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Blonde

3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 · rating details · 4,043 ratings · 421 reviews

"A lush-bodied girl in the prime of her physical beauty. In an ivory georgette crepe sundress with a halter top that gathers her breasts up in soft undulating folds of the fabric. She's standing with bare legs apart on a New York subway grating. Her blond head is thrown rapturously back as an updraft lifts her full, flaring skirt, exposing white cotton panties. White cotto...more "A lush-bodied girl in the prime of her physical beauty. In an ivory georgette crepe sundress with a halter top that gathers her breasts up in soft undulating folds of the fabric. She's standing with bare legs apart on a New York subway grating. Her blond head is thrown rapturously back as an updraft lifts her full, flaring skirt, exposing white cotton panties. White cotton! The ivory-crepe sundress is floating and filmy as magic. The dress is magic. Without the dress the girl would be female meat, raw and exposed. "

She was an all-American girl who became a legend of unparalleled stature. She inspired the adoration of millions, and her life has beguiled generations of fans and fellow artists. The story of Norma Jeane Baker better known by her studio name "Marilyn Monroe"--has been dissected for more than three decades, but never has it been captured in a narrative as breathtaking and transforming as Blonde.

In her most ambitious work to date, Joyce Carol Oates, one of America's most distinguished, writers, reimagines the inner, poetic, and spiritual life of Norma Jeane Baker--the child, the woman, the fated celebrity--and tells the story in Norma Jeane's own voice: startling, rich, and shattering. This most intimate portrait of Norma Jeane reveals a fragile, idiosyncratically gifted young woman who makes and remakes her identity, ever managing to survive against crushing odds to become the definition of stardom. Bit by bit, she tells her own epic story of how an emblematic American artist--perpetually conflicted and intensely driven--lost her way.

Drawing on biographical and historical sources, Joyce Carol Oates evokes the distinct consciousness of the woman and the unsparing reflection of the myth, writing as she has never written before ecstatic, completely absorbed, inhabited as if by the spirit of her extraordinary subject. Rich with psychological insight and disturbing irony, this mesmerizing narrative illumines Norma Jeane's lonely childhood, wrenching adolescence, and the creation of "Marilyn Monroe."

Distorted and misunderstood, the muted voice of Norma Jeane and the grand legacy of Marilyn Monroe are also a looking glass into the shadow-world of Hollywood. While paying tribute to the elusive art of acting and moviemaking, Joyce Carol Oates depicts the chilling panorama of an industry that nourishes and devours the "pure products" of America.

Blonde offers astonishing-and often disturbing--portraits of the powerful men in Norma Jeane's life: the Ex-Athlete, the Playwright, the President, the Dark Prince.

With fresh insights into the heart of a celebrity culture hypnotized by its own, myths, Blonde is a sweeping novel about the elusive magic of a woman, the lasting legacy of a star, and the heartbreak behind the creation of the most evocative icon of the twentieth century.(less)

Hardcover, 752 pages

Published April 5th 2000 by Ecco Press (first published January 1st 2000)

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May 06, 2013 Lauren (Sugar & Snark) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Blonde is the Fictionalized Biography of Marilyn Monroe. I chose to read it over a more conventional style biography because I thought it would thought would be a more personal account and show more of her character and personality.

photo Marilyn-Monroe-American-Actress-Model-Singer--2048x2048_zps90a80ccb.jpg

The book chronicles her life as a young child growing up with a mentally unstable mother and eventual placement in an orphanage and foster homes.

We also see her transformation from the natural beauty Norma Jean Baker to the Sex Symbol Marilyn Monroe.

Beneath the ma...more

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Feb 25, 2008 Bess rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: EVERYONE

Finally finished, wish I were still reading, all magic is gone from life now, pls advs.

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 copy of this book, we'd have much less patriarchy snackdom in the world, much more equal pay, and way fewer pointy-toed stilettos.

