What Remains

What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love by Carole Radziwill

 

This is a memoir of Carole Radziwill’s life and marriage, and the loss of her husband and his cousin. I found her account to be moving, at times (especially the very beginning), but overall lacking in true emotion.

 

Radziwill starts off with her childhood and grows into her relationship with Anthony Radziwill. She swiftly moves into getting to know his cousin—John Kennedy and his future wife Carolyn Bessette. At this point they seem to become the star characters. Anthony’s struggle with cancer takes a backseat to her own feelings about his disease and her feelings about John and Carolyn.

 

At one point in the book I was simply amazed at her lack of compassion. When Anthony loses his cousin John, while he is about to die himself, Radziwill is so stuck in her own selfishness that she does not even hold him as he sobs. That image was heartbreaking to me.

 

Another thing that really disappointed me: Radziwill mentions “tragedy whores” more than once in her book. And I ask the reader of this memoir--what does that make Radziwill herself? She marketed this book, capitalizing on her relationship with the Kennedys and her husband’s tragic death. She made appearances on Oprah and 20/20…and now she is on reality TV (a real “housewife” ha!). Hmmmmm….who is a tragedy whore?

 

I cannot imagine taking the private struggles of a strong man like Anthony and using that, along with the tragedy of his cousin’s death, to make myself famous. It makes me nauseous. He seems to have deserved so much more in a wife. In the book she dwells on the fact that his family never truly accepted her. I can only imagine why…

 

I felt strongly for Anthony, but just couldn’t engage with Carole Radziwill.