Stephanie F. reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 39 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 7
Very compelling. Grabs your interest from the first page. This book relates events that occur within such a short time frame that should leave the average person with the inability to get out of bed, much less write a book. However, the story is told with such grace and style. A very elegant retelling of such great tragedy that does not leave the reader wallowing in grief.
Gail B. (my2sense) -
Helpful Score: 4
I saw the author on Oprah and was so impressed with her eloquence that I read this book before it was out in paperback, something I rarely do. It was interesting to read the background of a story we all knew too well the outcome (JFK Jr.'s plane crash). It was moving and honest, not a "cash-in" celebrity memoir. It had to be therapeutic for the author to write it. I thought she did an excellent job sharing her point of view of the tragedy, an account of her husband's illness and the true character of her loyal friend Carolyn. A dignified glimpse of a husband, his cousin and wife, all of whom just happened to belong to a famous family.
Julie B. (heartinthehighlands) reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 54 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
This was a very good book. We are all a bit curious about the lives of the Kennedys and this book was a very good one to read as there is nothing sensational about it. And it was written from the viewpoint of a 'commoner'. Radziwill married into our 'American royalty', in marrying John Kennedy's cousin. The behind the scenes glimpse into their friendship and Kennedy's final days is very interesting without making the reader feel he is intruding or prying. Radziwill is a very good writer. She writes very poignantly about her marriage and her husband's death. I was glad no one was home when I finished it, so that I could just let the tears flow. But it wasn't a depressing story - just a very moving one.
Helpful Score: 4
I was very touched by this book's author. I saw Carole Radziwill on an Oprah show some time ago and saw a passionate woman with a very personal story. At the end of the book, I wanted to know more about Carole and what has happened in her life since.
Helpful Score: 2
An interesting read, not overly sentimental but giving insight into the lives of these 4 interesting people living in the headlines - a glimpse behind the headlines. Kept me reading and made me care about them in a way the newspapers never did.
Judy M. (Pilly) reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 7 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Moving personal story of a strong woman's journey with her cancer stricken husband. Carole Radziwill is honest, brave, and funny. Her story will make you cry, but also will make you appreciate each new day. Can't recommend it enough.
Helpful Score: 1
I loved this book... From the subject matter I was expecting a sentimental tear-jerker but what I got - to my happy surprise - was a very cool memoir by a modest woman who moved among America's "royalty," but had no need for either mass admiration or pity. She simply retold her story as she lived - and lost - the 3 most influential people in her life in a span of one month's time. A keeper - I won't be relisting this one!
Diane Y. (dianefrombklyn) reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 12 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
The author is the widow of JFK,Jr's cousin who died 3 weeks after John, Jr. It is their story together as well as their relationship with John, Jr. and his wife. The author is an excellent writer and you will not want to put it down until it's finished. I highly recommend it.
Wendy B. (WendySue) reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 73 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Gut wrenching, beautiful, profound, sweet~ a tale of friendship & love, & mostly, about grabbing what precious moments you have w/your loved ones. You just don't know when your last breath will be...or theirs.
Ruth R. (yomamaruth) reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 366 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
The author is the widow of Anthony Radziwill, cousin and best friend of JFK jr. It's not just about their love story, but also her rise from working class roots to becoming a journalist and an award winning TV producer.
Patricia M. (pattimint1610) reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 9 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
i really enjoyed this book and highly recommend the book. i did not know a lot about Carole Radziwill or her friendship w John Jr. Very interesting and sad story.
Helpful Score: 1
I wasn't sure I'd like this book just because it's written by family about family. But it was nicely told and shed light on the always-intriguing and tragic relationship of John Kennedy Jr. and his wife Carolyn. Sure, there is ritz and glitz, but the story is really about the tragic ending of young lives that held promise.
Helpful Score: 1
The writer shares an incredibly personal and private world of her short and tragic marriage to a member of the Kennedy family. It is beautifully written and very unforgettable.
Karen H. (KarenILMom) reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 85 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
A very good book in the end. I expected it to be more about John Kennedy and the crash, but it is more about Carole Radziwill's life and her husband's struggle with cancer. If you go in with that expectation, it is a very good book. If you've ever had a loved one with cancer, you can really relate to her story.
CHERYL M. (Cheryl-Sam) reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 39 more book reviews
Reading the other reviews makes me wonder what I missed...I could not get through this book. Usually I tear through memoirs but not this one. I quickly shipped it off to the next person...hopefully they will enjoy it more than I.
A riveting & unsentimental journey....Honest story
Rita K. (bklyn) -
A very touching, human story written by the sensitive and interesting author, about her own experiences.
Rhona L. (Roobee) reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 72 more book reviews
A wonderfully raw look at a life that didn't turn out quite like the author had planned. It made me want to know what happens next.
