After a long courtship, DiFalco and Radziwill married and embarked on what could have been a fairy tale life of fame, wealth and class. But shortly after their honeymoon, doctors removed cancerous tumors from Anthony’s leg and groin, and their fairy tale life took an unexpected turn.
Carole Radziwill’s book What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship & Love chronicles her five-year marriage before her husband died of cancer, and her brief, but significant friendship with Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy before her death in a 1999 plane crash.
Even though you know how the book is going to end, it’s a captivating read, mostly due to Radziwill’s expressive writing. Weddings, dinners, appointments and vacations are all described in vivid detail. And while there are some intimate stories about John and Carolyn – anecdotes about their courtship and marriage and peeks into their personal struggles – there’s nothing sensational or gratuitous about the book. It is mostly a memoir about the relationship between the two couples, a way for the author to make sense of the slow, anticipated death of her husband and the sudden death of her best friend.
You may dismiss this book if you know that Carole Radziwill is now one of the cast members on the Real Housewives of New York, or that her next book is called The Widow’s Guide to Sex and Dating, but What Remains stands alone as an evocative memoir and an honest reminder that most fairy tales have their share of tragedy.
