Jackie & Me

by Louis Bayard

“ABSOLUTELY IRRESISTIBLE.” —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 page-turning story of friendship, love, sacrifice, and betrayal— and a fresh take on two iconic American figures.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Adult, Historical, Book Club, Audiobook, Adult Fiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published June 14, 2022

About the author

A staff writer for Salon.com, Bayard has written articles and reviews for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Nerve.com, and Preservation, among others. Bayard lives in Washington, D.C.

Reviews

[Faith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was just ok. The audiobook narrator was awful. He should never attempt a female voice.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate to say it y'all....this book was boring.

Jackie and Me is about the "friendship"?? Between Jackie Kennedy and Lem Billings, John Kennedy's gay best friend.

I didn't mind that it wasn't completely realistic to their real life relationship. It's fiction so I think it's fine to take liberties. My problem was that this book was so boring. Nothing happens and Lem who is the main character is as boring as paint drying.

This story could have been so interesting. It could have been a deep dive into what it was like being a closeted man in the 1950's whose best friend becomes the most powerful man in the world. It could have been about Lem's well known contentious relationship with Jackie Kennedy. Instead it was about a possible gay man whose kinda in love with Jackie Kennedy.

What a disappointment. I love Historical Fiction and real people. I've read better Kennedy Historical Fiction in the past. This book just didn't do it for me.

[Lynne Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this poignant, beautifully written, ultimately heartbreaking novel about the young Jacqueline Bouvier in the two years before her wedding to John F. Kennedy in 1954. Smart, beautiful, restless, and a talented writer, she yearns for more than marriage and motherhood but in the end succumbs to the lure of marrying the most eligible bachelor in Washington, despite his emotional distance and sexual voraciousness. One can’t help but wonder what might have have happened if she had come along just ten years later, when women’s rights and options began to greatly expand.

[Angie Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adore this novel! It’s a testament to Louis Bayard’s remarkable gifts as a storyteller how suspenseful it is given that we already know this story… or do we? Full of Bayard’s trademark charm and wit, with prose that sings and a perfect voice, JACKIE & ME delighted me from beginning to end.

***
I usually write a long Goodreads review as a shitty first draft of sorts for blurbs I'm writing, but this time, the blurb (above) came first. I love Lou Bayard's writing (yes, his novels, but I first became a fan reading his NYT recaps of Downton Abbey, haha), and I really think this may be my favorite of his stories. I can't tell you how many passages I highlighted. Beautiful insights into Jackie O before she was even Jackie K. I'm guessing the publisher will market this as a JFK/Jackie story, but what I really loved was the narrator and the chemistry between him and Jackie. So poignant and elegiac. Heartbreaking and heartwarming at once. A perfect follow-up to Courting Mr. Lincoln.

[Diane OLeary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Emily Giffen's book, Meant to Be, a thinly veiled version of the JFK Jr/Carolyn Bessett story and now with Jackie and Me I have moved on to JFK Jr's parents courtship as seen through the eyes of their friend, Lem Billings. This is compelling and entertaining reading for people like myself who know much about Kennedy Dynasty stories. This is a beautifully written and interesting perspective about a time period when openness and honesty was neither practiced nor encouraged. Who knows how the future may have turned out if people could have been open about making different decisions back in those times. There was a lot to ponder and I relished doing that. Highly recommended.

[Nicole Bibliolau19 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars

I've always been fascinated by Jackie O, and since reading The Editor by @stephenrowley , I've craved more accounts of her life prior to, and after, being married to JFK. So when @algonquinbooks reached out and asked if I'd be interested in reading Louis Bayard's Jackie & Me, I jumped at the chance, and I'm so glad I did! Thank you so much to @louisbayardwriter @algonquinbooks and @netgalley for both my gifted e-copy and physical copy of this remarkable novel!

This historical fiction book chronicles Jackie's early life, including her short stint at Vogue, her time as a photographer at the Washington Times-Herald, and her blossoming relationship with charming Congressman Jack Kennedy, all told from the perspective of Jack's best friend, Lem Billings.

