What Remains - 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. Carole grew up in a small suburb with a large, eccentric cast of characters. At nineteen, she struck out for New York City to find a different life. Her career at ABC News took her around the globe. Her marriage led her into the old world of European nobility and the newer world of American aristocracy.

What Remains begins will loss and returns to loss. A small plane plunges into the ocean, carrying John F. Kennedy Jr., Anthony's cousin, and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, Carole's closest friend. Three weeks later, Anthony dies of cancer. With unflinching honesty and a journalist's keen eye, Carole Radziwill explores the enduring ties of family, the complexities of marriage, the importance of friendship and the challenges of self-invention. Beautifully written, What Remains "gets the essence of what matters," wrote Oprah Winfrey. "Friendship, compassion, destiny."

It is exactly what Oprah said: beautifully written. I love reading books like this where the writing flows and I'm hooked from the start. This is such a heartbreaking story that I find it awkward to admit that I loved the book. I laughed out loud, and I cried, two actions that show just how emotional this book was.

I love Carole's childhood with her family, all a bit "out there", and then her flee to NYC to make a life for herself. I was enthralled by her work with ABC News, and reading her story was like an inside peak at a news dynasty. Awesome!

It was also an amazing look into the Kennedy family, certainly the most known family in America, and one of my personal fascinations. I loved the story of John and Carolyn's secret wedding off the coast of Georgia. It sounded beautiful and low-key. Carole and her husband's friendships with John and Carolyn, of course were more than that as they were family, but were just easy. Even Carole said that. The four of them just fit together. Probably because you look for something normal to latch onto when you marry into a family who is constantly followed by paparazzi.

The cancer part of the story (and it's a big part) was certainly the most heartbreaking, as it was essentially a slow death for Anthony. Never one to seek attention, he fought the disease in private for most of its course. Carole became a self-proclamed expert on the topic of his cancer; she researched and researched and asked all kinds of questions. How incredible that Carole and Anthony found out about the cancer shortly into their relationship, and they were able to get 5 years out of it.

Carole faced a horrible reality the night that John and Carolyn died in the plane crash. The 4 of them had made plans to see each other the following night, spend some time together while they wait for Anthony's death. In three weeks, she lost her best friend and Anthony's cousin, and then her husband. Where does one turn following such tragedy?

I admire Carole's strength. And based on her acknowledgements at the end of the book, she had plenty of people to turn to and with whom to stay while she wrote the memoir.

I highly recommend this book. But you have been warned: it will make you cry.