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laura_hirst_87's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
librarianonparade's review against another edition
3.0
This is an interesting approach to the story of Marilyn Monroe - not so much a biography of her herself, but a biography of her biographies. Perhaps more than any other celebrity or star, Marilyn Monroe's life has become myth, archetype, symbol. We no longer see her, if indeed we ever did. We see in her what we want to see, what we want her to be, what we want her to represent. We like to imagine that the character of 'Marilyn Monroe' was a construct, a shield for the 'real' Norma Jean underneath, the Norma Jean that her biographies set out to reveal - an approach that, as Churchwell points out, no-one ever does for other celebrities with stage or changed names, like Martin Sheen, Judy Garland, Elton John and many many others.
Churchwell sets out to deconstruct how Marilyn's life has been told, cutting through the myth and the hyperbole, highlighting the many many inconsistencies and varieties in the various 'lives' of Marilyn Monroe, the details no two biographers can agree on. On the way she exposes the misogyny and sexual obsession that so many biographers, male and female, display in retelling Marilyn's life - after all, don't we all remember Marilyn Monroe visually, the hair, the pert bottom, the lush voluptuous figure, the red lips and the white skin? Who remembers anything Marilyn said? This obsession with Marilyn's body spills over into the obsession with her dead body - to quote Elton John, "all the papers had to say / was that Marilyn was found in the nude" - and the numerous conspiracy theories surrounding her death, all of which have to do in some way with her sexuality and her rumoured affairs with one or both Kennedy brothers.
Reading this book, I felt tremendously sorry for Marilyn Monroe. Not just as a result of her wretched childhood, hard-scrabble upbringing and tragic death, but for the way throughout her life she was constantly belittled, patronised and disregarded. No-one gave Marilyn credit for having a brain or a will of her own; she was that breathy 'little-girl-lost' in the knock-out body of a sexually voracious woman, every man's fantasy. And that's all she continues to be, in every book and biography - the lost little Norma Jean, subsumed by the artificial construct that was 'Marilyn Monroe'. Because that's who we need her to be, we need to believe that the real struggles against the artificial, that no-one can lead two lives, that her death was tragic and pre-ordained, that Marilyn Monroe's life fits the archetype. Because, as Edgar Allan Poe once said, "The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world." Marilyn Monroe, the most beautiful woman in the world, one again reduced to a trope.
Churchwell sets out to deconstruct how Marilyn's life has been told, cutting through the myth and the hyperbole, highlighting the many many inconsistencies and varieties in the various 'lives' of Marilyn Monroe, the details no two biographers can agree on. On the way she exposes the misogyny and sexual obsession that so many biographers, male and female, display in retelling Marilyn's life - after all, don't we all remember Marilyn Monroe visually, the hair, the pert bottom, the lush voluptuous figure, the red lips and the white skin? Who remembers anything Marilyn said? This obsession with Marilyn's body spills over into the obsession with her dead body - to quote Elton John, "all the papers had to say / was that Marilyn was found in the nude" - and the numerous conspiracy theories surrounding her death, all of which have to do in some way with her sexuality and her rumoured affairs with one or both Kennedy brothers.
Reading this book, I felt tremendously sorry for Marilyn Monroe. Not just as a result of her wretched childhood, hard-scrabble upbringing and tragic death, but for the way throughout her life she was constantly belittled, patronised and disregarded. No-one gave Marilyn credit for having a brain or a will of her own; she was that breathy 'little-girl-lost' in the knock-out body of a sexually voracious woman, every man's fantasy. And that's all she continues to be, in every book and biography - the lost little Norma Jean, subsumed by the artificial construct that was 'Marilyn Monroe'. Because that's who we need her to be, we need to believe that the real struggles against the artificial, that no-one can lead two lives, that her death was tragic and pre-ordained, that Marilyn Monroe's life fits the archetype. Because, as Edgar Allan Poe once said, "The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world." Marilyn Monroe, the most beautiful woman in the world, one again reduced to a trope.