This book engrossed me from the first page. Bayard's writing style has an easy, effortless flow, which made me feel as though I was having a conversation with a good friend. I appreciated the early glimpses of Jackie's life, and while fictionalized, I was fascinated by her relationship with both her mother and father, as well as her drive to pursue a career. As a journalist myself, I loved reading about her application process to the Vogue internship and her time at the Times-Herald, and my heart went out to her as she was forced to either be a career girl or marry into a family of high standing - there was no compromise or "having it all."

Additionally, my heart went out to Lem, who had such strong feelings for Jackie but sacrificed them - and, in turn, his own happiness - for Jack. The way he remembered and spoke of Jackie touched my heart, but the realization that they sacrificed so much of their hearts and lives for someone who didn't appreciate it, broke it, as well.

If you, like I, am intrigued by the Kennedys, the Camelot era, and the reality behind the glitter and glamour, this is definitely the book for you! A story of friendship, difficult decisions, sacrifice, betrayal, and love, Bayard does a beautiful job of giving readers a fascinating look at Jackie and her life outside of Jack.

This book hits shelves Tuesday, June 14, so don't wait - get your pre-orders and library holds in today! This was my first Louis Bayard book, but it certainly won't be my last!

[Cathryn Conroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

ANOTHER book on Jackie Kennedy? Oh, yes, and it's a must-read! This is a delightful twist on the tale we all know about this beloved former first lady. Here's the twist: The "me" in "Jackie & Me" is Jack Kennedy's best friend Kirk LeMoyne Billings, or Lem as he was known, and the time he spent with Jackie in the year before she was married.

Lem met Jack Kennedy when they were both in prep school at Choate and became best friends. Theirs was an unlikely friendship: Jack was a philandering lady's man and Lem was a closeted gay man. Lem was poor and an Episcopalian. Still, the very Catholic Kennedy family "adopted" Lem; Rose even referred to him as her fifth son. When Jack's father instructed Jack in no uncertain terms that it was time he was married for the good of his political future, Jack settled on Jackie Bouvier. He really couldn't be bothered with all the time and effort in courting Jackie, so he enlisted Lem to befriend his future bride while Jack worked as a congressman, ran for the U.S. Senate, traveled extensively, and all the while sought out other women for his bed. This was an ingenious ploy to keep Jackie occupied and out of the arms of other men until Jack was ready to actually get married.

That's all fact. Now for the novel part.

Author Louis Bayard, who freely admits in the acknowledgements that this is "an exercise in alternative history," has richly imagined this unusual friendship between Lem and Jackie—what they did, what they said, what they meant to each other—and the result is an engrossing, intriguing story that brings a new perspective to the age-old Jackie story. Narrated by Lem as a 64-year-old man looking back on his life, the stories he tells are of the love, sacrifice, and betrayal of two outsiders who were both intimately drawn into the magnetic Kennedy orbit.

This is, after all, Jackie before—Jackie before Jack, Jackie before the White House, Jackie before Caroline and John Jr., Jackie before the tragedy that forever defined her and our country. This is a different Jackie, and one I really enjoyed getting to know.

Bayard is a brilliant storyteller, which makes this almost magical historical novel a real page-turner. Read it!

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Jackie and Me" is a story of how two searching people became themselves--one, a debutante turned global icon, the other, a second fiddle loner turned an out man looking for love.

What's good: The story casts a new light on the specific choices made by JFK's friend Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings and Jacqueline Bouvier. It shows a friendship made, and how in friendship, we can be purely honest with one another--in many ways, a higher level of love.

What's iffier: The book seems to just sit in the period of the courtship of Jackie and Jack; there's not a lot of forward momentum.

There's a certain distance in the Lem POV, implying information about Jackie, Jack, and his own life without being willing to say it. That's certainly in keeping with the period, but it was a bit frustrating at times, as we're at the mercy of Lem's POV.

