I have just finished reading the book What Remains by Carole Radziwill. This is a memoir about a girl who is raised in a working-class family and marries Anthony Radziwill, cousin of John Kennedy Jr and his sister, Carolyn.
Carole tells the story of moving from her small town to New York City to find a different life. She ends up working for ABC News and wins Emmy awards for some of her work.
In the midst of her budding career, she meets Anthony and eventually falls in love with him. This leads to a very special friendship with John Kennedy and his wife, Carolyn Bessette. She and Carolyn strike up a friendship that is to be admired. And Carolyn, along with John, are there as Carole helps her husband fight cancer.
The story takes twists and turns through the years of illness. Carole shares, from her vantage point, what it was like when John and Carolyn's plane crashed in the Atlantic just three weeks before she lost her own husband.
This is a short, but powerful, memoir. As I have shared before, this is my favorite genre. I love to read real stories of real people. Radziwill is a very effective story-teller as she describes her move from the working class to the upper class (even royalty). I found the book very easy to read. I also found myself wanting "more" when I got to the end. In my opinion, this is the mark of a great story.
Ultimately, the reader realizes that when all is stripped away...even life itself...what remains is friendship and love.
And that's a lesson worth remembering.
11 comments:
Fantastic review! I agree that reading real life experiences is very interesting. I would like to think that each of us has a story worth telling.
Looks like an interesting book - I am going to add it to my list to get from the library!
Very interesting. I wonder what it's like for a person to open up their life like this in a memoir to the whole wide world, with good faith and trust that they will treat it kindly. I don't think I could do it.
Thank you for the wonderful review. I definitely think I need to add that one to my "someday" list.
You must stop posting about all your reads - I'm getting swamped with my To Be Read pile - its taken over.... :)
Memoirs are perhaps one of my favorite genres- I started with Running with Scissors and have moved on to read 3 more of Auguten Burrough's books, along with the one that my mom recommended to me. Great review and mayve if I have any free time (unlikely, but I'll try to make some since I do love to read) I will pick it up!
-Leah
There are not enough hours in the day to read all the books you recommend ... LOL ... This one sounds great! Thanks for the referral. I hope I can find it locally.
How is it possible to read so many books! And not just read them, get something out of them enough to share with others!
I am amazed. Thank you for sharing. :)
I read this book when I was home on maternity leave with Adam. It was a good reminder about what remains when people are gone.
I saw the author on Oprah. Very interesting.
Sounds like a good one!
BTW, don't you ever worry about posting too many book reviews- I'm keeping a list of books that I want to read, and quite a few of the books on my list are ones that you reviewed! I just need to go make a trip to the library now!
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