|
Carole Radziwill was raised in Suffern, a small town in upstate New York. She spent summers with her grandmother in Kingston, in a house overflowing with assorted, very colorful relatives. Early on Carole realized that she wanted to experience the world beyond the small towns she knew. Watching the space shuttle Challenger explode on national television was a turning point in Carole's life. She immediately realized what it was that she wanted to do --- she wanted to tell the story, not watch it unfold on television.
Armed with natural curiosity and a strong work ethic, Carole, a 19-year-old student at Hunter College, began her journalism career as a humble, unpaid intern for ABC. She was a quick study and soon became a production secretary for "Closeup." Before long she was traveling to Cambodia for "Peter Jennings Reporting." Carole was very well-suited for the career she chose.
It was at ABC where she met her Polish prince, Anthony Stanislas Albert Radziwill, nephew of Jackie Kennedy. A slow-starting attraction, often interrupted by their careers, turned into something serious, and culminated in Anthony and Carole's wedding in 1994. This would not be a typical marriage with children and happily ever after, although the newlyweds did not realize it at the time. It would be a threesome: Anthony, Carole, and Anthony's cancer.
Anthony and his famous cousin, John F. Kennedy, Jr., were like brothers growing up. As adults they still played clever practical jokes on each other, a game they referred to as "I got you." Carole and John's wife, Carolyn, became confidants and best friends. The two young couples had a great deal in common and were together whenever their busy schedules permitted.
The book details Anthony's struggles with his illness and Carole's role in managing it, as if cancer could be managed. Anthony was the stoic patient, Carole the patient's advocate. They had an unspoken pact --- that Anthony would somehow overcome his disease. They never admitted to each other that he would not. Carolyn was devoted to Carole and spent hours at her side, buoying Carole's spirits and encouraging her to take care of herself, too.
Three weeks before Anthony succumbed to cancer, John's small plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean killing John, Carolyn, and Carolyn's sister. It was perhaps fate that Carole was the one to report the plane missing.
There are three important relationships in WHAT REMAINS: the brother-like bond between the two cousins, the close friendship of their wives, and Anthony and Carole's marriage.
On the book jacket four Adirondack chairs sit on a deck on a sandy beach. Three chairs face the ocean. A solitary chair faces land. What remains for Carole are the memories of fate, friendship and love, for it is her chair that faces land (life). Anthony, John and Carolyn's chairs all face the ocean.
WHAT REMAINS is a testimony to the human spirit. It is beautifully and honestly written. The reader feels he or she has peeked into the author's soul and glimpsed courage, wisdom and love.
--- Reviewed by Carole Turner
 Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.
Click here to get the audiobook from Audible.com.
© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
Back to top.
|