With gratitude to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everybody knows of Jackie Kennedy..the enigmatic bright light of mid century America. Through the real life eternal friendship with Jack Kennedy,Jr.,Lem tells the story of his budding relationship with Jackie in the time leading to the engagement and wedding. Beautifully written, the reader is cast into the Kennedy charm and risk. on these pages the reader observes the transformation of Jackie from a wide eyed debutante to the collected,self contained iron backboned icon that ruled America's heart.

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who has had a longstanding fascination with the lives and times of the generation of Kennedys that gave to the nation a President of the United States and 2 Senators, I found that Jackie & Me made for compulsive reading.

The novel is largely focused on the role Lem Billings, one of JFK's closest friends (so much so that Lem was adopted by the Kennedy family virtually as an additional son), played during the time of JFK's and Jackie Bouvier's courtship. This was a time in which JFK was largely preoccupied with his 1952 Senate campaign in Massachusetts against the Republican incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge. Consequently, JFK had little time that year for Jackie. Hence, the vital role Lem played in spending time with Jackie, taking her out for lunch and various social and fun outings in and around Washington. At this time, Jackie was working as a photojournalist for the Washington Times-Herald, in which capacity she would go out on the streets of Washington, camera in hand, to ask passersby questions about various subjects of human interest. Their responses she would write about in a brief excerpt which would be printed (with photo) in the newspaper.

I enjoyed the way the author brought both Jackie and Lem vividly to life. Jackie & Me was largely told in Lem's voice, both as he was in the early 1950s (when he was in his mid-30s) and in 1981 (near the end of his life). He helped Jackie to better understand the manner of man JFK was, as well as his family. He was the type of friend who put up with a lot - and earned the respect of both JFK and the Kennedy family.

There was one passage in Jackie & Me that clearly illustrated the type of relationship JFK and Lem had, and it is as follows ---

"... four years had since elapsed [i.e. between 1949 and 1953, the year JFK married Jackie}, and now, traveling back to Baltimore, I wondered for the first time what had become of that girl [with whom JFK had had a brief fling]. I couldn't imagine her hurling herself from the Fourteenth Street Bridge --- the congressional staffers I knew in those days were terrestrial. Perhaps she'd found some nice Chamber of Commerce lobbyist and was already on her way to having four unthinkingly healthy children. But as I thought back on her, sitting alone in that foyer, I realized I'd never said a single reproachful word to Jack --- I suppose for the very reason he was now suggesting. Friends accept each other as is, with no returns. So why, I wondered, should Jackie have any different standing than that girl whose name I never learned?"

Should the reader of this review be intrigued with the story of Jackie and Lem, by all means, read Jackie & Me.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

A different spin on the “Camelot” legend, including unattractive glimpses into the slimy, dark hole of both Joseph Kennedy’s and JFK’s marital infidelities. The author provides a compassionate but not unblemished picture of Jackie, primarily in her early professional, pre-marriage years. While in Bayard’s characterization she still remains an enigma, often detached and private, she also comes across as an engaging, funny, and kind friend and a woman who not unknowingly walks into her unfortunate marriage and her alliance with fate.

Bayard also offers here a very interesting exploration of the nature of friendship through the examples of Lem’s relationship to Jack and his relationship to Jackie, two very different kinds of friendships. The choice of Lem Billings as narrator is an innovative one, useful as both foil and observer: historically real; a scholarship student at Choate caught in the glare, glamour, and romance of the rich, overflowing Kennedy clan; loyal to a fault; a closeted, often lonely gay professional who spent much time escorting JFK’s sisters to events but never “partnered up”; sadly summed up at the end of his life in this book by his friend Raul as someone who was meant to always wake up alone. As, in many ways, the direct opposite of JFK, his fictional perspective is an insightful, sometimes crushing commentary on the lives of “the rich and famous,” the doomed, and the damned—and on those who trail in their wake.