Marilyn Monroe was continuously, systematically screwed over, pawned, and sucked...more

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Dec 14, 2008 Krenzel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001

I have never watched a Marilyn Monroe movie and, before reading "Blonde," 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 "Happy Birthday" to JFK. I chose to read "Blonde" to find out more about Marilyn Monroe, to learn some of the truth behind the icon, so that she would become more real to me and less abstract. Ironically, I think this is the opposite of what Oates had in mind for rea...more I have never watched a Marilyn Monroe movie and, before reading "Blonde," 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 "Happy Birthday" to JFK. I chose to read "Blonde" to find out more about Marilyn Monroe, to learn some of the truth behind the icon, so that she would become more real to me and less abstract. Ironically, I think this is the opposite of what Oates had in mind for readers when writing her book, as she has described Marilyn Monroe as a universal figure and, advancing this idea, presents "Blonde" as an updated Cinderella fairy tale using a series of abstract figures, starring Monroe as the "Fair Princess," a number of men as the "Dark Prince," and Monroe’s two husbands as the "Ex-athlete" and the "Playwright." However, while Oates tries to emphasize the universal elements of Marilyn Monroe’s fairytale rise to fame, ultimately she undermines the myth as she details Marilyn Monroe’s inner thoughts and concerns, making her appear less like a universal figure and more like a real, and unique, person.

In "Blonde," Oates initially focuses on the Cinderella-type fairy tale rise of Marilyn Monroe from obscurity and neglect to worldwide fame and adulation. Marilyn Monroe is born Norma Jeane Baker. She doesn’t know who her father is, and her mother is emotionally unbalanced and tries to kill her, ultimately being sent to a mental facility and leaving Norma Jeane as an orphan. But in a fairy tale, "always there was the Fair Princess. And always the Dark Prince." The Dark Prince arrives in the form of Otto Ose, who swoops into Norma Jean’s life to save her from her boring job. He takes her pictures and sells her image, allowing her to be discovered by the Studio. Oates recasts Norma Jeane’s story as a fairy tale: "Once upon a time," she says, there was a little girl who came to the Walled Garden and discovered the secret way in from her fairy godmother. "There’s a hidden door in the wall, but you must wait like a good little girl for this door to be opened," she tells her. "You must win over the doorkeeper – an old, ugly, green-skinned gnome. You must make the doorkeeper take notice of you. You must make the doorkeeper admire you. You must make the doorkeeper desire you." Only then, would the ugly gnome fall in love with her and the two "live happily forever in his Garden Kingdom." As Otto offers Norma Jeane $50 to pose nude, she thinks, "I saw that I must be sold. For there I would be desired, and I would be loved." Norma Jeane sells herself and is transformed into the "Fair Princess," Marilyn Monroe, who is loved and desired by many men.

However, Oates does not end her story with this transformation of Norma Jeane into Marilyn Monroe, as the last part of the book details the inner life of Marilyn Monroe. Although Norma Jeane could be seen as a universal figure – a poor orphan who struggles for fame by selling herself – Marilyn Monroe herself is a unique figure and icon. While Oates tries to maintain the fairy tale elements of the story by giving Monroe’s famous husbands and lovers mythic qualities by referring to them only as the "Ex-athlete," the "Playwright," and the "President," these are not clearly not abstract figures. Whether they are named or not, they are clearly Joe Dimaggio, Arthur Miller, and John F. Kennedy. Furthermore, Oates doesn’t even attempt to make Marilyn Monroe’s movies abstract events, as she refers to specific movies like "The Asphalt Jungle," "Niagara," and "Some Like It Hot," and describes Marilyn Monroe’s specific roles in those movies as "Angela," "Rose," and "Sugar Kane." These are not Cinderella roles the reader is going to project herself into; these are Marilyn Monroe’s roles. As readers, we gain even more insight into the life of Marilyn Monroe as Oates details her inner life, making Marilyn Monroe less abstract and more like a real person. For example, as she watches the happy ending of her character Cherie in Bus Stop, she starts crying: "Why was I crying? Maybe because in actual life Cherie would’ve been drinking a lot. She would’ve been missing half her teeth. She would’ve had to sleep with the bastards. . . . There wouldn’t have been any good-looking yokel-cowboy Bo to throw her over his shoulder and carry her away to his ten-thousand-acre ranch." In exposing us to the real life of Marilyn Monroe, the fairy tale is lost, as we see all the gory details of her destruction. She is not some abstract Cinderella, but rather a real person with her own doubts and anxieties. As the last part of the book details Marilyn Monroe’s inner life, "Blonde" loses its mythic qualities, as the real-life Marilyn Monroe replaces the universal Cinderella-type figure of Norma Jeane.

