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A review by poogeywatsoninternational
Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates
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.