lauraelina's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
A fine deconstruction of the genre biography itself. By picking up the numerous conflicting statements about Marilyn Monroe made by various authours Churchwell shows how little we actually know about Marilyn Monroe. To read about how the extent of rumours, myths and factoids have shaped (and still shape) this iconic women is both fascinating and disturbing.
krwxlr's review against another edition
5.0
This book is, somehow, both super academic and one of those books you can't put down. Absolutely one of the best books I've read in a long time.
andreasj's review against another edition
3.0
The book shows the kaleidoscope of different readings of Marilyn Monroe's life, career, and death, illustrating once again that accounts of cultural icons tend to offer more insights in the nature, politics, and agendas of the beholder. While insightful, the book is slightly repetitive and the underlying argument would have benefited from a more concise account.
librarianonparade's review against another edition
3.0
This is an interesting approach to the story of Marilyn Monroe - not so much a biography of her herself, but a biography of her biographies. Perhaps more than any other celebrity or star, Marilyn Monroe's life has become myth, archetype, symbol. We no longer see her, if indeed we ever did. We see in her what we want to see, what we want her to be, what we want her to represent. We like to imagine that the character of 'Marilyn Monroe' was a construct, a shield for the 'real' Norma Jean underneath, the Norma Jean that her biographies set out to reveal - an approach that, as Churchwell points out, no-one ever does for other celebrities with stage or changed names, like Martin Sheen, Judy Garland, Elton John and many many others.
Churchwell sets out to deconstruct how Marilyn's life has been told, cutting through the myth and the hyperbole, highlighting the many many inconsistencies and varieties in the various 'lives' of Marilyn Monroe, the details no two biographers can agree on. On the way she exposes the misogyny and sexual obsession that so many biographers, male and female, display in retelling Marilyn's life - after all, don't we all remember Marilyn Monroe visually, the hair, the pert bottom, the lush voluptuous figure, the red lips and the white skin? Who remembers anything Marilyn said? This obsession with Marilyn's body spills over into the obsession with her dead body - to quote Elton John, "all the papers had to say / was that Marilyn was found in the nude" - and the numerous conspiracy theories surrounding her death, all of which have to do in some way with her sexuality and her rumoured affairs with one or both Kennedy brothers.
Reading this book, I felt tremendously sorry for Marilyn Monroe. Not just as a result of her wretched childhood, hard-scrabble upbringing and tragic death, but for the way throughout her life she was constantly belittled, patronised and disregarded. No-one gave Marilyn credit for having a brain or a will of her own; she was that breathy 'little-girl-lost' in the knock-out body of a sexually voracious woman, every man's fantasy. And that's all she continues to be, in every book and biography - the lost little Norma Jean, subsumed by the artificial construct that was 'Marilyn Monroe'. Because that's who we need her to be, we need to believe that the real struggles against the artificial, that no-one can lead two lives, that her death was tragic and pre-ordained, that Marilyn Monroe's life fits the archetype. Because, as Edgar Allan Poe once said, "The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world." Marilyn Monroe, the most beautiful woman in the world, one again reduced to a trope.
Churchwell sets out to deconstruct how Marilyn's life has been told, cutting through the myth and the hyperbole, highlighting the many many inconsistencies and varieties in the various 'lives' of Marilyn Monroe, the details no two biographers can agree on. On the way she exposes the misogyny and sexual obsession that so many biographers, male and female, display in retelling Marilyn's life - after all, don't we all remember Marilyn Monroe visually, the hair, the pert bottom, the lush voluptuous figure, the red lips and the white skin? Who remembers anything Marilyn said? This obsession with Marilyn's body spills over into the obsession with her dead body - to quote Elton John, "all the papers had to say / was that Marilyn was found in the nude" - and the numerous conspiracy theories surrounding her death, all of which have to do in some way with her sexuality and her rumoured affairs with one or both Kennedy brothers.
