Customer Reviews

Slim: Memories of a Rich and Imperfect Life

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Slim Keith has done a wonderful job of providing an up close and personal look at the famous people in her life. Her insights, particularly into her stepfamilies, are what make her a skilled commentator on the era she inhabited and its effects on others. She honestly depicts herself and others as flawed but worthwhile people who were sometimes at cross-purposes but struggled to understand each other anyhow.

Your tolerance for this book will be determined by whether or not you find it entirely retrograde, as I did. Slim Keith was a society woman who never had a job, never did a stroke of work, and specialized in famous and/or rich husbands.

The first was Howard Hawks. He had a wife in the madhouse, three children, and was much older than her. But he was rich, famous, and had an interesting life, so Slim moved in with him. Keith has little good to say about him, but one guesses that the people that she slags may also have some negative things to say about her. She states that she cut their daughter off from him deliberately, after their marriage ended, and doesn't appear ashamed of it.

Husband #2 was Leland Hayward, agent extraordinaire. He had a wife who was periodically crazy (Margaret Sullavan), three children (also periodically crazy) and was considerably older. He was also a producer, and was wealthy with an interesting life. Slim turns into a predator again, big surprise.

At this point, a very interesting thing happens: Slim's second husband encounters another predator, one much tougher and ruthless than she: Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman. And he leaves Slim for Pamela, to Slim's (in the past, she'd done the husband-poaching) pained surprise. Slim's shock is profound. If you believe her, she didn't deserve this treatment. However, if you consult Sally Bedell Smith's bio of Pamela Harriman, you discover that Slim had an affair during her marriage to Hayward and told him about it. She was also bored with him and had taken to insulting him in public.

Husband #3 is Lord Keith. All he has to offer is money (no fame, and no interesting life) but then the bereft Slim is getting older.

In between, we get accounts of Capote and Hemingway (signifigantly, though they are washed up by the time they start consorting with the likes of Slim).

When Slim's marriage to #3 ends, so does her book. She appears to feel we are only interested in her famous or rich husbands. The last 20 years of her life aren't covered at all. How did she manage alone? Did she ever conclude that she'd wasted her life? We don't know, and she won't tell us. She is almost pathetically anxious to prove that she is intelligent, and if she were born today she would have done something herself instead of leaching on the fame of others.

Slim Keith's name comes up in so many memoirs and biographies and it's a pleasure to finally know more about her.

She must have had an alluring personality to affect so many people however this does not come across in her memoirs. Instead she seems like a rather shallow, calculating and self-serving personality.

She does not have an original voice as say Talullah Bankhead does in her memoirs however there must have been something about her that is not successfully conveyed in this book as so many people were capitivated by her.

In a way one can't judge her too harshly, as the male dominated society held back most ambitious women who then tried to fulfill their ambitions through the men in their lives.

If you are curious about her, it's definately worth buying just to learn more however don't be surprised if she disappoints you.

I too was interested in reading about the woman that has been called an fashion icon . The book was interesting mostly because of the characters in it but not Slim herself. She is completely autocratic. Her main obsession is herself. She leaves her newborn daughter and goes off to NYC and Cuba to pamper herself and be adored. She seems to treat her stepchildren with more warmth than her own child, Kitty, who it seems, is always away at school. Slim is the worst of snobs parading around as a liberal. She thinks she's being down to earth when she actually has a picnic where the butler and his wife eat with her but she's quick to point out that she used fine china whilst they used the kitchen plates. She was a great beauty and possessed elegant fashion sense but that is about all. The people in her world were far more interesting as she herself admits.

Slim Keith was most likely not a very nice person, and not someone you would leave alone with your rich husband, but she had a very interesting life. It is fun to read about this fascinating social climber and her times with WR Hearst, Howard Hawks, Hemmingway Truman Capote and all of cafe society in the 1950s.

I am throughly disgusted with the previous review. Apparently we did not read the same book. The Slim I read about was fasinating and self-depracating. She was a great broad - a terrific friend with wonderful self-knowledge and zest for life. She never wanted to be the next margaret mead or sandra o'connor. And why should she have to be? Her life was so interesting and the way she tells it - you wanted to be there - be one of her friends. Also, I did not realize Hemingway was washed up when he wrote "The Old Man and the Sea" and Capote finished when he penned "In Cold Blood" - both manuscripts handed over to their dear friend - Slim - to look over! What was the reviewer expecting?? If you can obtain this book - do it - and you will be throughly entertained. It's a book you can go back to time and time again.

Item maybe as described ... I can't remember if it mentioned all the photos are missing. Not a big deal though would've been nice.

I found this book wandering through my local library and what a find! Iwas thrilled to be able to order it through AMAZON. Slim Keith is an American original and one of my all-time favorites. Along with Claire Booth Luce and Lady Diana (Mrs. Duff) Cooper she was a beautiful blonde that was graced with extraordinary intelligence and a scathing wit. They just don't make them like they used to.

I found this book wandering through my local library and what a find! Iwas thrilled to be able to order it through AMAZON. Slim Keith is an American original and one of my all-time favorites. Along with Claire Booth Luce and Lady Diana (Mrs. Duff) Cooper she is a beautiful blonde that was graced with extraordinary intelligence and a scathing wit. They just don't make them like they used to.