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What Remains: A Memoir of Fate Friendship
by Carole Radziwill

What Remains: A Memoir of Fate Friendship Cover

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Powells.com Staff Pick

You might think booksellers are the first to hear about all the new and noteworthy books — and it's true that we get advance notice much of the time — but there are just so many new books, month after month, that it often takes bestsellerdom (sad but true) or re-release in trade paperback for a title to catch our attention. I started What Remains only after the author started blogging for this web site — and I'm glad I did. Radziwill's memoir is a powerful, well-told story I won't soon forget.
Recommended by Janie, Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

What Remains is a vivid and haunting memoir about a girl from a working-class town who becomes an award-winning television producer and marries a prince, Anthony Radziwill, one of a long line of Polish royals and nephew of President John F. Kennedy. Carole Radziwill's story is part fairy tale, part tragedy. She tells both with great candor and wit.

Carole grew up in a small suburb with a large, eccentric cast of characters. She spent her childhood summers with her grandparents and an odd assortment of aunts and uncles in their poorly plumbed A-frame on the banks of a muddy creek in upstate New York.

At the age of nineteen, Carole struck out for New York City to find a different life. Her career at ABC News led her to the refugee camps of Cambodia, to a bunker in Tel Aviv, to the scene of the Menendez murders. Her marriage led her into the old world of European nobility and the newer world of American aristocracy.

What Remains begins with loss and returns to loss. A small plane plunges into the ocean, carrying John Kennedy, Anthony's cousin, and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, Carole's closest friend. Three weeks later Anthony dies of cancer. The summer of the plane crash, the four friends were meant to be cherishing Anthony's last days. Instead, Carole and Anthony mourned John and Carolyn, even as Carole planned her husband's memorial.

Carole Radziwill has an anthropologist's sensibility and a journalist's eye. She writes about families — their customs, their secrets, and their tangled intimacies — with remarkable acuity and humanity. She explores the complexities of marriage, the importance of friendship, and the challenges of self-invention with unflinching honesty. This is acompelling story of love, loss, and, ultimately, resilience.

Review:

"Here's a very sad story: a middle-class girl is working as a reporter at ABC, where she meets a handsome man from a famous family. They court, marry and become best friends with the husband's first cousin and his new wife. Abruptly, the reporter's husband is diagnosed with cancer. He dies, but not before the cousin and his wife (and her sister) die, too, in a senseless plane crash. This would be a heartbreaking story even if it weren't about Anthony Radziwill, nephew of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, and about his and Carole's friendship with John and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. But because its publisher (and, presumably, the author) have decided not to market it as a 'Kennedy book' but 'a memoir of fate, friendship and love,' it begs consideration on its literary merits. So here goes: Radziwill is a serviceable, if sentimental, writer. She is brave, especially when she describes how cancer became the third party in her marriage, and how she briefly flirted with infidelity. She also knows how to convey the essence of a person with small scenes and quotes (JFK Jr. holding his dying friend's hand and softly singing a song from their childhood; director Mike Nichols not calling but just coming to the hospital and handing out sandwiches to the nurses). Still, perhaps in Radziwill's effort to further the myth of its non-Kennedyness, much of this already short book feels padded — with scenes from the author's childhood and medical details about Anthony's treatment. Otherwise, much of Radziwill's writing approaches melodrama, particularly when she recounts that July 1999 night when the plane crashed. At one point, Radziwill scoffs at the 'tragedy whores' who luxuriate in Kennedy trauma, and yet she seems to have been unable to resist contributing some crumbs to their feeding frenzy. (Sept. 27)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Carole Radziwill has written an unsparing, unsentimental and inspiring memoir. A spirited journalist with a novelist's eye for detail, she delivers a stunningly honest story about life's great joys and deepest pain." Christiane Amanpour CNN, Chief International Correspondent

Review:

"Carole Radziwill, a wonderful writer...gets at the essence of what matters — friendship, compassion, destiny." Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine

Review:

"Powerfully affecting...a highly compelling read." Vogue
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Trishmsw, September 10, 2006 (view all comments by Trishmsw)
It's hard to begin. I am a 38 year old woman who grew up believing that John F Kennedy Jr. was the epitome of all that we aspire to in this world. I truly believe that I would have been speechless if I had met him based on all the other reports of his personality. The Carolyn that Carole represents is a funny in sort of quirky way that is actually endearing . She showed us "common people" that they were real people, too, who had real problems and real loves in their lives. Above all that the struggle you ecountered with Cancer and Anthony's decision to "deny it" and live those days most have been so lonely. You took on something that was bigger than you and you lost the 3 greatest people in your life. I have only supreme respect for you and a hope that, God Forbid, I encounter such loss and sadness I will be as wonderful as you. The book touched me in so many ways, but I want to that you for portraying Carolyn in a friendly light, for making John seem like an everyday guy, and that Anthony held so much of John's love and admiration. I always thought John was alone and he was not. He had Anthony at all times. And, he had you. You must have felt that you had entered another way of living when the Kennedy/Radziwill lifestyle entered you living. I'm not sure I would be able to do it. Anyway, You changed how I viewed people from a respectful point of view, but you also changed how I view things on an emotional point of view. Thank you!

Thank you for this. I do feel like I knew you all a bit more like "people", not like "celebrities". I hope you find happiness and a sense of contentment. You deserve it. THank you!
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780743276948
Subtitle:
A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love
Author:
Radziwill, Carole
Publisher:
Libri
Subject:
Women
Subject:
United states
Subject:
Cancer
Subject:
Rich & Famous
Subject:
Television journalists
Subject:
Personal Memoirs
Subject:
General Biography
Copyright:
2005
Publication Date:
September 2005
Binding:
Hardback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
272
Dimensions:
9.28x6.28x.88 in. 1.14 lbs.
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