A Life Beyond the Grave

By ELIZABETH GLEICK

The whole world knew she was troubled--that was, in fact, part of her "Shy Di" appeal. Those who immersed themselves in the turbulent life and times of Diana, Princess of Wales, knew about her struggles with bulimia, her tendency to throw herself down stairs, her unwise love affairs, her basic inability to stick with any notion for much longer than it took her to tire of her latest--albeit fabulous--hairstyle.

So in a sense what is being billed as the primary newsbreak of Diana in Search of Herself (Times Books; 451 pages; $25), Sally Bedell Smith's biography of the late princess, is not news at all. "Diana's unstable temperament," Smith announces a bit ponderously, "bore all the markings of one of the most elusive psychological disorders: the borderline personality."

Though this "diagnosis" alone sheds virtually no fresh light on the subject, Smith--author of bios of CBS founder William Paley and international socialite Pamela Harriman--amply and sympathetially documents Diana's precarious mental state and her need for sustained professional help, a need that could never have been met while she remained within the netherworlds of Buckingham Palace and celebrity hangers-on.

Smith conducted nearly 150 interviews and sifted through mounds of articles and books devoted to Diana for this volume. But despite entering an already overcrowded field, Smith has produced a well-written, evenhanded work. There is also, remarkably, still a bit of juice to be squeezed from this particular fruit. The world may have believed Diana was the "people's princess," but Smith unsparingly details how Diana let down almost everyone who knew her--including many of the charities that depended on her for support. And in her own affairs of the heart, she was self-destructive at best. Smith describes, for instance, Diana's relationship with cardiac surgeon Hasnat Khan, who broke up with her just weeks before she supposedly fell in love with Dodi al Fayed. Desperate to hang on to Khan, Smith reports, Diana was willing to convert to Islam, and even traveled to Pakistan to meet his extended family--without mentioning the trip to Khan.

It is, Smith concludes, also highly unlikely that Dodi and Diana were planning to marry. Not only was that final diamond ring he bought her "vulgar," according to a friend, but, Smith writes, "the days they spent alone were a mere 25. They floated along in an existence that was intense and unreal...[Their romance] was perhaps the clearest evidence that she had made little progress in dealing with her demons." Two summers ago, her fans wept, saying, Diana, we hardly knew ye. With this book, it is now safe to say, Diana, we know more than enough.

--By Elizabeth Gleick