His acclaimed novels include The Pale Blue Eye, soon to be a Netflix motion picture starring Christian Bale, the national bestseller Courting Mr. Lincoln, Roosevelt's Beast, The School of Night, The Black Tower, and Mr. Timothy, as well as the highly praised young-adult novel, Lucky Strikes.
A New York Times Notable author, he has been nominated for both the Edgar and Dagger awards, and his story, “Banana Triangle Six,” was chosen for The Best American Mystery Stories.
His reviews and articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and Salon.
An instructor at George Washington University, he is the chair of the PEN/Faulkner Awards and was the author of the popular Downton Abbey recaps for the New York Times.
Bayard applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Jackie & Me, and reported the following:
If you were to flip to page 69 of Jackie & Me, you would find Jackie, during one of her “irregular late-afternoon conversations” with the handsome Congressman Kennedy, receiving a rather startling invitation. “Could you stand meeting family?” At first she thinks he means his parents, but he reassures her: “I like you too much to do that to you.” Instead, he suggests a St. Patrick’s Day weekend gathering at his brother Bobby’s. In preparation for the event, Jackie spends some time fretting over what to wear (something nice? something green?) and, more urgently, “how to be” with this strange new family.Learn more about the book and author at Louis Bayard's website.
Nothing overtly dramatic is happening, but I think the browser does a pretty good job of capturing the book’s emotional dynamic. In particular, we get the imbalance built into the central relationship: Jackie wondering every moment where she stands in Jack’s affections, and Jack in no great hurry to tell her. We also see her drawing a step closer to the Kennedy sanctum, which will be a pivotal and disorienting transition for this genteel product of Newport high society.
I like, too, how the page reveals some of the social pressures at work on a young woman of Jackie’s era. On one side is etiquette columnist Emily Post, cautioning that “men are frightened by presumption in women.” That suggests playing it cool and casual, and Jackie even invents a conflict on St. Patrick’s Day that she then lets fall away. On the other side is Jackie’s redoubtable mother, Janet Auchincloss, who has inveigled two very different men to the altar and who would approach this weekend, Jackie knows, as a win-or-lose proposition. In Mrs. Auchincloss’s world, the question isn’t “how to be” but “how to succeed.” These are the contrary winds of opinion that buffet our heroine as she tries to navigate her way to the Congressman’s heart.
The Page 69 Test: The Black Tower.
The Page 69 Test: The Pale Blue Eye.
The Page 69 Test: The School of Night.
The Page 69 Test: Roosevelt's Beast.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
