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<book id="15975">
  <title><![CDATA[Blonde]]></title>
  <isbn><![CDATA[2253152854]]></isbn>
  <isbn13><![CDATA[9782253152859]]></isbn13>
  <work>
  <best-book-id type="integer">15975</best-book-id>
  <books-count type="integer">18</books-count>
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  <original-publication-month type="integer" nil="true"></original-publication-month>
  <original-publication-year type="integer">2000</original-publication-year>
  <original-title>Blonde</original-title>
  <rating-dist>total:1260|5:409|4:442|3:284|2:92|1:33|</rating-dist>
  <ratings-count type="integer">1260</ratings-count>
  <ratings-sum type="integer">4882</ratings-sum>
  <reviews-count type="integer">2189</reviews-count>
  <text-reviews-count type="integer">169</text-reviews-count>
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  <average_rating><![CDATA[3.87]]></average_rating>
  <ratings_count><![CDATA[1037]]></ratings_count>
  <text_reviews_count><![CDATA[126]]></text_reviews_count>
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15975.Blonde]]></url>
  <authors>
        <author id="3524">
      <name><![CDATA[Joyce Carol Oates]]></name>
      <role><![CDATA[]]></role>
      <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3524.Joyce_Carol_Oates]]></url>
      <average_rating><![CDATA[3.53]]></average_rating>
      <ratings_count><![CDATA[35863]]></ratings_count>
      <text_reviews_count><![CDATA[4455]]></text_reviews_count>
    </author>
      </authors>
    <reviews start="1" end="20" total="2189">
    <review id="13813683">
    <user id="229445">
    <name><![CDATA[Bess]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Brooklyn, NY]]></location>        
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      <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>5</votes>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[EVERYONE]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Jan 28 08:09:55 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Feb 25 09:52:31 -0800 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Finally finished, wish I were still reading, all magic is gone from life now, pls advs.<br/><br/>This is the New Feminist Text.  I honestly think if every gal too young to remember (or too young to even have a mother who actively remembers the effects of) the women's movement of the 60s were given...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/13813683">more...</a>]]></body>
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</review>
    <review id="26366535">
    <user id="1140580">
    <name><![CDATA[Krenzel]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Columbus, OH]]></location>        
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      <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
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  <read_at>Wed Nov 12 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Sat Jul 05 11:25:13 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Dec 14 08:57:26 -0800 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I have never watched a Marilyn Monroe movie and, before reading &quot;Blonde,&quot; Joyce Carol Oates’ fictional biography of Marilyn Monroe, I knew pretty much nothing about her life, other than she had been married to famous people and sang &quot;Happy Birthday&quot; to JFK.  I chose to read &quot;...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/26366535">more...</a>]]></body>
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</review>
    <review id="1814520">
    <user id="124482">
    <name><![CDATA[Alison]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Germantown, TN]]></location>        
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      <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[classic movie fans, marilyn obsessees]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Jun 10 00:39:17 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat Aug 18 20:00:30 -0700 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I had no idea what this book was about when I checked it out from the library.  It wasn't until I got it home that I noticed the cover was a silhouette of Marilyn Monroe with her back to the camera.  This book kept me up til the wee hours for the seven days it took me to finish it.  It is a fictiona...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1814520">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1814520?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="44592381">
    <user id="111921">
    <name><![CDATA[Madeline]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Mountain View, CA]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/111921-madeline?utm_medium=api]]></url>
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      <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Jan 27 20:09:48 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Jan 27 20:41:48 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I wasn't really sure how to go about reviewing this book at first, but then I came up with a solution, and it's a reviewing style I'll call The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.<br/>Here we go.<br/><br/>The Good: Of course, Joyce Carol Oates is a scary-talented author and I bow at her feet. The writin...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/44592381">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/44592381?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="61386651">
    <user id="2415762">
    <name><![CDATA[Elizabeth]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Brooklyn, NY]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2415762-elizabeth?utm_medium=api]]></url>
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      <rating>0</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at>Wed Jun 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Jun 28 09:08:02 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Jun 28 09:20:06 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This is my nighttime reading book because it is just to heavy to carry around all day, but it is everything an Oates novel should be. It is a fictionalized biography of Marilyn Monroe, starting from her childhood and absent parents to her demise some decades later. It is compelling and moving and fu...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/61386651">more...</a>]]></body>
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</review>
    <review id="75222955">
    <user id="2211350">
    <name><![CDATA[Lori]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Pittsford, NY]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2211350-lori-demaria?utm_medium=api]]></url>
