corners of the mind that most of us dare not see brings to life a Jackie’O who is as hot blooded and passionate as the men in her life. Although Bond has fictionalized the likes of Maria Callas and Camille Claudel and is more qualified than most to put Jackie on the couch, her narrative reads like a suspense thriller and keeps readers on the edge of their chairs. Take Jackie’s reflections in chapter 2 in which she tells us about her sister, Lee Radziwell. “Was it passive-aggressive of me to remain friends with and take the side of a man who had cheated on my sister, she wonders.” Jackie goes on to dwell on how she betrayed her sister with Aristotle Onassis who ignited her passions as no other man had. (31) It is revelations such as this one that make this book a total page turner. We can hardly wait to devour the next course in this banquet Bond has put before us.
In giving us the unscripted moments of Jackie’s inner most life, Bond makes us feel as if this highly ambitious, complex and driven woman is speaking directly to us. At last we begin to grasp the woman behind the celebrity. He dreams, hopes, disappointments and finally her triumph over the cancer that ravished her at the end of her incredible life.
-Cassandra Langer, Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
“I won’t lie to you. I was skeptical. But by page 2, I was hooked. Jackie O: On the Couch is not only informative, it is insightful and interesting. It boasts the trifecto of i’s. When I see Jackie O, or anyone legendary, on the cover of a book, I grab or request it before I really know what it is about. Very short-sighted, I know, but it can make for interesting reading. So when I saw this gem appear on Net Galley, I immediately requested it. I mean, come on – Jackie O is the woman we have to thank for the popularity of oversized sunglasses! The woman at the side of JFK! The woman who married Aristotle Onassis! Those are the three things that immediately come to mind when you think of Jackie O . . . until you read Jackie O: On the Couch. I had been skeptical when I saw that this was not actually a Jackie O book in a vault somewhere, but was the book of someone I had never heard of, writing about Jackie O’s life from Jackie’s perspective. But then I read that the author, who is wonderful, is a psychoanalyst, and in preparing to write this book, read 100 books on Jackie. So if anyone who did not actually know Jackie could be looked upon as an authority on her, it would have to be Dr. Alma H. Bond. I now know so much more about the enigmatic woman who was Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. The book is beautifully written and offers a lot of insight into the world of Jackie O. It also pays attention to other significant historical figures like John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Bobby Kennedy, etc. Dr. Bond’s chapter on JFK as a father is so moving. This is the kind of book you hope someone would write about you when you are no longer of this world. So, if you are interested in the lives of those who are no more, but who made a significant difference in their lifetimes, then Jackie O: On the Couch is definitely the book for you.”
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