Book report

Well, I finished the book "What Remains" by Carole Radziwill last night. Overall, I really liked it. I feel sorry for her losses (first her best friends, John Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, followed by her husband, Anthony Radziwill, three weeks later). It's a tragic story and when I read the part of the book when her husband dies, I cried. Not just a few tears, but a lot of them. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but I don't think so. It was heart-breaking. (Don't worry I won't spoil it for those of you who want to read the book.) Here is one thing that struck me: After JFK, Jr.'s plane goes down and the bodies of him, his wife and his sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, are recovered, Carolyn's mother wants Carole (the author of the book) to go with her to the meeting where they'll decide what kind of service they will have for John and Carolyn. She is told by some people that she must not go -- that it wouldn't be appropriate for her to be there. It's not her place in the family. Huh? Even if she's been asked to go by the woman who lost two daughters in this crash? That didn't make any sense to me and I don't think it did to the author, either.

It's the kind of book that makes me glad for the type of family I have -- a simple, no-nonsense group of folks whom I love and who love me (at least I think they do). There are no pretenses. At least I don't think so. Sure, we have our differences. But I still love them even when they don't agree with me :-)