Come to the Edge

A Memoir

By: Christina Haag

Narrated by: Christina Haag

Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

When Christina Haag was growing up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, 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 at a discreet distance at all times. A decade later, after they had both graduated from Brown University and were living in New York City, 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. With exquisite prose, Haag paints a portrait of a young man with an enormous capacity for love and an adventurous spirit that drove him to live life to its fullest.

A haunting book, Come to the Edge is a lasting evocation of a time and a place - of the indelible sting of the loss of young love, and of the people who shape you and remain with you, whether in person or in spirit. It is about being young and full of hope, with all the potential of your life as yet unfulfilled, and of coming of age at a moment in New York’s history when the city at once held danger, magic, and endless possibilities for self-discovery. Rarely has a love story been told so beautifully.

©2011 Christina Haag (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"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)

" 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)

Wonderful, heartfelt , respectful & honest

This is a great memoir ; heartbreaking and a lovely tribute not only to JFK Jr and his mother but also to Martha’s Vineyard and the life they enjoyed together , time frequently spent on MV , with loving attention to MV details , it’s history, lore, and geography.

A tender love story

Poignant story about the author’s life with JFK, jr. I really enjoyed the book. She is a very beautiful writer and her voice is very calm and soothing. I enjoyed listening to her adventures with John and their sweet love story! He really was an adventurer! The story is very well written and the stories about her life growing up and her time with John are very interesting. She even had a sweet connection with his mother Jackie. Christina is very respectful of John’s memory. I highly recommend this book!

Beautiful

I loved listening to her memoir. A beautiful love story that sadly had no happy ending. It’s intimate and tender and raw. I was entirely absorbed and loved her voice and narration.

Such a beautiful study

This is such a great love story. Maybe I shouldn't say this, but I think John and Christina would have been a very happily married couple.

There is so much we didn’t know…

There is so much we didn’t know of the story of John’s time with Christina… The author provides more than a glimpse, a full view into her time with John and the deep friendship and love they shared. The story is written with beautiful detail and read in a way that allows you to not only hear but feel the memories. Thank you for sharing Christina.

Beautifully written

I should not write reviews just after finishing the book but I am because this one won’t leave me be. It keeps stepping back into my thoughts and I have so many questions. I feel tremendous grief for the end of their love story and then ultimately the loss of John, Carolyn and her sister. All so tragic and just horrific I will never forget that night or the days that followed and I did not know any of them personally. I can understand her heartbreak to learn he had married and then on Cumberland. I understand she was telling a story of her relationship with John, but in the process I came to care about her, I want to know what happened after, how she recovered from Breast Cancer, that she is okay and found a great love after him. I know only what she has shared in this book. I am 2 years older, so much of what she writes of those years, I remember. Growing up in high school in the 70’s and into adulthood in the 80’s and what it felt like to be young and in love for the first time.
Most people do not have to see their former love splashed across the magazines. What it must have felt to watch the media and public’s obsession with Carolyn. It would have been so hard for me. In summary I will just say it’s an excellent book and it will not leave you easily.

Nominee for Best Non-Fiction of the 21st Century

If there was one book I believe JFK Jr would have supported, collaborated on and been proud of, it is CTTE by Christina Haag.

Masterfully woven, like a Baja hoodie John might have worn on one of his adventurous excursions, CTTE weaves you through their story and provides us an opportunity to understand the boy, teenager and man that was John.

This book, if not already there, has a place in the JFK Presidential Library. It provides not only insights into Christina and John's life-long relationship, but also his mother Mrs. Jacqueline Onassis and his family.

if there is an author's bias, it is one of love for John and the desire to share enough vignettes of him to help you feel as if you know better who he was and who he might have become.

CTTE is a rare glimpse of a man striving daily to live his life in grace. An example we surely need today.

A sweet love story

I found the book to be beautifully written and narrated. The words are lyrical, touching, and sweet.

Poetic and beautiful

Christina Haag writes beautifully, and the flow is not in chronological order, in a way that works, so much is interwoven into the fabric of her story!

Beautiful, touching portrait of young love

Christina and John (and many in their circle) lived extraordinary lives and beyond this being a fascinating inside look into life with that type of privilege and access from a young age, their story was remarkably normal. Young friends who danced with the line between the platonic and romantic and grew in love together. Beautifully written and narrated by Christina herself. John sounds every bit the gentle, free and adventrrous man he’s often described as. They were both so lucky to grow together.