Jackie Under My Skin : Interpreting an Icon

Jackie Under My Skin is a passionate investigation of the ways Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis transformed America's definition of celebrity, identity, and style. In a gallery of fantasies and tableaux, Wayne Koestenbaum explains the late first lady's hold on Americans by examining the myths and metaphors that we've attached to her. An exuberant paean to a great star, Jackie Under My Skin is also a meditation on fame, mortality, and the difficulty of defining desire.

“Pop interpretation at its finest . . . and every bit of it is fun to read.” —The Boston Globe

“Dazzling, exuberant . . . Koestenbaum writes with a heady lyricism that makes Jackie-watching an exercise of the soul as well as of the intellect.” —New York Magazine

“Koestenbaum's explanation of the Jackie O phenomenon is as fresh and thought-provoking as they come.” —Los Angeles Times

“Some of the most entertaining prose in years . . . A thoughtful and unexpectedly moving book.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Impassioned insight . . . By turns comic and elegaic, respectful and blasphemous...little or nothing escapes [Koestenbaum's] gaze.” —Newsday