Group Read, November 2021: Blonde

Our November group read is Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates. Please join in the read and post any comments on this thread.

I started this today. I remember seeing lots of positive reviews about it over the years on LT, and I’m looking forward to it.

JCO is an insanely prolific author! I think the only other book I’ve read by her, though, is Black Water.

>2 japaul22: This will be the first group read I’ve joined for a while. Its size looks intimidating but I’m on holiday later in the week so looking forward to making a start then.

I have started the book as well. I am a fan of Joyce Carol Oates but this will be my first novel by her, usually I read her short stories.

My review from 2016:

It's no secret that Joyce Carol Oates and I are not friends, but this book brought us more to an acquaintance level and reduced some of the negative feelings I have about her work. Blonde is a fictionalized account of Marilyn Monroe's life, inspired (of course) by the actual events of her life. I don't know how much is true, because I don't know much about Monroe. I've never paid much attention to her, despite her icon status. But this book intrigued me and now I want to know more. So, Oates, thank you for piquing my interest. Job well done.

Reading this book wasn't always easy. First of all, it's a chunkster and heavy. I mean literally heavy. I may have developed tendonitis. And secondly, Norma Jeane had a ROUGH life. The psychiatric illness of her mother, the abuse at her hands, getting married at 15 and never really knowing herself or her worth intrinsically, just made me sad for her. It makes me wonder what she could have been without all the things that troubled her, or if that's part of what inspired her gift.

Food: dinner theater while watching "Hamlet". Lots of rich food and drink while taking in the comedy, tragedy and insanity unfold on stage.

Totally agree with amaryann21 -- this book is too heavy! Seriously, I am not sure that I see myself completing it, in part because trying to hold the book in bed after some minor surgery is truly challenging. But mostly it's the subject matter that's heavy. I'm only 50 pages in and it might all be too painful for me at this moment. Oates is fabulous at conjuring up the banal cruelty and psychological trauma of Norma Jeane's world. It's not a world in which I really want to spend time.

>6 annamorphic: I'm about halfway through and it definitely doesn't get any easier in terms of the trauma Norma Jeane/Marilyn endures. I'm really sucked into it though and finding it pretty fascinating.

I know very little about Marilyn Monroe, so I'm having a little trouble wondering what parts of this book are based on real life and what is fictionalized, but because I assume a lot of Monroe's life was fictionalized - even to her! - it isn't bothering me as much as it might.

I have completed my read of Blonde and I was totally engrossed by the book. It was overly long however and very dark, but I guess that is to be expected from this author. As I only know MM from her film roles, I was engaged by the story and how the author gave her a voice. I am left wondering where the line between truth and fiction lies, and I spent a lot of time googling the events of her life, but overall I thought this was an excellent portrait of both MM and the dangers of celebrity. Marilyn Monroe seemed to be a doomed person from the start but Hollywood and the powerful studios certainly did suck the life out of it's stars.

I’ve been on holiday for a few days so able to get 400 pages read so far. I’ve been googling MMs life as I go and the basic facts seem to follow her life, with the fiction/speculative part being the undocumented motivations and fears of the mentally abused girl who became one of Hollywood’s icons. These interior thoughts blend in believably with the facts as we know them and I’m absorbed in it all.

Intriguing to work out who all the actors, producers and directors identified only by one letter are - presumably to save JCO a pile of litigation.

I finished the book this morning. It is a compelling read albeit the life depicted is one continual train wreck. One of the few books I’ve read in recent times that I’ve picked up to read whenever I had a few minutes to spare. Best summed up by a review on the back of my book - “a fabulous reinvention of the life of a fabulous reinvention”.

Compelling, depressing and sadly quite possibly realistic. 4/5

I am only 225 pages in. While i am intrigued by the storyline I find I have to read it in bits and pieces. Reading this book is like driving past a car accident and trying not to look but you just can't help yourself.
Such a tragic story. I hope to have t finished by the end of the month.

I’m a little over half way through and losing steam. I might take a break and read something else. It’s interesting that I find parts of the book totally captivating and parts pretty boring.

>12 japaul22: I would agree with that statement. I came to a screeching halt this week. Of course it could also be me gearing up for the holidays. :)

I just got the ebook from the library yesterday. i love the prologue and the characterization of a teenaged bike delivery person as death, but ooft the first chapter is harder to read. I think, due to some of the difficult subject matter, it maybe something I can only read in small does.

I finished this last night and have mixed feelings. I'm having a hard time separately what I feel about the writing vs. the topic.

In JCO's biography, "Marilyn" herself doesn't even know who she is. Norma Jean plays the fantasy of Marilyn so well that it seems to destroy her. It was really difficult to read about this self-destruction. And even more difficult was the extreme sexism and abuse that Marilyn experienced at the hands of the men who controlled her.

In all, I thought this was a very convincing book, but there were some inconsistencies in the writing as well. I think because I didn't have much of a background in the era, the use of some real names and some initials/descriptors really bothered me. And the shifting points of view were both effective (in showing how little control and how little a voice Monroe had herself) and also sometimes hurt the flow.