Come to the Edge: A Memoir

Stifling pathos and loss overshadow this heartfelt memoir by actress Haag about her youthful years of friendship and romance with John F. Kennedy Jr. Both born in 1960, though Haag was some months older, the two attended elite private schools in mid-1970s' New York City and, trailed by Kennedy's Secret Service agents, frequented the same parties and bars as teenagers. Haag went to Brearley, Kennedy to Collegiate, and they both ended up at Brown University and even shared a large house. Haag's serious acting career both attracted Kennedy%E2%80%94a fledgling actor and co-star with her in the small theater production of Winners in 1985%E2%80%94and distanced him, as he preferred his girlfriends to hop on a plane at a moment's notice and plunge into vigorous, sometimes perilous physical activities. Kennedy's abrupt death in a plane accident in 1999 throws a poignant sweetness over such insignificant details as trips they took together and dialogue exchanged; the two were gradually pulled apart in late 1990 by his involvement with Daryl Hannah and other women. Haag proceeds in her narrative with an elusive earnestness, trying to capture the deep connection between the lovers despite the pull of his celebrity, his mother, and their separate pursuits. What remains is a piercing portrait of a vibrant, reckless, tender young man so bursting with life that nothing could contain him. (May)