What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love
What Remains : A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love Author: Carole Radziwill | Book description | `What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love' is an autobiography which chronicles of life of author Carole DiFalco Radziwill. In this book, she tells a story revolving around three key things: the impact of friendship, family customs and values, and lastly the perplexities of wedlock. Throughout the course of their marriage, Carole and Anthony spent much of their time fighting a metastasized cancer for which Anthony was diagnosed. Then one summer day in July, just three weeks before the disease led to Anthony's passing, a plane crashed into the ocean killing John F. Kennedy Jr. (cousin of Anthony) and his wife, Carolyn Bessette, both of them friends of Carole. In conclusion, `What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love' is an unforgettable autobiography about a woman's struggle to recuperate from an overpowering loss. It is replete with vivid descriptions of her childhood and rich details about the events that took place in the attempts to treat Anthony's cancer. In short, this is a book which should be missed by anyone interested in the life of Carole DiFalco Radziwill or a reporter/producer's perspective on loss, love, and buoyancy. 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)Correction: The coauthor of How to Cook Your Daughter, with Jessica Hendra (Reviews, Aug. 29), was misidentified. Blake Morrison is an American journalist for USA Today. |