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Loading... Blonde: A Novelby Joyce Carol Oates
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Powerful and enthralling fictionalized account of Marilyn Monroe's life and death--very very sad. I'm reading some bios. of her to try to figure out what's true--factually. But this version is true in the way that great art is true. Once again, Oates amazes me. (  ) xine2009 | Dec 6, 2009 |  This book really showed you how Marilyn must have been in her days. She talks about her childhood years as a foster child. The story talks of her all her marriages and shows how mentally unstable she was. A good read. (  ) Natalie220 | Mar 22, 2009 | I finished this last night and in a word: wow. I've not read Oates before — I find her style generally too gothic for my taste — but I respect her greatly as a writer, and I'd read that this novel, a novel about Marilyn Monroe, was her best. Frankly, it would be hard to beat. ( ) SandraGulland | Mar 21, 2009 | Certainly a wonderful mix of research and creative thought, but I was tremendously disappointed with the final section of the book -- especially the way Oates chose to handle Monroe's death. My first experience reading Oates. (  ) marck | Apr 12, 2008 | Not a biography, but a fictional treatment of the life of Marilyn Monroe, from birth to death. Of course, Oates picks and chooses what to include and what to leave out, in order to make the point that she wants. It’s a powerful novel, and somewhat difficult to read. Monroe, as portrayed by Oates, is one of those actors that is subsumed by the character she is playing. Dangerous psychologically for the actor, and in this case, dangerous for the reader. The author does such an excellent job that I found myself affected by Marilyn’s story. So, yes, I’ve been very blue while reading this, although, thankfully, not suicidal! Much of the novel is told in the stream-of-consciousness style also, which is another powerful technique to pull the reader into the life of the character. www.samfsmith.com ( ) samfsmith | Nov 26, 2007 |  no reviews | add a review
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Wikipedia:Reference desk archive/April 2005 - Suspected Duplicates |
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This 700-plus-page tome is based on the life of (you guessed it) Marilyn Monroe. In fictional form, with names changed (husband Joe DiMaggio is referred to as "The Ex-Athlete," Arthur Miller as "The Playwright," John F. Kennedy as "The President," for example), this may be the most accurate and compelling portrait of this beautiful and complex woman that one is ever likely to read.
But why discuss it on the mystery page, you might well be asking yourself. It was the author's intent to structure the book as a mystery, and of course she succeeds, as she seems to succeed at everything she attempts in the world of letters. And there is a murder, apparently arranged by a secret government bureau (FBI? CIA?), although that could be the victim's hallucination. Of course, it could also be both real and hallucinated (remember, even paranoids have enemies).
If you like biographies, you'll like Blonde. If you like novels, you'll like Blonde. If you like mysteries, you'll like Blonde. And if you fear that more than 700 pages by one of the greatest of living literary lions might be tough slogging, here's a little excerpt from the chapter titled "The President's Pimp:"
Sure he was a pimp.But not just any pimp. Not him!
He was a pimp par excellence. A pimp nonpareil. A pimp sui generis. A pimp with a wardrobe, and a pimp with style. A pimp with a classy Brit accent. Posterity would honor him as the President's Pimp.
A man of pride and stature: the President's Pimp.
At Rancho Mirage in Palm Springs in March 1962 there was the President poking him in the ribs with a low whistle. "That blonde. That's Marilyn Monroe?"
He told the President yes it was. Monroe, a friend of his. Luscious, eh? But a little crazy.
Thoughtfully, the President asked, "Have I dated her yet?"
Nothing inaccessible about Joyce Carol Oates, especially in this most readable and relentlessly fascinating study of the lovely woman with whom the whole country was at least a little in love. --Otto Penzler
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:53 -0400)
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