Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 8/19/2019 + 1223 more book reviews

I was really blown away by this fictionalized account of Marilyn Monroe's tragic life. Oates makes it clear in an author's note at the front of the novel that this is a work of fiction and that certain things are taken from interviews while others are fictitious. She goes on to say that biographical facts regarding Monroe should not be sought in Blonde but in biographies of the subject. That being said, this novel really puts a voice to Norma Jeane Baker aka Marilyn Monroe. It explores the iconic actress from her troubled childhood when she is placed in an orphanage after her mother suffers a mental breakdown to her sad career in the movies and her tragic death at age 36 in 1962. So how much of this is true and how much is a fiction? Hard to tell but from what is related in the novel, Norma Jeane was used and abused from her earliest days in Hollywood. She was married when she was only sixteen to get her away from a foster home where the wife thought her husband had eyes for Norma. After her divorce, she was paid a mere $50 for the infamous nude calendar shots that were later shown to the world in the first issue of Playboy. She was put under contract by a major Hollywood studio after being abused by the studio's head only named as "Z". The contract paid her very minimally while the studio made millions on her movies. She later married Joe Dimaggio, referred to as the "Ex-Athlete", which turned into a very abusive relationship. And then later married Arthur Miller, the "Playright", because she wanted to learn how to act on the New York stage. She had a miscarriage with Miller after hoping for a child for years. And along the way, she had untold affairs with others and had an untold number of abortions. She was also very dependent on drugs and alcohol which helped lead to her tragic end. Then finally she had an affair with President Kennedy who treated her like most men in her lifetime: as a piece of meat to be enjoyed and then discarded.

This was a very long book at over 700 pages. In an interview Oates said, "I intended it to be a novella, somewhere around 175 pages, and the last words would have been 'Marilyn Monroe.' But over time, I got so caught up in her world that I couldn't stop there. The final result was this book." It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize (2001) and the National Book Award (2000). Rocky Mountain News and Entertainment Weekly have listed Blonde as one of Joyce Carol Oates's best books. Oates has said that Blonde is one of the two books (along with 1969's them) for which she thinks she will be remembered. It is also included as one of the "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die."

Overall high praise for this one and now I do want to read a nonfiction biography of Marilyn but I know I'll wait a while for that because I'm sure Blonde will stick with me for some time to come.

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