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      <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at>Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Oct 21 04:55:54 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Oct 21 05:02:39 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[A long and complex read into the fictional pysche of Marilyn Monroe/Norma Jean Baker.  Interesting and spellbinding but at the same time exhausting.  Joyce Carol Oates creates a sad, victim in her account of Marilyn Monroe who never really comes to terms with the Hollywood personna and the real pers...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75222955">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75222955?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="66514488">
    <user id="2564739">
    <name><![CDATA[Tina]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Texarkana, TX]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2564739-tina-valenzuela?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
      <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
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  <read_at>Thu Jun 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Aug 07 00:34:29 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Aug 07 00:51:29 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[There was only one thing wrong with this book: IT WAS SOOOOO LONG!!<br/><br/>I love Marilyn Monroe so I thought that this book would be a great read and don't get me wrong it was, but there were points in the book when I felt like it was just a chore to get through a chapter. I found myself skippi...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/66514488">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/66514488?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="48388818">
    <user id="2100448">
    <name><![CDATA[Thomma]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2100448-thomma?utm_medium=api]]></url>
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      <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at>Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Mar 05 21:22:06 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Jun 24 15:26:19 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Blonde is a fictionalized account of Marilyn Monroe's life, and she appears, by turns, as Norma Jeane, &quot;Marilyn&quot;, and The Blond Actress. But the story Oates tells is Norma Jeane's. She, alone of the three, is the real person.<br/><br/>Norma Jeane is the child whose mother, an employee of...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/48388818">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/48388818?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="45638714">
    <user id="1521651">
    <name><![CDATA[Irene]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Exeter, NH]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1521651-irene?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
      <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at>Mon Aug 17 08:17:57 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Sat Feb 07 06:44:20 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Aug 17 08:17:57 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[What an amazing book! It illustrates to me what an artist's work is, at its core. Joyce Carol Oates started with the facts of Norma Jean Baker's life and in the crucible of her imagination created a great work of fiction in which she imagined what it would have been like to live her strange life -- ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45638714">more...</a>]]></body>
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</review>
    <review id="45303781">
    <user id="1918642">
    <name><![CDATA[Oneira]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Saint Paul, MN]]></location>        
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      <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Feb 03 16:57:10 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Apr 14 11:27:59 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This is an incredible showcase of a variety of writing styles.  Amazingly enough, this isn’t overdone to the point of being annoying.  Norma Jean’s voice was incredibly real and human and disturbing.  I had to put this book down for a month or so due to its depressing nature.  And yet it seemed ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45303781">more...</a>]]></body>
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</review>
    <review id="30255749">
    <user id="130066">
    <name><![CDATA[Colleen]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[New York, NY]]></location>        
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      <rating>4</rating>
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  <date_added>Fri Aug 15 14:36:39 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Aug 15 14:48:26 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This is totally unfair, but I gave this book a 4 only because the story itself was so gut-wrenchingly difficult for me to read, and not because of the quality of the story or the writing. This is one of those books that's situated on some fine line between fiction and biography, and it's about the l...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/30255749">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/30255749?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="29837060">
    <user id="65218">
    <name><![CDATA[Caitlin]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Chicago, IL]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/65218-caitlin?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
      <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at>Thu Aug 21 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Aug 11 07:30:59 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat Aug 23 16:50:14 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Blonde: A roman a clef for a vie a clef<br/><br/>Melancholy, a little hungover, and still in bed at 11:30 one morning during my reading of this book, I descended into mournful rumination about fiction. For the first time in my life, fiction felt truly like the inferior literary form--the slag sist...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/29837060">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/29837060?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="16408594">
    <user id="923099">
    <name><![CDATA[Mama Kaye]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/923099-mama-kaye?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
      <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at>Sun May 11 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Feb 26 08:13:46 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon May 12 06:37:39 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I never thought I'd be interested in reading a book about Marilyn Monroe, but wow, what a wonderful experience! Oates points out from the beginning that this is a work of fiction -- it is not a biography. However, it is clear that while much of the text is a product of Oates' imagination, it is base...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/16408594">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/16408594?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="12860214">
