What Remains

A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love

By: Carole Radziwill

Narrated by: Carole Radziwill

Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

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, one of a long line of Polish royals and nephew of President John F. Kennedy. Carole Radziwill's story is part fairy tale, part tragedy. She tells both with great candor and wit.

Carole grew up in a small suburb with a large, eccentric cast of characters. She spent her childhood summers with her grandparents and an odd assortment of aunts and uncles in their poorly plumbed A-frame on the banks of a muddy creek in upstate New York.

At the age of 19, Carole struck out for New York City to find a different life. Her career at ABC News led her to the refugee camps of Cambodia, to a bunker in Tel Aviv, to the scene of the Menendez murders. Her marriage led her into the old world of European nobility and the newer world of American aristocracy.

What Remains begins with loss and returns to loss. A small plane plunges into the ocean, carrying John Kennedy, Anthony's cousin, and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, Carole's closest friend. Three weeks later Anthony dies of cancer. The summer of the plane crash, the four friends were meant to be cherishing Anthony's last days. Instead, Carole and Anthony mourned John and Carolyn, even as Carole planned her husband's memorial.

Carole Radziwill has an anthropologist's sensibility and a journalist's eye. She writes about families, their customs, their secrets, and their tangled intimacies with remarkable acuity and humanity. She explores the complexities of marriage, the importance of friendship, and the challenges of self-invention with unflinching honesty. This is a compelling story of love, loss, and, ultimately, resilience.

©2005 Carole Radziwill (P)2005 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved. AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division.

Critic reviews

"Carole Radziwill, a wonderful writer...gets at the essence of what matters: friendship, compassion, destiny." (Oprah Winfrey)
"Carole Radziwill has written an unsparing, unsentimental, and inspiring memoir. A spirited journalist with a novelist's eye for detail, she delivers a stunningly honest story about life's great joys and deepest pain." (Christiane Amanpour)

Great story with great narration

This was such an honest account of loss and survival. I recommend this to anyone!

Best audible book so far!

I do enjoy listening to my books while working in the garden and about the house but I usually last 10 minutes before getting tired of the voice, or the story or both...not with Caroles book. WONDERFUL job on all points Ms. Radziwille!

Sad but beautifully written story.

Very sad story but well written and well-delivered. Got a glimpse into the lives of the “rich and famous “ who suffer like everyone else.

Heartbreakingly good

I couldn't put it down! My heart broke with each death of friends and family

poignant

she was deliberate as a narrator. no way else to be when she is sharing a personal tragedy. carol is brave for sharing. I learned never to be a tragedy whore!

Tragedy and Immeasurable Courage

WHAT REMAINS is an amazing and heart wrenching account of real people, regardless of their fame or stature. The author clearly wrote it out of grief with no desire to capitalize on anyone's death. I was struck by the enormous weight placed on the shoulders of John Kenedy not just because of who he was but because of the part he played in his family. Always the one who new what to say or do to difuse tensions, bring people together, and comfort others; they waited for him to sweep in and make everything right in all situations. I could see why John loved Caroline over all others. She was an amazing and dynamic person with a heart the size of Alaska. She took it upon herself to adopt people she hardly knew and, like a rock, see them through to the very end. Tracing these individuals lives through tragedy, triumph and ultimate loss reminded me that it is no less difficult to be a human being regardless of one's station in life. I also realized that it had never crossed my mind that all these people had fascinating careers and personal aspirations seperate from their family fortunes. My heart was deeply touched and I now feel justified in my grief over the loss of these people I never knew.

Lovely insight to a private world

I love that the author reads the story to me. It has all the intended emphasis exactly where it was intended. Carole reveals that the people in the story are real in ways we can never understand from the public personas.

Thank you for sharing those personal and private moments in such a caring and respectful way. I am not usually a re-listener, but this will be a book I come back to again.

Great story

Very good story but the narrator was flat and monotone. It made it really easy to drift off and forget I was listening to a book. I found myself rewinding several times because of this.

Deeply personal. Well told.

If you have loved the Kennedys, you will be interested. It was good to learn more about more of the family and their intimate personalities. Loved the way the author read her story. Carole presented with so much love but not over dramatic or sensationalized. Tender.

Heart breaking

So sad but so well written. I loved Carole from the Housewives which prompted me to check out her book. So happy I did!