Synopses & Reviews
The Love Story of JFK Jr. and Christina Haag •
New York Times bestseller
When Christina Haag was growing up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, John F. Kennedy, Jr., was just one of the boys in her circle of prep school friends, a skinny kid who lived with his mother and sister on Fifth Avenue and who happened to have a Secret Service detail following him discreetly at all times. A decade later, after they had both graduated from Brown University, Christina and John were cast in an off-Broadway play together. It was then that John confessed his long-standing crush on her, and they embarked on a five-year love affair. Glamorous and often in the public eye, but also passionate and deeply intimate, their relationship was transformative for both of them. Exquisitely written, Come to the Edge is an elegy to first love, a lost New York, and a young man with an enormous capacity for tenderness, and an adventurous spirit, who led his life with surprising and abundant grace.
Review
“[Haag] doesn’t bow to tabloid sensationalism; instead, she gently dusts off her tender, aching memories and bravely holds them to the light...Come to the Edge is about the endless, burning passion of young love — the kind that strips you bare and leaves you for dead when it’s over.…The wistful story of love and ultimate loss is told with a wealth of finely wrought details that reveal both Haag’s deep sensitivity and wonder at the situation in which she has found herself; and Kennedy’s conflicted nature — the free spirit who just wants to climb mountains and ski in the Alps, who admits that he is not yet a man at 30. The book also paints a compelling portrait of the lost Manhattan of the 1970s and ’80s, a mysterious place of wealth and despair.” Los Angeles Times
Review
“Lyrically and precisely recaptures the frenetic ecstasy of early love.” Washington Post
Review
“Come to the Edge perfectly captures what it feels like to be young and in love — the giddiness, the lunacy, the madcap swings between exhilaration and despair…Haag is a beautiful writer, and the book [is] full of wonderfully vivid descriptions.” Entertainment Weekly
Review
“John F. Kennedy Jr.’s former love offers glimpses into the last vestiges of Camelot. In actress Haag's debut memoir, readers get a front-row seat to her on-again/off-again love affair with JFK Jr., President Kennedy's eldest son....Despite her intimate view, Haag is careful not to exploit the Kennedy clan; instead, she simply returns them to human form. An honest, heartfelt account of love, politics and tragedy.” Kirkus Reviews
Review
“A piercing portrait of a vibrant, reckless, tender young man so bursting with life that nothing could contain him.” Publishers Weekly
Review
“The most honest, most thoroughly rendered, most memorable memoir of young love published in recent years...a remarkable work.” New York Journal of Books
Review
“[A] haunting memoir.” Marie Claire
About the Author
Christina Haag is an actress who lives in New York and Los Angeles. She is a graduate of Brown University and the Juilliard School.