[Krystal DeMoss · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't wrap my head around this book. On the surface, it's a novel about Jackie navigating the Kennedy family with the help of her (closeted) gay best friend. But Lem, who has been there through the revolving door of lovers, gas lights his "dear friend" into believing that JFK will change his ways once he's married to her and that "men like him aren't held to the normal standards". (I'm paraphrasing.) At no point in the book does JFK's show any sign of actual affection for Jackie and he's a straight up a** to Lem. Lem is just that friend that the girl goes to to cry about the man that's awful to her. Honestly the vibe I got throught the whole thing is that Lem wanted JFK and if he couldn't have him he was going to have a weird proxy relationship with his girlfriend. It would have been a much more interesting book if it had focused on what it was like to be gay in the proximity of a family like the Kennedys in that era. Maybe as a book club book it would be an OK pick because there is a lot to unpack but as a casual reader it left me very disappointed.

[Alex (Alex's Version) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book, I listened to the audiobook though and it wasn't very good, the reader was horrible.

- The cover was insanely beautiful, it made me buy the actual book.
- I really thought it was well written and I enjoyed learning about Jackie working at Vogue.
- I listened to it in 1 sitting, So to me it was addictive then though the reader wasn't ideal.

[kathy wright · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the most boring books I've ever read!

The writing style was horrible. The author went on and on, jumped around, and literally had no story to tell. He found it necessary to over use big, unnecessary words. Very disappointing and a total waste of money!
There were also grammatical and spelling errors!

[Smagoo2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another wonderfully written escape from Louis Bayard. This was a little fluffier than his past books (which made it a perfect summer read) but so beautifully written. I really have zero interest in Jackie Kennedy, but I would read a book about paint drying if Bayard wrote it.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this book and already wanted to start it again. Louis Bayard just has such a way with words — such a beautiful, engaging novel.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Kennedy's, especially JFK, do not come off too well in this reimagining of the courtship of Jack and Jackie. It is a story of friendship, between Lem Billings, JFK's gay best friend from prep school and Jackie. According to the story, Lem is supposed to break it to Jackie about Jack's dalliances and how they will continue after marriage, but he can't bring himself to do this, because he fears losing her friendship, and ultimately, JFK's. It's a sad story, for Lem, who seems to love JFK above all others, and who, in his old age, is abandoned by the Kennedy tribe. It's a well done story, but I thought it could have been edited down a bit.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

This one was slow at the beginning for me but it did pick up in the later half. So we all know how Jackie and Jack's story ended, but do we know how it began? This book is about Jackie Bouvier and JFK's friend, Lem Billings. Lem is told to court Jackie to see if she is good politician wife material while JFK continues sleeping with every breathing female. I maybe was not in the right state of mind to read this as I had just watched a Marilyn Monroe documentary right before I started this book. The Kennedy men are horrible human beings. This book is told through Lem's point of view and while he becomes a friend to Jackie, he is first a friend to the Kennedys. So he is put in some very awkward situations. The book ends with the wedding of Jack and Jackie so it is only a small sliver of Jackie's life. On the flip side, Jackie had to have known what she was getting into. I think it is the typical where the woman thinks she can change the man. Ladies, they do not change once married.

Just a little mention of Chattanooga: "I have to do it through the eyes of Charlie Bartlett. Back in '51, he was the quickly rising, well-liked D.C. correspondent for the Chattanooga Times."

"Death by boredom," I once suggested.
"You mean Congress," he said.

[Zibby Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jackie & Me is basically a novel about Jackie before she was Jackie Kennedy—the glamorous first lady in the pillbox hat or the grieving widow with beautiful children. She had so many identities throughout her life. But when we first meet her in the book, Jackie is just out of college and had started a career in journalism at the Washington Times-Herald as an Inquiring Camera Girl. She interviews people and takes their pictures for a 500-word story. Then she goes to a dinner party in Georgetown and meets this handsome, young congressman, already famous, America's most famous bachelor at the time, and her life changes course. The narrator is Jack's best friend for life, Lem Billings, a closeted gay man who became her confidant. The novel is about what happens when his role as Jack's friend conflicts with his new role as Jackie's friend. How can he serve both interests or both people and still be a friend to them when their interests collide? Jackie & Me is a kind of triangle between Lem and Jack and Jackie.

