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lea_elisa's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction
Moderate: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Abortion, and Sexual harassment
poogeywatsoninternational's review against another edition
4.0
JCO writes the kind of books that make you want to ring your eyes in black eyeliner, suck down 15 cigarettes, and cry for every woman who our fucked up society grinds up into dust.
I loved this book. As someone who grew up in what feels like the last generation of the real Marilyn cult, I enjoyed a take on her life that wasn't determinedly rose colored. I appreciate that third wave feminism wants to make her into a powerful mastermind, always in control. In the end hers is probably a lot sadder of a story and I feel like Oates does us a service by highlighting that. People who look at Marilyn's life and see a happy star are being purposefully ignorant so they can enjoy the sequins and lipstick. This book is fiction, it's a guess at an experience of a woman who is mythologized to a point where she's barely human. It's not a particularly pleasant guess, but it feels more honest than clinging to the idea that she got through stardom without any scars.
I loved this book. As someone who grew up in what feels like the last generation of the real Marilyn cult, I enjoyed a take on her life that wasn't determinedly rose colored. I appreciate that third wave feminism wants to make her into a powerful mastermind, always in control. In the end hers is probably a lot sadder of a story and I feel like Oates does us a service by highlighting that. People who look at Marilyn's life and see a happy star are being purposefully ignorant so they can enjoy the sequins and lipstick. This book is fiction, it's a guess at an experience of a woman who is mythologized to a point where she's barely human. It's not a particularly pleasant guess, but it feels more honest than clinging to the idea that she got through stardom without any scars.
jmavaro's review against another edition
3.0
So beautifully written. So excessively long. Such an incredible bummer of a book.
allieta's review against another edition
2.0
I want to like this book. BUT -- wow. It is way too long. I actually couldn't finish it. The unique style, which bewitched me at the beginning, started to drag on and on... and on and on. The play by play through Marilyn Monroe's career lasts 700 (!!!) pages -- much too long. I love this author but the editor (or someone!) needed to cut down the concept to maybe half the length, which is about as far as I made.
drjonty's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. A heavily fictionalized biography it still manages to get under the skin of Norma Jean Baker and show her transformation from abandoned child to superstar via a series of soul destroying and abusive compromises which are all too relevant to the metoo movement. There’s also Marilyn’s ambition and devotion to her craft; her attempts to improve herself so often ridiculed. The more lurid inventions bring to mind James Ellroy’s fast and loose historical crime books but Oates has sympathy for her heroine and this is what makes the book genuinely moving.
loutlaw28's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
laurmorr's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
4.75
faustyyyy's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Here's my fun little review of the Andrew Dominik film based off this book https://boxd.it/9AG0
pretty much mirrors exactly what I like and dislike about this book, stick around for my thoughts though!
In theory, this is a book that I should absolutely love. A character study of someone who doesn't know who they are or what they want, coming to learn that they believe they're worth is intrinsically tied to pleasing others and making everyone love you, dealing with catastrophic loss and being forces into a cruel and unforgiving industry that would just as easily accept you with open arms as stab you in the back, and dealing with this stress and pressure and pain with drugs and sex and the vices of the world that ultimately ends up being your downfall?
Yeah, that's my shit. I'm all for the physical and literal exploration of ego death, the psychological exploration of the self through yourself and others, it's awesome! And I have to commend the writing for that because it does an amazing job conveying this, especially in the last 100 pages of the book. The way sentences are structured and paced, how each run-on sentence feels just the right length and how it's all utilized together is really awesome. I also love this exploration, specifically, of Old Hollywood and how fucking bad it was, and what people did and ended up doing in this wild west climate.
The problem just always, always boils down to the fact that the Blonde Actress is not an anonymous amalgamation if Hollywood stars, it is not a metaphor for Marilyn Monroe even. It *is* Marilyn Monroe, it *is* Norma Jeane Baker, and Joyce Carol Oates seems to relish in this (in her own words) "radically distilled form of life." Blonde is fiction, and it treats its "characters" as caricatures of their very real counterparts, going as far as to slip in her own idea of what improbably happened, labeling figures as abusers and rapists, nymphomaniacs and junkies, all under the guise of barely disguising their names (The Ex-Athlete, The Playwright, hell she doesn't even try to hide Cass Chaplin and Eddy Robinson Jr, which is a whole other sort of rabbit hole).
