Come to the Edge: A Love Story

Every once in a while, a book casts a spell on me. In 2010, it was The Song Is You. In 2012 - is it too soon to say? - it will be Come To The Edge. The elegance of the writing, the beauty of the story: "haunting" is how I have seen it described, and that was the word I would have used too. I don't remember the last time a book kept me awake and away from even Twitter for two hours at a stretch. "I did not know," she says, "how long it took to get over such a love, and that even when you did, when you loved again, you would always carry a sliver of it in your stitched-together heart". I knew it! I knew that it happened like that sometimes. Because I am a hopeless romantic too. Maybe that's why I was tempted (but only tempted) to rush past the background, the childhood, the descriptions, to get to the wooing, to get to the romance. And maybe that's why I felt something like a twinge of pain in my belly on so many pages: yes, my heart broke for Bradley Whitford when they split up. But it broke for Christina then too, and then time and time again afterwards. (And I want to call her by her first name. Although I know it's an illusion, I feel, after she has shared her soul with me, that we are friends.) Come To The Edge is a book full of emotion, not in a trite, schmaltzy way, but the way it's supposed to be, the way that people tell you to do it at writing workshops: show, don't tell. Christina takes us by the hand and she shows us what it means to be her, what it means to be John, what it means to be with John, what it means to no longer be with him. She makes me want to travel to places in America that I've never heard of. Her writing is quite simply superb, her vocabulary varied - it sounds like a small thing, but it's one of the small things that makes a book worth staying up until two a.m. to finish: when was the last time you came across the word "epiphyte"? On almost every page there was a turn of phrase I wish I could have written. So, her writing: study it, aspiring authors. Particularly aspiring memoirists. Study it for colour and depth and how to bring the past back to life and how to convey the magic of childhood and of love. Study it to learn description and how to draw out character. Study it for the poetry of the language. It was a subplot about a man Christina dated for three years that led me to this book. But I'm glad my endless fascination with him led me there. I'm glad that, after telling myself that it was a ridiculous reason to buy an overpriced hardback book and that it was probably really badly written anyway, I travelled to America when Amazon had it on special offer and I read some reviews that praised the prose. I thought, you know what, beautifully written tragic love stories set against a political backdrop are my thing. They're what I write. I should read it for research. But the stories I write are made up. This one, this heartbreaking one, is real. It can't have been easy to reach into the past for these memories, to draw them out and have the emotions rush back. But if I ever get to meet Christina Haag, I will thank her, because this is a story that needed to be told, and that it's told so deftly means that it will reach the kind of people who don't read celebrity biography. Literary snobs, if you will. People like me. And then I will ask her to please keep writing.

I really enjoyed this book. I think a good part was because I discovered the author and I were not only born in the same hospital but grew up a couple of blocks from each other and went to school right around the corner from each other around the same time period. The author Christina kept journals and her story is told with such great attention to detail you could almost imagine you were there. Wonderful insight into the life of John F. Kennedy Junior, and the author‘s life.

Ms. Haag writes that John aimed for "the remarkable equipoise of humility and confidence that is grace." Indeed it is Ms. Haag who achieves this grace for herself this poetic story of boy meets girl. Obviously, we readers know how this story ends, and with the hunger that still exists for the sordid details of anything Kennedy it would have been all to easy for Ms. Haag to write a tell-all account of her 5 year relationship with JFK Jr. But that's not what this is. This book is a love song to America's prince. Her writing is elegant and authentic. It reveals without without being too revealing. Fear not, there are some very interesting and very personal memories, but as Ms. Haag pointed out in her Today Show interview, memoirs are meant to be personal. Furthermore every detail that is included in this book contributes to its plot, contributes to the overall mood of John and Christina's relationship. I feel that John, Jackie and even Caroline would be pleased with the portrait this book paints of the Kennedy family. John is depicted as human, but a human of the most charming and dazzling sort. I can't say enough good things about this book. If it had been a novel about two entirely fictional characters it would still be worth reading based on its beautifully crafted prose alone. I sincerely hope that Ms. Haag continues to write. She is a gifted storyteller and (from what I can tell) a beautiful soul. Thank you, Ms. Haag, for sharing your experience with me.

Christina Haag describes love so deeply and so simply as she intimately writes about her friendship and then romantic relationship with John F.Kennedy Jr. Her memoir has a haunting quality to it, not only because we know the last tragic chapter but because she is able to transport the reader into a New York that is naive, glamorous, dangerous, rarified and now gone. COME TO THE EDGE is a memoir/history novel that one tries to slow down one’s reading while nearing the end so as not to get to that last page. A brave and beautifully written memoir. “Come to the edge," he said. "We can't, we're afraid!" they responded. "Come to the edge," he said. "We can't, We will fall!" they responded. "Come to the edge," he said. And so they came. And he pushed them. And they flew” Guillaume Apollinaire I wept and was engaged from beginning to end. The book has so much grace and sensitivity- it is a timeless love letter. Christina Haag reveals her deep sensitivity and discretion and never slips into sensationalism- she is all restraint and simple honesty and she is a beautifully gifted writer. This is a moving personal and delicate memoir about love, loss and what might have been.

Christina Haag is clearly a sensitive and reflective soul who has written a lovely memoir of young-not first- love. Though I never personally knew John Kennedy jr., I have read a great deal and spoken to people who did know him and she seemed to capture him as I had imagined- full of love, sweet and tender. In other words, a great guy and someone who must have been a dream to be in love with- not because of who his parents were or what his name was- but simply because he was gorgeous on the inside and on the out- sensitive, kind and good. This memoir should relate both to Kennedy family fans as well as to those who are indifferent to the idea of John as the 'heir to the throne' because, though one of the characters is famous, it is mostly a universal love story that anyone who has loved and lost can relate to. It's beautifully written and never glamorizes John or his family, nor judges him or it. It is what it is- a poignant recollection of friendship, love and loss. Christina Haag should feel proud of her work because she wrote it beautifully and respectfully and I believe that John -and possibly even Jackie- would have approved of it.

Christina Haag’s memoir is full of heart and soul. It has just the right amount of sentimentality and nostalgia, joy and sadness, life’s full spectrum of emotions, written in a deeply sensitive and elegant manner. It is not only about young love and childhood friendships, it is a love letter to her city, her youth and life in general. There is a touch of magic there and by the time you finish you will want to give her a hug and be her friend. I wish her all things magical. Regina Ryan

es gibt glaube ich nicht viele bücher über John f.k. die der Wahrheit entsprechen,dieses buch und das von Rosemarie terenzio ,fairy tale interruptet ,gehört bestimmt dazu. wundervolles buch. schreibe meine Rezessionen auf deutsch die bücher lese ich abernur auf englisch.

Je n'ai pas encore eu le temps de le lire! mais je pense que je vais améliorer ainsi mon anglais d'une manière attractive!