Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue

Loved the in-depth details & the way, you could put it down after a chapter & pick back a few days later & not need to reread. What a life! What a modern woman before there barely was more than a few. I’ve always been captivated by the stories I heard in my life, but this was almost unbelievable! She was that incredible & so much more. It may be a little white washed, but I don’t think so. The author treated her the same as a male in history would be treated, not judged by their loves, but by their intent. Ambition & political saavy is attributed to more women now, but in her days. RIP Pamela .

I like this book. The author writes well. I am reading it now and enjoying it thoroughly

I basically enjoyed the book and found her to be a brave and adventurous woman. she wasn't a phony. she knew what are faults were as a parent and step parent. she wasn't too educated, but she impressed people and was willing to learn. the swan life wasn't for her. she had to be constructive somehow and she was. my beef with the author was her unnecessary insulting of trump and the republicans. I guess authors can't help themselves in thinking that they have to put their 2 cents in. I prefer the authors to stick to their characters. Harris was not really connected to any party. she wavered as an independent.

Biography is tough. Some biographers identify with or so admire their subjects that they can’t be even remotely objective, while other vilify their subjects. Writing about Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman seems to me to pose a particular challenge in this respect, because her life was a mixed bag. She was a seductress and arguably a fortune-hunter, but she was also instrumental in creating the “special relationship” between the US and England that helped them to win WWII. And, particularly later in her life, she was key to the revival of the Democratic Party in the US and served with some distinction as the US ambassador to France.Pernell does a good job with this duality, retaining her neutrality for the most part, though the latter third of the book tends toward adulation. But the neutrality of the first two-thirds of the book somewhat neuters it. She adopts a “just the facts” tone that makes it too much of a lifeless catalog of her affairs and one-night stands, including some salacious details, but that don’t convey what made her tick.. The last third is clearer on this point and is consequently more fascinating, even if it is somewhat fawning.The net result is that the book leaves me wondering what she was really like, and I have to regard this as a failing.

This is an biographical study of James Bond mixed in with Catherine The Great, and a bit of Mata Hari and Cleopatra thrown in for good measure. An excellent read, loaded -- that's absolutely loaded -- with wonderful anecdotes about politics and the human condition spanning over some sixty years of great geopolitical history. But, the author introduces so many different people -- alas, all real -- and then reaches a point deep into the text where she only uses first names. So to keep track of all the players.....you need a score card.