Mimi Alford, “Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath.” New York: Random House. 198pp. $25.
Washington Times, March 9, 2012
By Martin Rubin
Even if you have a low tolerance for kiss-and-tell books about famous people, as I do, you might want to take a look at this one. The story it tells is undeniably sensational and the facts tawdry. In the hands of a salacious writer trying to cash in on notoriety, it would be a most unsavory dish. But while Mimi Alford does not soft peddle the details of the affair which she had with President John F. Kennedy which began when she was a nineteen year old intern in the White House Press Office, “Once Upon A Secret” is just as much about the burden which the relationship—and keeping it a secret for so long—put upon her. Her memoir is a hard won, earnest quest to discover how she could have done such a thing and how the consequences of it doomed her marriage and hobbled so many relationships in the decades following it. . . .
For Martin’s full review, visit washingtontimes.com.