Product Description

"Lamb ?", Thursday, July 01, 2010

Did anyone else find the relationship between the author and Carolyn Bisset Kennedy uncomfortably odd ? The way Caroln called the author "Lamb" and "Lambie" was very strange. And two grown women giving each other matching rings inscribed with one another's name struck me as inappropriate and rather disturbing. I got the feeling throughout the book that perhaps the two women were attracted to each other in more than just a friendship manner. Overall, this book gave me too much information on what should be considered private and not to be published details on the lives of the people involved. Would the author have been "invited" to attend the final hours of Jackie Kennedy's life if her family and friends had known that this book would be published with the details of how Jackie looked on her deathbed? I think not. And how would JFK,Jr. and his wife have felt if this book had been published when they were alive ? There is a reason why this book did not receive the description of an "authorized" story. I truly believe in the saying "never speak evil of the dead." Writing this book was a betrayal of a family's confidences. I am very troubled by the fact that the author waited until her main subjects were dead to write her book. In other words, they ere not alive to refute anything written about them. To me, that fact speaks volumes.

Rating: 1 out of 5

What remains for us?, Saturday, April 03, 2010

I found this book to be very well written and real. I can't believe all the bad reviews. How can one person judge another person's life? It is a sad book but this is real life not a fairytale. What I liked was John Jr., Nick Radziwill and all the people written about in the book were real people. They laughed they cried and they ate at Wendy's. I have to admit I was bored in the beginning of the story, but whose life is really that fascinating when we are young. I think anyone who could judge someone else's grief and say the book is worthy of one star, isa very non caring and judgmental person. The only regret I had in the story is I don't know how Carole the author is today. Read this true story of love and loss it will touch you.

Rating: 4 out of 5

A unique, articulate and respectful window on a desolate time, Saturday, March 06, 2010

"What Remains" is a dignified and well-written effort by a person whose personal knowledge of and affection for John f. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette provide a unique portrait of these two that stands in vivid contrast to their tabloid doppelgangers.

The author and her husband, the late Anthony Radziwill, were by happenstance the very first members of the Kennedy and Bessette families to learn of the disappearance and, over the nightmarish interval that followed, the probable and then certain deaths of J.F.K. Jr. and his wife and sister-in-law. Her recounting of that experience -- told not just from the perspective of a relative by marriage, but from that of a close friend -- is compelling. Any who find themselves still in thrall to the "Kennedy mystique" and looking for a fresh window on it, will find this book worth the purchase price.

Many readers here have expressed disappointment with the sadly incomplete picture of Anthony Radziwill that emerges in the pages of this book. I will hope to see a good biography of Mr. Radziwill become available at some point. He clearly was a person whose deep reserves of courage bespoke depth of character, eclipsed in the eyes of the world by the flashier gifts bestowed by fate upon his cousin John. Although the author leaves us wishing for a warmer and deeper tribute to her husband, she deserves credit for candor about the feelings experienced by those who must cope with a spouse's lingering terminal illness. In the meantime, I don't share some reviewers' mystification as to what Anthony Radziwill saw in Carole DiFalco: she looks like a young, caramel-blonde version of Sophia Loren :-)

As for the curious, near-total absence of any mention of Anthony's remarkable mother and sister, Lee and Tina Radziwill, one can only assume that the author feels little affection for the former, as the handful of very brief mentions she receives are not complimentary. Tina Radziwill's absence from the narrative is bewildering, but since it is clear from the author's notes that she was aware of the project, it seems likely that she requested to be spared the spotlight.

I strongly recommend this book to those interested in the Kennedy saga.

Rating: 4 out of 5