Dayna B. (DaynaAlyson) reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 31 more book reviews
I don't really know how to say this nicely, so I'm just going to come out and say it: I don't really like Carole Radziwill. I did not enjoy her narrative voice at all. The whole time I was reading her memoir, I kept thinking to myself, I don't like you. She seems self-centered and definitely has a case of "poor me". Poor me, nobody in my husband's family likes me...poor me, my husband won't admit he's sick and take care of himself, so I have to do it...poor me, poor me, poor me. I'm not diminishing what she went through, because I'm sure it was hard, but she tries so hard to make herself relate-able, and I couldn't relate to her at all. She speaks of everyone in her husband's family in such a derogatory manner, it really turned me off. And the name dropping...ugh! It drove me nuts. Then a friend told me Ms. Radziwill stars on the Real Housewives of New York, and I REALLY didn't like her after that.
Abby M. (abbyem) reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 70 more book reviews
Very much enjoyed this book. It intrigued me initially because of the Kennedy connection but the story of Anthony Radziwill and his journey with cancer was fascinating. It made these public figures seem very human.
A great family story, sad and funny. JFK jr and wife and his cousins.
Enjoyed this book.
Kristy F. (mama2k) reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 27 more book reviews
Such a lovely but sad book, too. Especially knowing how it all turns out in the end. I really liked getting to know about the author & her husband since I didn't know much about them. Also I liked seeing her perspective of John Kennedy, Jr & Carolyn.
Heartbreaking yet incredible story. Carole really takes you with her through her journey. You feel happiness, love, loss, everything. Hard to put down.
Tamara C. (onejump) reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 101 more book reviews
A beautifully written account of a friend and wife, Carole Radziwell, best friend of Carolyn Bessette Kenneddy and wife of Anthony Radziwell (John Kennedy's cousin). Her story takes you through the death of John and Carolyn Kennedy and then through the death of her husband to cancer three weeks later. It is honest and all to real and anyone can relate to her gut level emotions.
Story of the Kennedy's from one of the cousin's wives. Chronicles both the deaths of John Jr. and Carolyn and the cousin's battle with cancer.
I am surprised that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. The author has a wonderful ability to share herself with the reader in a way that brings you in without all that fluff and goo that sometimes happens with this type of book. I would reread this one over and over. When I finished I found that these people who live in a world so different than mine love, laugh and cry like everyone else. What this lady lost in such a short time would bury anyone and yet she was able to eventually share it all. Hopefully, the sharing allowed her to find peace and contentment.
Very honest portrayal of Ms. Radzwill's life and the tragic loss of her husband and best friends.
Jeannie S. (wisegenie) - , reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 25 more book reviews
A well-written memoir of Carole's feelings, responses and reactions upon marrying Anthony Radziwill, and immediately finding out that he has been diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer, which originated as testicular cancer. She recounts their friendship with John and Carolyn Kennedy, and the double blow it was to her when both of them were killed in a place disappearance over the ocean, and shortly afterward, her husband dies. Draws you into very human and understandable feelings, and tells of the personal side of John and carolyn's friendship. I loved this book. Universal message, yet with the added fillip of entering into the "Camelot" we all became a part of in the 60's.
Diane B. (dinah) reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 11 more book reviews
I LOVE Carole Radziwill's style of writing. She kept me interested throughout the entire story.
Much of what she wrote about her husband's illness was so familiar to me, having lost a young husband to cancer a year after she did. She had me laughing and crying many times-and often at the same time!
I highly recommend it.
Much of what she wrote about her husband's illness was so familiar to me, having lost a young husband to cancer a year after she did. She had me laughing and crying many times-and often at the same time!
I highly recommend it.
Barbara P. (gotchagal) -
Author: Carole Radziwill
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 a compelling story of love, loss, and, ultimately, resilience."
As much as this book may break your heart, it will also make you laugh and you truly feel as though you now both know and understand the characters and you are grateful for the opportunity. I loved this book as did my husband and several friends. I recommend it to you with all my heart.
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 a compelling story of love, loss, and, ultimately, resilience."
As much as this book may break your heart, it will also make you laugh and you truly feel as though you now both know and understand the characters and you are grateful for the opportunity. I loved this book as did my husband and several friends. I recommend it to you with all my heart.
A wonderful read
Loved this-well written!
Linda K. (lhasalover) reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 203 more book reviews
I echo the other reviewers. It is well written and is honest about having someone dying of cancer that you love and feeling helpless. Tragadies were compounded when close friends die.
ANDRE' E. J. (Expeditious) - , reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 504 more book reviews
Excellent, excellent book!
Told from another point of view. Exellent story.
Told from another point of view. Exellent story.
Catherine B. reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 34 more book reviews
Good memoir!
Maggie S. (maggiemaynj) -
Painfully slow.not mt cup of tea,,maybe yours?
Jan A. (rudy) reviewed What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love on + 38 more book reviews
Wonderful book.
A very touching and heart felt book. Written beautifully!