While Oates tries to emphasize the universal elements of Marilyn Monroe’s fairytale rise to fame, ultimately she undermines the fairy tale as she details Marilyn Monroe’s inner thoughts and concerns, making her appear less universal and more like a real, and unique, person. Reinforcing this idea, Oates ends "Blonde" with a poem titled, "The Fairy Tale – THE BURNING PRINCESS," which clearly relates to the life of Marilyn Monroe. In this poem, Oates describes a Beggar Maid transformed into a Fair Princess by the Dark Prince as he gives her a "magic elixir," cleansing her body and bleaching her hair before setting it on fire. The Princess dives off the platform, leaving her burning body and the maddening screams of the crowd behind. Oates writes, "[T]he burning Princess was dead. & I [the Beggar Maid] was alive." But is this true? Does The Beggar Maid (Norma Jeane) endure, while the Princess (Marilyn Monroe) dies? The answer is no – clearly, it is the icon of Marilyn Monroe that endures. While Oates’ goal behind "Blonde" is to teach us all a universal truth, in reality we learn more about the life of Marilyn Monroe than we learn about ourselves. Although "Blonde" has piqued my curiosity about her life, and maybe I will watch one of her movies now, I am still not sure what the lesson of Marilyn Monroe’s life is for the rest of us.
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Aug 18, 2007 Alison rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: classic movie fans, marilyn obsessees

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 fictionalized biography in that it recalls the life of Marilyn from birth to "mysterious" death at age 37 (?) from an overdose of sleeping pills with conversations and situations imagined as they might have been...more

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Jan 27, 2009 Madeline rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-list, ugh, historic-fiction

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.
Here we go.

The Good: Of course, Joyce Carol Oates is a scary-talented author and I bow at her feet. The writing in this book goes from staggeringly beautiful to heart-wrenchingly sad, and all of it is masterfully executed. The fact is, no matter what the following might say, I would probably give my left foot to be able to wri...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Katia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mon histoire avec ce livre est progressive. Il m'avait d'abord été conseillé par un libraire, et je l'avais acheté dans l'idée de le lire plus tard. Puis je suis tombée sur le défi de Daniel Fattore, couplé avec le billet de George, qui m'a donné très envie de le lire, le tout m'a fait le dépoussiérer. Enfin l'occasion s'est présentée quand avec ma mère nous avons décidé de lire en commun un livre de 1000 pages. C'est un roman assez époustouflant. Dès les premières pages j'ai ressenti une grande...more Mon histoire avec ce livre est progressive. Il m'avait d'abord été conseillé par un libraire, et je l'avais acheté dans l'idée de le lire plus tard. Puis je suis tombée sur le défi de Daniel Fattore, couplé avec le billet de George, qui m'a donné très envie de le lire, le tout m'a fait le dépoussiérer. Enfin l'occasion s'est présentée quand avec ma mère nous avons décidé de lire en commun un livre de 1000 pages. C'est un roman assez époustouflant. Dès les premières pages j'ai ressenti une grande affection pour ce personnage. Les événements qui lui arrivent sont très durs et m'ont fait penser à ce roman même lorsque je le reposais. La jeune Norma Jeane a des rapports étranges avec sa mère. Cette-dernière va jusqu'à essayer de la tuer, avant d'être internée en hôpital psychiatrique. Je suppose qu'il doit être miraculeux de se construire une identité avec une enfance comme la sienne. Elle s'attache à d'autres filles de l'orphelinat, avant d'être adoptée par les Pirig. Elle se marie avec Bucky Glazer à 16 ans, mariage arrangé par Elsie Pirig, qui ne peut plus l'assumer. La jeune Norma Jeane plait beaucoup aux hommes, grâce à son visage en forme de coeur et son côté enfantin. Elle quitte son mari, qui n'accepte pas qu'elle fasse des photos. Le premier film à travers lequel on la suit est "Scudda-Hoo ! Scudda-Hay ! " dans lequel elle joue en 1948. L'écriture de Joyce Carol Oates est singulière, phrases courtes, parfois sans reprise du sujet, et il m'a fallut un temps d'adaptation, mais une fois ce délai passé on se régale. Ce n'est qu'à la page 375 qu'elle devient actrice, et j'ai adoré découvrir ses débuts, son enfance, dont on ne parle pas habituellement quand on parle de "M.M." J'ai aimé que ce roman fasse plus de 1000 pages, car on passe un réel moment avec cette femme, on s'y attache comme à une amie et on la suit le long de ses aventures. On la suit auprès des hommes, on la suit dans les films, et on assiste, impuissants, au déclin, à la fatigue et à la peur de cette femme qui perd pied. On la voit jouer en 1950 "Quand la ville dort", "Eve", puis "Niagara", suivi en 1952 par "Troublez-moi ce soir", puis des "hommes préfèrent les blondes". Elle jouera "Sept ans de réflexion" en 1955, elle jouera aussi au théatre dans "Bus Stop" en 1956, puis "Le Prince et la Danseuse". Elle jouera Sugar Kane en 1959 dans "Certains l'aiment chaud" sans oublier Roslyn, en 1961 dans "The Misfits", son film préféré. J'ai passé un mois et demi avec ce roman. Je l'ai lâché 3 semaines le temps d'en lire 2 autres. Et j'ai été ravie de le retrouver de nouveau. Ce roman est singulier, de même que cette femme et que cette vie. "Marilyn" est un personnage incroyable, extrêmement attachant, et j'ai apprécié la découvrir. Moi qui ne connaissais pas ses films, je me suis précipitée pour les acheter et ainsi la découvrir encore mieux. J'ai aussi beaucoup apprécié Whitey, jeune homme adorable, maquilleur aux petits soins de Marilyn. Lui seul arrivait à lui rendre le visage qu'elle tolérait. Et c'est avec ce roman (duquel je ressors émue et touchée par cette femme), que je boucle le défi des 1000 pages.(less)