Reading this book, I felt tremendously sorry for Marilyn Monroe. Not just as a result of her wretched childhood, hard-scrabble upbringing and tragic death, but for the way throughout her life she was constantly belittled, patronised and disregarded. No-one gave Marilyn credit for having a brain or a will of her own; she was that breathy 'little-girl-lost' in the knock-out body of a sexually voracious woman, every man's fantasy. And that's all she continues to be, in every book and biography - the lost little Norma Jean, subsumed by the artificial construct that was 'Marilyn Monroe'. Because that's who we need her to be, we need to believe that the real struggles against the artificial, that no-one can lead two lives, that her death was tragic and pre-ordained, that Marilyn Monroe's life fits the archetype. Because, as Edgar Allan Poe once said, "The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world." Marilyn Monroe, the most beautiful woman in the world, one again reduced to a trope.
stephybara's review against another edition
3.0
This book looks at the controversies and cliches of Marilyn Monroe's life, and the assumptions we/society make about her 30+ years after her death. Maybe a little too academic for me at times, but certainly interesting. (Really made me dislike Norman Mailer - not a huge surprise - and also Joyce Carol Oates, for the novels they wrote "about her".)
Notes:
page 176: Why is it that MM either loved sex or was frigid? Maybe she is like most other people in that she likes it sometimes (when it's good?) and doesn't like it other times?
page 197: apparently "one of her best-kept secrets", say her biographers, is that she wasn't really that great-looking. (It's just feminine wiles and trickery to make you think she is.)
page 217: Interesting argument for rumours of MM's bisexuality - she's "so excessively sexual" or uses sex opportunistically and for her, "bisexuality will only be understood as excess heterosexuality, with which her cup runneth over."
page 262: in discussing 'Some Like It Hot' and the multiple takes: did she force take after take in order to get control of the character and to be sure she was portrayed the way MM wanted her to be? "The only time she said [the line] coherently, she also delivered the line the way she wanted to' that take made the final film. The irony is how 'amazied' they all continued to be at how good her final performance was. [...] The few times that Marilyn completed an entire scene in one take during fiming [...] she did so to make a point: [...] yes, she could do it. When she wished.]".
page 344-345: A story told by Colin Clark who worked on the set of 'The Prince and The Showgirl' - he accidentally walked into MM's dressing room when she was nude. She joked with him at his embarrassment ('Oh Colin, and you an old Etonian!') and he later wrote:
"[H]ow did she know which school I had gone to and what it meant? When I managed to get out of the room and pull myself together, I realised that behind the fog, MM could be a bit brighter than we all think. How much of the MM image is contrived? Acting dumb is a good way to make other people make fools of themselves. What fun it might be to make a movie with MM when she felt everyone around her was her friend. Dream on, Colin."
Notes:
page 176: Why is it that MM either loved sex or was frigid? Maybe she is like most other people in that she likes it sometimes (when it's good?) and doesn't like it other times?
page 197: apparently "one of her best-kept secrets", say her biographers, is that she wasn't really that great-looking. (It's just feminine wiles and trickery to make you think she is.)
page 217: Interesting argument for rumours of MM's bisexuality - she's "so excessively sexual" or uses sex opportunistically and for her, "bisexuality will only be understood as excess heterosexuality, with which her cup runneth over."
page 262: in discussing 'Some Like It Hot' and the multiple takes: did she force take after take in order to get control of the character and to be sure she was portrayed the way MM wanted her to be? "The only time she said [the line] coherently, she also delivered the line the way she wanted to' that take made the final film. The irony is how 'amazied' they all continued to be at how good her final performance was. [...] The few times that Marilyn completed an entire scene in one take during fiming [...] she did so to make a point: [...] yes, she could do it. When she wished.]".
page 344-345: A story told by Colin Clark who worked on the set of 'The Prince and The Showgirl' - he accidentally walked into MM's dressing room when she was nude. She joked with him at his embarrassment ('Oh Colin, and you an old Etonian!') and he later wrote:
"[H]ow did she know which school I had gone to and what it meant? When I managed to get out of the room and pull myself together, I realised that behind the fog, MM could be a bit brighter than we all think. How much of the MM image is contrived? Acting dumb is a good way to make other people make fools of themselves. What fun it might be to make a movie with MM when she felt everyone around her was her friend. Dream on, Colin."
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