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  • Grace and Power

  • The Private World of the Kennedy White House
  • By: Sally Bedell Smith
  • Narrated by: Lee Adams
  • Length: 20 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (13 ratings)
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Grace and Power

By: Sally Bedell Smith
Narrated by: Lee Adams
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Summary

In Grace and Power, New York Times best-selling author Sally Bedell Smith takes us inside the Kennedy White House with unparalleled access and insight. Having interviewed scores of Kennedy intimates, including many who have never spoken before, and drawing on letters and personal papers made available for the first time, Smith paints a richly detailed picture of the personal relationships behind the high purpose and poiltical drama of the 20th century's most storied presidency.

At the dawn of the 1960s, a 43-year-old president and his 31-year-old first lady (the youngest couple ever to occupy the White House) captivated the world with their easy elegance and their cool conviction that anything was possible. Jack and Jackie Kennedy gathered around them an intensely loyal and brillant coterie of intellectuals, journalists, diplomats, international jet-setters and artists. Perhaps as never before, Washington was sharply divided between the "ins" and the "outs."

In his public life, JFK created a New Frontier, stared down the Soviets, and devoted himself to his wife and children. As first lady, Jackie mesmerized foreign leaders and the American people with her style and sophistication. Smith brilliantly recreates the glamorous pageant of the Kennedy years, as well as the daily texture of the Kennedys' marriage, friendships, political associations, and, in Jack's case, multiple love affairs.

Smith's striking revelations include new information about what drew Jack to his numerous mistresses, and what effects the relationships ultimately had on the women; about the rivalries and resentments among Kennedy's advisers; and about the poignant days before and after Kennedy's assassination.

Smith has fashioned a vivid and nuanced portrait not only of two extraordinary individuals but of a new age that sprang to life around them. Shimmering with intelligence and detail, Grace and Power is history at its finest.

©2004 Sally Bedell Smith (P)2004 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"What Ms. Smith has done is to write the first substantial narrative that captures what daily life was really like in the inner sanctum of the White House during the Kennedy years, with Jack and Jackie appropriately cast as the lead actors in the intriguing drama." (The New York Times)
"Eloquently rendered social history....Highly readable account of the White House milieu shaped by John and Jackie Kennedy..." (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Grace and Power

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Hokum ..

I must admit I did not listen to the full 20 hours of this. I heard the first five hours and gave up. It's great if you want to know the colour and style of all the dresses Jackie Kennedy wore, and the predilections of all of the white house staff and their partners, no matter how hundrum or mundane. At the point where the author was describing the type and variety of plants that the wife of a minor, undistinguished member of white house staff liked to plant in her front garden, I gave up. A remarkable presidency, a remarkable time - if you want to know how it was lived in terms of the frocks worn by its protagonists, listen to this book. If you are interested in politics and history, read another ...

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

This is well written and informative. It's reasonably well narrated with only a few mispronunciations: but becomes hugely disappointing when near the end it pushes the wholly inaccurate 'lone gunman' theory. Sad.

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1 person found this helpful