The story is told retrospectively through Lem's eyes as he was nearing the end of his life in the early 1980s. I was surprised to learn that Jackie was a journalist walking around the streets asking people random questions. We think of her as being the pursued one in the media, not her pursuing somebody else. Of course, eventually, she became the object of the camera rather than the operator of it. But this book gives us a tiny glimpse into a different side of Jackie before she became First Lady.

To listen to my interview with the author, go to my podcast at:
https://www.momsdonthavetimetoreadboo...

[Carolyn Shulman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love historical fiction. This one left me wanting to know more and what parts were true. The writing was amazing! It really made me look at the Kennedy life differently. I was a Google queen afterwards finding exact details.

[Naomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this book is highly overrated. It seemed to me just a frivolous historical piece of fluff. I really can’t understand why the New York Times Book Review has given it so much attention.

[Pina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book would be an enjoyable summer read…it wasn’t for me. I found the writing dull and uninteresting storyline.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fictionalized take on Jackie Kennedy‘s courtship by JFK. It primarily deals with her alleged relationship with Lem Billings JFK‘s best friend since childhood, who almost acts as a place filler for when JFK either can’t or won’t be with Jackie. Lem is narrating the events between Jackie and JFK 40 years after the fact, as well as telling the story of his own life to some degree.

One of the main purposes of Lem‘s relationship with Jackie is to “seal the deal“ per Joseph P Kennedy, JFK’s father, who sees Jackie as an ideal wife for JFK. JFK is ambivalent about getting married at all. He likes his freedom, but JPK has higher political ambitions for JFK and he has to get married to achieve them. JPK wants Lem to convince Jackie that marrying JFK would be good for her, but JFK wants Lem to make sure Jackie understands that he won’t be a faithful husband. How Lem handles this dilemma is very disappointing. It should also be noted that JFK had absolutely no fears that Lem would steal Jackie from him since Lem is a severely closeted gay man.

Aside from making Lem an outsized figure in the Jackie and JFK relationship (and who knows what his relationship to each of them really was) , there is one glaring error right in the first paragraph of the story.

In 1981, Lem m and Jackie have not seen each other in years. He sees her walking in the East Village but does not approach her. “There was no way of asking, with a gentleman-thug from the Secret Service following 10 feet behind.“ Jackie lost Secret Service protection in 1968 when she married Aristotle Onassis. Her children may have retained the protection until age 18, but even they would have aged out by 1981. So if there was a “gentleman-thug” it would have been a private bodyguard, not Secret Service. The author makes the same mistake in the next last paragraph of the book. At least he’s consistent.

Although interesting, this book was a bit disappointing. The story ends with Jackie and JFK‘s wedding, although Lem alluded to his presence in the lives of RFK‘s children over the years. According to him, Jackie withdrew from their relationship to a great degree when she saw how RFK‘s children were being raised and didn’t want them being a bad influence on her own children. Smart move on her part. It’s interesting and ironic how Lem constantly praises RFK Jr.’s intellect and adventurousness, given what we now know about him as an adult and his bizarre beliefs. I found the abrupt ending of his relationship with Jackie incongruous since they must have had some kind of relationship during the White House years. It would have been interesting to see what the relationship was like after November 1963, given how close they once were. I totally get that the relationship would have become strained after Jackie married Onassis. For me this was a lost opportunity to give the relationship more depth.

