Jackie Under My Skin: Interpreting an Icon

Rating:
Summary: FUN FACTS
Review: Funny categories on our beloved Jackie. A book that one cannot possibly put down and definitly cannot forget. A Real treasure!!!!!! FOR QUESTIONS OR DISCUSSIONS ON JACKIE ONASSIS, PLEASE E-MAIL ME AT [e-mail]. HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: FUN FACTS
Review: Funny categories on our beloved Jackie. A book that one cannot possibly put down and definitly cannot forget. A Real treasure!!!!!! FOR QUESTIONS OR DISCUSSIONS ON JACKIE ONASSIS, PLEASE E-MAIL ME AT [e-mail]. HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Great Riff on an American Sphynx
Review: I loved it. It has a way of getting to the underlying reasons we Americans are so fascinated with the late Mrs. Onassis. Perhaps, a bit much for some and Auntie Mame-ish, but fun. A totally different take then the usual bio and could be read aloud at some spoken word event, it has that kind of melodic tempo. She was a work of art, so perhaps it takes great art to get to the heart of her allure. I loved the chapter on her "pillbox hat". Check it out. Definitely worth a read.

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievably penetrating analysis of our finest First Lady
Review: I simply couldn't put this book down. Kostenbaum's charming analysis of Jackie O's celebrity is dazzling, eccentric and riveting. This book is by no means a biography; rather, the author introduces us to the Jackie of his imagination. Kostenbaum's highly personal essays tranform Jackie-watching from a mere sport into a delightful intellectual and spiritual excercise. It is truly a pleasure to read a book by an author who treats his subject with such playfulness and affection. However, certain Jackie fans might consider such treatment sacreligious and are not likely to enjoy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Amusing, mezmerizing, campy, hypnotic
Review: I simply couldn't put this book down. Kostenbaum's charming analysis of Jackie O's celebrity is dazzling, eccentric and riveting. This book is by no means a biography; rather, the author introduces us to the Jackie of his imagination. Kostenbaum's highly personal essays tranform Jackie-watching from a mere sport into a delightful intellectual and spiritual excercise. It is truly a pleasure to read a book by an author who treats his subject with such playfulness and affection. However, certain Jackie fans might consider such treatment sacreligious and are not likely to enjoy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Koestenbaum creates his own genre
Review: Koestenbaum's book is combustible, flamboyant, a marvel. He is a poet-essayist who has taken as his subject here something about which he truly feels passion, and the object of this affection just happens to be a well-known cultural icon, someone from America of the 1960s but not of it, a hieroglyphic who after her reign as First Lady ended reinvented herself completely several times over before Madonna ever thought of it, all without ever discussing herself or even acknowledging the power of her own celebrity. Other than Salinger, she may be one of the last U.S. icons, since an icon, by nature, does not speak about itself. Koestenbaum's love for Jackie O is unbounded; one can only imagine that she, editor and wordsmith that she finally became, would have appreciated Koestenbaum's wild exploration of her images. This book is funny and provocative, whether or not you know anything about Jackie! But as the other reviews here would suggest, Jackie lovers should stand forewarned -- they probably won't like this book.

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievably penetrating analysis of our finest First Lady
Review: Talk about deconstruction! This book both unravels and revels in the mystery of the divine Jackie O. Koestenbaum is obviously deeply reverential toward his subject matter, and although his fanciful writing sometimes veers to the extreme, leaving the reader a bit side-swiped in the process, the journey is exhilirating. Although often flippant in tone, this book is ultimately spiritual in nature, an astute dissection of perhaps our greatest modern American legend.

Rating:
Summary: supercharged koestenbaum!
Review: While not the singular masterpiece that his "The Queen's Throat" remains, "Jackie Under My Skin" is an engaging, visceral, punchy romp through a classic American icon and an endearing ideal, while being at the same time a great deal more. Koestenbaum's theme remains the search surrounding our dilemma, he's a master of disguise that ends revealing everything . This book immediately goes under YOUR skin when you read it-- Koestenbaum's famous 5000 eyes see everything and keep everything balanced and bright. His literary sense is overpowering. The words leap and bite and nearly drown you sometimes. Koestenbaum's version of reality is clean and robust; this is a writer in jaw-dropping command of his thought. The prose is often downright shocking. Koestenbaum's preference to explore the threads of existence and suffering in a uniquely devoted way marks him out among modern writers, and he's an academic, as well; riding a single vein, a single notion, into the most perfect art, he is all about genius and the so-called redemptive aspects of literature, without ever leaving the most modern, most natural sensibility. His work is marvelous to READ. I would commend to you everything this fellow has written, especially "The Queen's Throat", but this book on Jackie is awfully fine.

Rating:
Summary: supercharged koestenbaum!
Review: While not the singular masterpiece that his "The Queen's Throat" remains, "Jackie Under My Skin" is an engaging, visceral, punchy romp through a classic American icon and an endearing ideal, while being at the same time a great deal more. Koestenbaum's theme remains the search surrounding our dilemma, he's a master of disguise that ends revealing everything . This book immediately goes under YOUR skin when you read it-- Koestenbaum's famous 5000 eyes see everything and keep everything balanced and bright. His literary sense is overpowering. The words leap and bite and nearly drown you sometimes. Koestenbaum's version of reality is clean and robust; this is a writer in jaw-dropping command of his thought. The prose is often downright shocking. Koestenbaum's preference to explore the threads of existence and suffering in a uniquely devoted way marks him out among modern writers, and he's an academic, as well; riding a single vein, a single notion, into the most perfect art, he is all about genius and the so-called redemptive aspects of literature, without ever leaving the most modern, most natural sensibility. His work is marvelous to READ. I would commend to you everything this fellow has written, especially "The Queen's Throat", but this book on Jackie is awfully fine.