What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love

Author: Carole Radziwill 

List Price: $25.95

Pages: 272

Publisher: Scribner (September 26, 2005)

Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9

ISBN: 0743276949   

`What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love' is an autobiography³ which chronicles of life of author Carole DiFalco Radziwill. In this book, she tells a story revolving⁴ around three key things: the impact of friendship, family customs and values, and lastly the perplexities of wedlock⁵.

Carole DiFalco grew up in the suburbs of Suffern, New York where she lived with a multitude of relatives, including her grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Upon turning 19 years old, she moved to New York City, where she obtained a job as an ABC news reporter. As a reporter, DiFalco was able to take advantage of the opportunity to travel around the world. As a result, she would get assignments that would allow her to explore the shelters of the war-fleeing Cambodians and visit Tel Aviv. Eventually, her exceptional employment with ABC would lead her to a promotion⁶ equating⁷ her to the status of television producer. Not long afterwards, she met a Polish prince named Anthony Radziwill, who also happened to be a nephew of President John F. Kennedy, and falling for each other, these two decided⁸ to get married, thus resulting in yet another community status upgrade for Carole DiFalco Radziwill.

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 killing⁹ 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 recuperate¹⁰ from an overpowering loss. It is replete¹¹ 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.

Book 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. Abruptly¹², 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 sentimental¹³, writer. She is brave, especially when she describes how cancer became the third party in her marriage, and how she briefly¹⁴ flirted¹⁵ 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 melodrama¹⁶, particularly when she recounts that July 1999 night when the plane crashed. At one point, Radziwill scoffs¹⁷ at the "tragedy whores" who luxuriate in Kennedy trauma¹⁸, and yet she seems to have been unable to resist contributing some crumbs¹⁹ to their feeding frenzy²⁰. (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.