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Blonde provides a masterful, disturbing and perceptive characterization of Marilyn Monroe that coincides with all of the other information I have read about her but provides additional interpretation into her psyche through the guise of fiction. The book itself is impossible to describe as it takes on a stylistic form that is very specific and complex. This is not just someone randomly writing a fictional biography of Monroe. This is Joyce Carol Oates, one of the most prolific and important authors of our time. She paints Monroe as someone who is basically doomed from the start as her early experiences shaped her character which together forms a self-destructive soul. Oates� Monroe is overly eager to please. She just wants to be accepted and loved. She wants desperately to be considered a serious actress. She is looked at as a whore by all which is not helped with her sleeping with everyone. Nobody can look past her body and her beauty. She is constantly “playing� Marilyn. She is far too trustworthy. She is far too easily influenced by others. Everybody uses her and she willfully lets herself be used. She is plagued with an intense and lifelong debilitating stage-fright. Her childhood included an absent father which she turned into mythic proportions at a young age, a very troubled mother who possibly tried to killer her, sexual abuse at foster homes and being married off at a very young age to someone equally incapable of handling marriage are just some of her early experiences which shape her. All of these events are true and Oates did not make any of this up. Monroe comes off as certainly smarter than people thought she was but in many ways she is frustratingly naïve, child-like, dependent and needy. The main juxtaposition that Oates points out continuously is that Monroe’s life was full of adult situations that were very serious and intense but she herself never really grew up and remained very much like a child. This is an assertion I have read confirmed by many who interacted with her.
The way Oates writes is, as I said, very complex. A lot of the book is surreal with the later sections feeling like we are reading it under a layer of haze. Random thoughts from others are sprinkled out and italicized throughout the book. It switches perspectives suddenly between different characters but also between different selves of Monroe. The book refers to her at times as Norma, others as Marilyn, others as The Blonde Actress and others as the various parts she played. Oates also refers to her many times in the way other men see her. This leads to a lot of the description of her to be very uncomfortable and degrading but also effective. The men she gets involved with mostly have abstract titles such as “The Ex-Athlete� and “The Playwright�. She repeatedly revisits events and thoughts of Monroe’s and in later parts of the book brings back characters and events in a muddled and ambiguous way.

What did I think of the book? Well, technically, it is astounding. Oates really gets inside of her head. Even though I was aware throughout reading it that this was a fictional interpretation of Monroe’s life, it was very difficult to separate that fact with the seeming accuracy and complex perception she has of Monroe. While she twists things around in terms of events and the other perspectives, her characterization of Monroe seems disturbingly and frighteningly true which makes the tragic nature of her life and the book come through well.

There were certain aspects of the book that were particularly interesting. The sections with her mother Gladys were a highlight since Gladys was one hell of a character herself. My favorite chapters were the ones titled “Angela 1950�, “Nell 1952�, “Rose 1953�, “Cherie 1956�, “Sugar Kane 1959� and “Roslyn 1962�. These chapters describe experiences on the sets of these films, the way she felt about these characters and the way she personalized them by infusing her own life into them. These were very rewarding to read on multiple levels.

Overall though I was not crazy about the book; it was certainly an interesting read but along with its superbly written prose and great characterization comes some problems. First of all this book is far too long (730 pages in small font) and about half way through becomes repetitive and eventually offers little that feels rewarding or worth the trouble. Oates revisits things too often and she ends up hitting us over the head with the majority of what she is trying to do making it almost impossible to appreciate it at a certain point. This book could have been shortened by 200 pages and still have said everything she wanted to. She also changes neglects certain events which, when considering its length, becomes frustrating. In particular I am thinking about her time living with Milton Greene and his wife, her affair with Yves Montand and DiMaggio’s re-entrance in her life right at the end. It also neglects to tell us of any of her time with her many psychiatrists or the overpowering influence her acting coaches had over her as she not only depended on men but on these coaches to tell her when she got a take right. The last section of the book entirely disconnected me as a reader. The story becomes too hazy and does not offer anything additional about her final months. I also hated the way her relationship with JFK is portrayed as it is so far-fetched and over-the-top to be taken with any seriousness. It also portrays her death as murder on the orders of JFK which is a theory I have never believed for a second. The book has certainly inspired me to pick up an actual biography of Monroe. There are so many but two of them are considered to be the best. I am probably going to go for Donald Spato’s biography as it not only is considered the best but it also interprets her death the way I believe it to be whereas Anthony Summers� bio goes the JFK route.