    <user id="263761">
    <name><![CDATA[Peggy]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Salt Lake City, UT]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/263761-peggy?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
      <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[Joyce Carol Oates - I think her best]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Jan 18 14:34:42 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Jan 23 21:36:53 -0800 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[What a book!!! I began reading this book Sunday night and seven hours later realized I hadn't put the book down.. If I stopped for a drink of water, I don't remember it..<br/>Such a tragic story.. and though Joyce Carol Oates calls it a work of fiction.. not all is fiction.. &quot;1950: In a season...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/12860214">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/12860214?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="8794118">
    <user id="188449">
    <name><![CDATA[Caitlin]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Brooklyn, NY]]></location>        
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      <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <date_added>Wed Nov 07 10:11:30 -0800 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Feb 13 05:50:31 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Foxfire was the first JCO I ever read, and this was the second.  If Foxfire made me start to *maybe* think I was falling in love with JCO as a writer, Blonde transformed that maybe into a definite in the first line.<br/><br/>An avid Marilyn fan for years, I have always been most interested in firs...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8794118">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8794118?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="44857970">
    <user id="1975058">
    <name><![CDATA[Johnny]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Bakersfield, CA]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1975058-johnny-d?utm_medium=api]]></url>
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      <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Jan 30 09:46:52 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Jan 30 09:50:37 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA['Blonde' is Joyce Carol Oates' intriguing psychobiography of Norma Jean Baker, told in a fictionalized inner monologue. Oates command of the language is deftly interwoven with our cultural imprint of Marilyn the sad, Marilyn the shy ... hidden behind the movie scrim Marilyn the 'bold' Marilyn the 's...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/44857970">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/44857970?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="66034031">
    <user id="1828267">
    <name><![CDATA[Peter]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Toronto, Canada]]></location>        
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  </user>
      <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Wed Jun 14 00:00:00 -0700 2000</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Aug 03 13:23:03 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Aug 03 13:25:50 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Joyce Carol Oates, clearly the most prolific writer alive, tackles the mystery that is Marilyn Monroe, obviously one of the most fascinating celebrities of the last 50 years. It is a combination that works extremely well. Oates who knows all the genres and is a thinking about cultural trends finds o...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/66034031">more...</a>]]></body>
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    <review id="31285913">
    <user id="255752">
    <name><![CDATA[Nicole NC]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Durham, NC]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/255752-nicole-nc?utm_medium=api]]></url>
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      <rating>3</rating>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Wed Sep 17 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Aug 26 19:54:29 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat Sep 20 17:02:26 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[At 700+ pages this one isn't a quick read, and the Marilyn's life wasn't exactly uplifting. But as someone who started out thinking that she was a ditsy blonde, I was intrigued and surprised at how different I thought her life was.  I’m curious enough to head down to blockbuster and rent some old ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/31285913">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/31285913?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="57237880">
    <user id="2166427">
    <name><![CDATA[Malou]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Luxembourg]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2166427-malou?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
      <rating>3</rating>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Tue Jun 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon May 25 06:25:35 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Jun 09 23:47:02 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Although I love Joyce Carol Oates' writing (her talent is incredible!!), I did not enjoy reading this particular novel. The narrative technique was fascinating, but it made the read very laboured (or at least I felt it did). I should probably read an actual historical biography instead of the fictiv...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57237880">more...</a>]]></body>
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    <review id="20212435">
    <user id="1060129">
    <name><![CDATA[Joey]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Raleigh, NC]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1060129-joey?utm_medium=api]]></url>
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      <rating>4</rating>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[Monroe fans, biography readers]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Mon May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2000</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Apr 15 07:25:18 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Apr 15 07:37:24 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I am not an avid fan of JCO; I find her writing inconsistent.  Her style is candid; the ability to make a single word into a sentence.  Other novels are overwrought with a gothic style that feels like you're wading through mud to find the story.<br/><br/>'Blonde' is a favorite, and may even be amo...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/20212435">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/20212435?utm_medium=api]]></url>
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