Grace and power

In November 2003 it will already be 40 years since the horrific assassinationf President Kennedy. But the appeal of the Kennedys and their Camelot courtemains as strong as ever, as the regular flow of books about them attests.ut unlike so many of these other books, Sally Bedell Smith's Grace and Poweras no axe to grind about the Kennedys: no obsession with JFK's womanising,r the alleged Mafia connections, or the family's susceptibility to tragedy.nstead, in a major work of history she tells the story of John and Jackie'shree years in the White House straight: soberly, comprehensively,ensitively, from beginning to sudden end. Grace and Power is, then, aompassionate and immensely poignant chronicle of pivotal historical eventseen from the inside out, from within the private home of the President andirst Lady. When John Kennedy entered the White House he was only 43; hisulnerable wife Jackie, astonishingly, just 31.;For all the superficialpulence and lavish partying of their social circle, we see, therefore, theuban Missile Crisis and the burgeoning American civil rights movement from