Blonde

I come to you PURE. A reader of Joyce Carol Oates, but never a reader of any biography pertaining to Marilyn Monroe. I enjoy reading a book review that gets to the heart of the matter. The heart of Joyce Carol Oate's marvelous novel is Norma Jeane Baker and the wonderful illusion that she created for all to enjoy, Marilyn Monroe. If you're like me and never read a biography on the illustrious Marilyn Monroe, start with this novel. The author does an amazing job of making it appear factual and breathing life into both Norma Jeane and her good friend Marilyn. JCO starts with a BANG! beginning when Norma Jeane was a little girl in the care of her grandmother, Della. Poor Norma Jeane is whisked away from Della by her mother, Gladys, then her life sort of goes to pieces. Gladys and Norma shared a few good times or at least that's how Norma Jeane tries to keep to the story so that she can survive her life but eventually Norma ends up in the orphanage and then at around age 12 or so, becomes a foster child of a pathetic couple, only then to find herself a child bride and then the novel really takes off! All that I've said is far condensed; JCO does a much better job of filling you in on the details, and there are many! I was sad, fascinated and impressed by Norma Jeane's talents and I'm not talking about the gifts she was naturally blessed with, though she was quite blessed and certainly used it all to her advantage. What really stood out in the book was that Norma Jeane was intelligent, shrewd, witty, a genius in her own right, yet, she couldn't see it. She knew it lived inside of her but she didn't believe that other people knew it, so tormented was she. Becoming Marilyn Monroe could be such a tough job, a job that Norma wanted to abandon, but it would be hard to fight the force that she, herself had masterminded. Many times, Norma Jeane Baker would lose herself and live Marilyn's life when the film wasn't rolling. She'd self-medicate and drink and pop more pills and do acts that were expected of Marilyn that even Marilyn didn't have to do, but such the poeple pleaser was Marilyn, she'd do the deeds anyway, no matter how self-destructive. My head would spin at times and I felt that I was popping pills, probably JCO's intention. Sometimes, I became Norma's husbands (Bucky, Ex-Athlete and Playwright) and I was exasperated with her self-loathing and neediness, not thinking, but then thinking, hey, this woman has a problem. Other times, I became her co-stars and wanted to quit the films because I just couldn't take Marilyn or Norma Jeane's self-indulgences, her sickness! Despite it all, I continued to turn those pages. I was committed to Norma's and Marilyn's world, JCO's intention, I'm sure. Then, I thought: Where is JCO's National Book Award for this exceptional piece of work that must have made her half crazy to write. Where was the award? I had to research who won that year, making a promise to read the winner and find out

Already a fan of Joyce Carol Oates, when I finished _Blonde_ I almost immediately became a fan of Marilyn Monroe as well. Yes, it is a very long, somewhat foggy fictionalized account of Marilyn's life, but having now read several different biograhpies I see how close to the truth Oates really came. Changing many names (foster parents and producers, for example) and referring to Marilyn's husbands as "The Ex-Athlete" and "The Playwright", Oates nevertheless fills the book with all the people who surrounded Marilyn, and reveals the roles they played in both her desperate need to be loved and her blind ambition to become famous. The best part about this novel is Oates' ability to BECOME Norma Jeane, to get inside of her head and write in the actress' voice in an extremely believable way (hence the sometimes confusing and "foggy" aspect of the narration). _Blonde_ is a very haunting and beautiful work that will always be with me.

I'm not surprised that a lot of people don't like this book--but then again, most people like a lot of really insipid popular authors who sell a lot more than the wildly talented Ms. Oates. Casting popular opinion aside, I have to say that "Blonde" is an intriguing, haunting book that I have read twice and plan to read again. It got me interested in Marilyn Monroe, a cult figure who I never understood and wondered why other people were so interested in in the first place. Ms. Oates writes in such a way to make MM seem like a real person, with all the faults, insecurities, and demons that we all have to one degree or another. Her writing is flawless, and although the language she uses is often terse and can take some getting used to, she has a mastery of the English language unlike any other contemporary writer I've ever read. I'd like to encourage you to give "Blonde" and other Oates works a chance--you may pick it up and put it down several times before you finally read it all the way through, but I think you'll find that she is one of the few writers whose work stays with you long after you've finished her books.P.S.-Watch the miniseries "Blonde", although it does no justice to the richness of the book.

In BLONDE, this remarkable, epic new novel by Joyce Carol Oates, we come to understand the larger-than-life personality of Marilyn Monroe vis a vis the elusive, nearly invisible person of Norma Jeane Baker. Oates mediates between the dual consciousnesses of Marilyn/Norma Jeane, and renders a mesmerizing hybrid of public celebrity and private martyr. In the especially engrossing early sections of the book, Oates explores the devastating childhood and abandonment that Norma Jeane endured, and conjures old Hollywood in its lurid and fallen glory. Oates also offers new impressions of the men in Marilyn's life that shaped her vision of herself as a woman: Joe DiMaggio, Arthur Miller, and--to a lesser degree--JFK all feature in this book in ways that will surprise even Marilyn aficionados. What makes this book so exceptional is that Oates manages to breathe new, believable life into the technicolor figure that all of have come to know as nothing more than a celluloid fantasy. This book is truly exceptional, and is undoubtedly the crowning achievement of Oates's prolific career. I've read every one of her books, and I think her mastery is uniquely evident in BLONDE.