I won't pretend to know a lot about the tumultuous life of Marilyn Monroe (this book made me more interested in learning what's actually true, so thank you Oates!), so I can't speak of how much Joyce Carol Oates wrote is accurate or speculation (she acknowledges further that she made stuff up in her foreward) but this book feels like it equally loves Marilyn Monroe despises her with every single letter that is typed. I don't mind that point of view, of being cynical of an icon known for her sexual appeal when she was really so much more, but the fact that Blonde keeps torturing the image of Marilyn Monroe for its own benefit of being a provocative novel is absolutely disgusting, in my opinion. With each year that passes by, this book ages worse and worse, and the big question always lingers in my mind, a question that has come around every time some true crime series is released, or new biopic, or anything involving real people: When is enough enough? Why can't we let them rest?
Their secrets were their own, so why are we so obsessed with speculating about what might have happened? What's done is done, what's happened has happened. Let the dead rest; they deserve it.
pretty much mirrors exactly what I like and dislike about this book, stick around for my thoughts though!
In theory, this is a book that I should absolutely love. A character study of someone who doesn't know who they are or what they want, coming to learn that they believe they're worth is intrinsically tied to pleasing others and making everyone love you, dealing with catastrophic loss and being forces into a cruel and unforgiving industry that would just as easily accept you with open arms as stab you in the back, and dealing with this stress and pressure and pain with drugs and sex and the vices of the world that ultimately ends up being your downfall?
Yeah, that's my shit. I'm all for the physical and literal exploration of ego death, the psychological exploration of the self through yourself and others, it's awesome! And I have to commend the writing for that because it does an amazing job conveying this, especially in the last 100 pages of the book. The way sentences are structured and paced, how each run-on sentence feels just the right length and how it's all utilized together is really awesome. I also love this exploration, specifically, of Old Hollywood and how fucking bad it was, and what people did and ended up doing in this wild west climate.
The problem just always, always boils down to the fact that the Blonde Actress is not an anonymous amalgamation if Hollywood stars, it is not a metaphor for Marilyn Monroe even. It *is* Marilyn Monroe, it *is* Norma Jeane Baker, and Joyce Carol Oates seems to relish in this (in her own words) "radically distilled form of life." Blonde is fiction, and it treats its "characters" as caricatures of their very real counterparts, going as far as to slip in her own idea of what improbably happened, labeling figures as abusers and rapists, nymphomaniacs and junkies, all under the guise of barely disguising their names (The Ex-Athlete, The Playwright, hell she doesn't even try to hide Cass Chaplin and Eddy Robinson Jr, which is a whole other sort of rabbit hole).
I won't pretend to know a lot about the tumultuous life of Marilyn Monroe (this book made me more interested in learning what's actually true, so thank you Oates!), so I can't speak of how much Joyce Carol Oates wrote is accurate or speculation (she acknowledges further that she made stuff up in her foreward) but this book feels like it equally loves Marilyn Monroe despises her with every single letter that is typed. I don't mind that point of view, of being cynical of an icon known for her sexual appeal when she was really so much more, but the fact that Blonde keeps torturing the image of Marilyn Monroe for its own benefit of being a provocative novel is absolutely disgusting, in my opinion. With each year that passes by, this book ages worse and worse, and the big question always lingers in my mind, a question that has come around every time some true crime series is released, or new biopic, or anything involving real people: When is enough enough? Why can't we let them rest?
Their secrets were their own, so why are we so obsessed with speculating about what might have happened? What's done is done, what's happened has happened. Let the dead rest; they deserve it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Antisemitism, and Alcohol
jennpellecchia's review against another edition
3.0
I envy the subject matter in this one. If it hadn't been about Marilyn, I wouldn't have believed a word of it.