Slim: Memories of a Rich and Imperfect Life (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A breed of woman once existed who made their lives by marrying powerful men and polishing themselves to patrician perfection. These women would not think twice about traveling around the world with Truman Capote or going shooting with Ernest Hemingway. Slim Keith was one of the most successful of these women, and she'll charm your pants off with this book. Be careful. Howard Hawks and Leland Hayward couldn't resist her. What makes you think YOU can? --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The recently deceased Keith, born Nancy Gross in Salinas, Calif., in 1916, invented her persona as a teenager, growing into a chic woman who became known among the socially elite as Slim. Film director Howard Hawks and Broadway entrepreneur Leland Hayward divorced their wives to marry her; and although she was pursued by the likes of Clark Gable and Ernest Hemingway, the one love of her life, she writes, remained Hayward, who in turn left her for another woman. Her next and last husband was British banker Kenneth Keith, who provided her with a title and whom she left in 1972 after a 10-year marriage. Her "memoirs of a rich and imperfect life," written with freelancer Tapert, is compulsively readable, an account of a determined striving up from the middle class to join the Beautiful People. Keith, a woman of style, is revealed also as boastful and betraying, as a gossiper who spared few friends--the real-life Lady Coolbirth of Truman Capote's infamous Answered Prayers . Photos not seen by PW . First serial to Vanity Fair; Literary Guild alternate.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 319 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 2nd printing edition (July 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671631640
• ISBN-13: 978-0671631642
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #504,132 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A not-so-rich life..., January 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Slim: Memories of a Rich and Imperfect Life (Paperback)

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.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting insights on the people in her life, October 30, 1997

By	[e-mail] (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slim: Memories of a Rich and Imperfect Life (Paperback)

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not as alluring as thought, September 3, 2006

By	Wendy "Librarylover" (germany) - See all my reviews

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.