Ms. Bacarr manages to take three fictionalized characters and place them into historical fact, not always an easy task, but she accomplishes the feat with a deft hand and a true voice. I actually did an internet search on the character names. I was not certain that these three young women were but the inventions of the mind of a creative writer. Finally convinced that, indeed, Louise, Afton, and Gillian were not, and never had been, actually breathing, I marveled at the writer’s well-rounded portrayal of the idealism of the 1960s as seen through the eyes of these so-real ladies.

The Kennedy Girls is a story that revives the hopes and dreams of a united world, a John Kennedy and Martin Luther King world. It made me believe all over again, and feel so sorry when, finishing the last page, I realized that the world had come far from that period of an “it’ll happen if only we make it happen” philosophy ­ almost full-circle. A sad commentary on progress.

Set during one week in July, 1960, The Kennedy Girls tells of three young ladies who come together at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. All three have been selected to work as “Golden Girl Hostesses.” The book is written in 1st person narratives, each girl getting chapters based on plot activity.

The unifying theme is race relations. In the 1960s, we wanted to consider ourselves a nation without prejudice, but reality painted the true picture. The United States was nearly a century beyond the canopy of the official end of slavery in the guise of the Civil War, but the large number of whites still believed in their superiority, and the black population was most often yet afraid to stand and declare their equality.

The book initially appealed to me because of my family’s mixed race background, a fact I knew nothing of until about 10 years ago. Ever since, I ’ve read anything I could get my hands on that covered the topic of multi-racial heritage, the “color line,” and people who, throughout our country’s volatile history, have “passed” to get ahead in life. In fact, my great-grandmother was such a person.

There has rarely ever been anything more powerful nor capable of healing centuries’ old wounds than the bonds of love and friendship. I won’t give away the story. Let it suffice to say that one of these girls is “Negro,” though she has been passing as a white girl. The other two are White, yet one is color-blind and determined to take on the issues of her day in her youthful, innocent belief in the equality of all. Roll this up and place it on the artist’s palate of Martin Luther King’s world, before his “I Have a Dream” speech, and the John F. Kennedy era, before he became President ­ and before the similar Hope of that particular pair was destroyed at the end of two separate bullets. . . .

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Sweet

Reviewer: Linda Alexander
January 23, 2004