Overall, a good but not a great book.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

By all accounts, this should have been a delight for me to read. The Kennedys? Check. Historical fiction? Check. Louis Bayard? Check. But, somehow, this book still didn’t work for me. It was…. Boring? Made Jackie seem desperate or something? Sure didn’t make Jack seem like any kind of catch. Based on this book, I can't even imagine WHY Jackie would want to pursue Jack. And, honestly, the narrator, Lem, was pretty snoozy and bland as far as characters. This kind of had a vibe of The Remains of the Day - the wistful remembrances of past glory - but it just fell flat for me.

[Sylvia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Written in an old fashioned style with a lot of repartee and oblique conversation. I found Jackie fairly inscrutable and Jack even less well defined. Lem, our narrator was the most fleshed out, but as a closeted gay man in the 50’s and 60’s he was also pretty opaque.

[WM D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jackie and me was a very good book. The book tells about the relationship between Jackie and jfk . How they met and the courtship and the eventual marriage.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! I wasn’t very familiar with Kennedy lore, so it was fascinating to learn about Jackie’s young adulthood and how her life intertwined with JFK’s. The author’s choice to narrate the story from Lem’s perspective was unexpected but effective—it provided a unique vantage point that made the relationship between Jackie and Jack even more vivid. The book strikes a great balance between historical accuracy and compelling fiction.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be clear, Jackie and Me is fiction and not historical fiction. I had to keep reminding myself of this even though some events and dates are historically correct. Lem Billings was a Choate schoolmate of Jack Kennedy. The two become close and remain friends through the White House years. Lem even had a guest room informally designated as his since he was such a frequent visitor. The book explores the friendship between Lem, a gay man, and Jackie who is becoming more and more infatuated with the up and coming Congressman. Lem is supposed to encourage Jackie and keep her company during the time Jack is campaigning for the Senate. He begins to worry about Jackie and her unrealistic expectations of what Jack would be like as a husband. So, did any of the friend relationship really happen? There is some historical fact about Lem escorting Jackie but did they delve into marriage matters? A quick Internet search offers some thought that Jackie was practical and tolerated him as Jack's friend but nothing more. Still, it's an interesting take on the young Jackie before she became "Jackie."

[Sandie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of Jackie Bouvier and Jack Kennedy's courtship as related through the eyes of Jack's best friend, Lem. Jack and Lem went to boarding school together and formed a lifelong friendship; Lem being more or less adopted by the entire Kennedy clan. Jackie was working as an on the street photographer and columnist. Jack was known for his war record and as an up and coming politician.

Jackie and Jack met at the start of his Senate campaign. Knowing that his time would be totally consumed by that, Jack asks Lem to be Jackie's friend so that she didn't drift away and meet someone else. Lem was glad to do that as he and Jackie had hit it off immediately. They went to museums, discussed books, and Lem interpreted Jack and his mixed signals to Jackie. Jack even had Lem explain how a marriage to him would be; he expected to retain his ability to see other women as he wanted. Jack was basically marrying because his father thought it was necessary to do so in order to be electable. Jackie was marrying for love and because it was the next thing in life a woman did. It was a tragedy waiting to happen.

This is such a charming book. Readers will fall in love with Lem and find it totally believable that he won the heart of both Jackie and all the Kennedy clan. Lem is loyal and delightful, always willing to step in and do what is needed. Jackie is shown as such an interesting woman, full of plans for her future but caught in a love that didn't show much sign of being one that would nurture her. This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction and anyone who needs a book to warm their heart.

[Elizabeth VanDyke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a charming book. I have read a lot of nonfiction about the Kennedys and consider myself pretty knowledgeable. I finished reading this and thought "I wish I had thought of that." The story is narrated by an older Lem Billings, best friend of the young JFK. It covers the time between the first meeting of JFK and Jackie and their marriage. During that time Lem is tasked by JFK with squiring his girlfriend around as he is busy campaigning and other things. The result is a complicated relationship. Although the story is fictional Mr. Bayard never makes a misstep. Not once did I think, "Wait Old Joe never would have done that..." He clearly did his homework.