ePub Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath by Mimi Alford in History

Review

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. The author admirably straddles the very fine line between telling most of the sordid details of ...By Richard S.I had to read this book twice before I could decide how I really felt about it. And to be completely candid; Alford's book surprised me. I bought it expecting its focus to be on her relationship with the President. While that may be the event that gives this book its direction; Alford's story is not the same as Monica Lewinski's. What gives Alford's book life for me was the real storyline - the many ways that keeping a secret for so many years can literally consume you.The author admirably straddles the very fine line between telling most of the sordid details of her encounters with JFK and the effects they were having on her. More than half a century after his death; it is clear that Mimi Alford remains very much under the spell that Kennedy cast upon those who came in and out of his circle. She describes in detail how some members of the White House Staff enabled the President's behaviors and how Kennedy was emotionally void when he took her virginity on the Executive Mansion's second floor. Alford understood then that JFK's actions were far beyond the bounds of propriety; but power is a strong aphrodisiac that she only came to terms with as the relationship progressed. Her recounting the tale of being asked by the President to provide sex to one of his key staffers trumpets Kennedy's dark side in all of its ugliness. Still; Alford's story shows that he could also maintain relationships with women without being intimate; such as asking her to come to the White House on the darkest night of the Cuban Missile Crisis.Chaucer said; "Truth will out" and Alford's tale takes a strange turn on November 22; 1963. As the news of Kennedy's assassination spreads around the world; Alford feels a particular pain that few people could understand. She shares with her fiance the secret she has been carrying; and his resulting emotional outburst was typical of the time. She is forbidden to speak of it again and the remainder of the book details the process by which Mimi Alford ultimately found both healing and redemption.When this book was published; there was no absence of claims that she wrote it for the national and international attention that it would inevitably bring. But for me; Ms. Alford emerges from these pages as a sympathetic character that all can identify with on some level. Some may be bigger than others; but all of us carry around our own secrets. Big or small; those secrets may lie dormant for years and perhaps some of us will die never having shared our story. There is an old adage that says; "Two can keep a secret if three are dead." But Alford's account of her affair with the President is really the story of how consuming the keeping of a secret can become; and how liberating it can be when years of secrecy no longer must be maintained.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. There are Life Lessons in this BookBy KathyI couldn't put this book down. When Mimi wrote this book; she did what she wanted to do; as opposed to what other people want her to do. It appears to be a liberating move on her part where a weight is lifted off of her. The book shows how engaging in sin has highways and byways as the effects of the affair traveled into her marriage in a damaging way. JFK uses Mimi for sex. I wish Mimi stuck up for herself in the very beginning. By reading this book; you can learn from Mimi's mistakes and apply them to your own life decisions. You learn that everyone has to love themselves first and if you give a man an inch; you set a precedent; then they are going to take a yard at your expense. Well written. Credible.4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Book reviewBy snowbear1967Great book.