Disappointed
From all the hype of the positive reviews I was expecting so much more. I have sympathy for the writer's loss of both spouse and friends. The book lost my attention quite a bit. I felt she did take some veiled swipes at Caroline Kennedy and also Daryl Hannah and that it was unnecessary. I didn't come away marveling at any deep relationships or any lessons learned. If there were any depth to the people she was writing about, unfortunately, I didn't see it in this book.
Complete waste
This book is so boring, I can't get past the first CD. In fact it's the first book I've felt this strongly about as to put a comment in about it.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Carole Radziwill
A vacuous book - and its main focus, whom Radziwill still seems to have a kind of schoolgirl crush on (just as she was awestruck by glamorous twins at high school) - Carolyn Bessette - emerges as a shockingly vacuous woman.
The latter only has opinions on the clothes and makeup people wear. She herself bought a wardrobe of Prada clothes for what she thought would be her role as "Mrs Kennedy" - a role that never materialised, Bessette herself seemingly having no cultural, historical or charitable interests whatsover.
Carole's and Carolyn's cultural references are "Thelma and Louise" and Wendy's. Well into their thirties, they exchange secret friendship rings in a way most females are over by their late teens. Bessette, in England with her husband, can't be bothered to learn about the Runnymede memorial to his father and whines about the trip. Radziwill opines that "Europeans" use titles the way Americans say "Mr". You can't take the wide-eyed, gullible, lower class girl out of her. In fact, titles are illegal in Germany and rarely if ever used in, for example, France.
Carole and Caroline, conversely, seem to be convinced that Carole and Anthony are somehow "royal". In fact, Upon becoming a British citizen, Radziwill was unable to use his former noble (not royal) title without special license from the Queen. He did not receive such a dispensation, so he was legally Mr. Radziwill, but was called Prince out of courtesy only.
The copious name-dropping adds to the irritation factor and to the feeling that the author is an airhead dazed by cheap celebrity.
An Extraordinary Life
This is a beautiful memory of four fabulous people who were lucky enough to meet and spend a portion of their lives together. Carole Radziwell wrote a very specific, revealing account of her relationships--with her loving husband, and his famous cousin and wife.
It must have taken a lot to examine her early life and sharply contrast that with the fairytale life with a prince. It had to be very difficult to go through the illness of her husband and lose him and her best friends, but she gently recalls their story without pity.
I couldn't put the book down. I read it first thing in the morning and right before bed at night, fitting it in as often as I could until I finished the story.
I hope that Carole can look back and be glad that it happened instead of sad that it ended. She's an exquisite woman. I highly recommend this book.
Dind't care for it.
I didn't really care for it, from reading the front flap I thought this book would be much more intresting than it really was. I was never able to really get into the book, and was seen forcing myself to finish it. The only reason I made myself finish the book was to read the ending, about John and Carolyn's accident and the way Anthony passes away.
(163 reviews)