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Aug 11, 2012 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Last summer I was fascinated by that scoundrel, Ernest Hemingway. This summer (can't believe I'm saying this), it's Marilyn Monroe. I came upon this book while looking at a list of Pulitzer Prize novels. It didn't win but it was a contender. When I saw that it was about MM and by Joyce Carol Oates, I thought I would like it because I love the tv show Smash which is partly about MM and I loved We Were the Mulvenneys by Oates.

I loved reading this fictionalized biography even though it is a sad an...more

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Aug 16, 2011 patty rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Man, I have been reading this novel forever it seems like, I started in May and kept misplacing it, then starting on others, finishing the others even after Blonde was found.
I wanted to LOVE this book, but I didn't I wish there was a half star system because I might have given it 3 1/2 stars. It made me really interested in Marilyn Monroe, I'll say that. It made her seem 'real'. I wish I would have known her, to really know what she was like. In Confessions of a Prairie Bitch by Ingram, Whitey...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Blonde" väcker många känslor hos läsaren och den gick rakt in i mitt hjärta. Den var mycket tungläst då den i detalj skildrar Norma Jeanes osäkerhet och livskval. Boken tar upp allvarliga ämnen som identitetskris, tablettmissbruk, dålig självkänsla, sexuellt utnyttjande och mäns maktlystnad, sexmissbruk, aborter och graviditeter, bekräftelsesökande, Hollywoods filmindustri, intellekt vs skönhet, etc. Alla andra människor runtomkring henne dyrkar den glamorösa och sexiga Marilyn Monroe men Norma...more

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Apr 11, 2011 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Blonde” is a remarkable fictionalized biography of Marilyn Monroe that not only tracks the course of her life, but attempts with great sensitivity to lay bare the inner demons that drove this greatest of icons among mid-20th century film stars. Perhaps the most insightful aspect of the book is its explanation of how “Marilyn Monroe” was created to be just another role played by Norma Jeane Baker, the gifted, intelligent, but abandoned, abused, exploited and deeply troubled young woman who lit u...more “Blonde” is a remarkable fictionalized biography of Marilyn Monroe that not only tracks the course of her life, but attempts with great sensitivity to lay bare the inner demons that drove this greatest of icons among mid-20th century film stars. Perhaps the most insightful aspect of the book is its explanation of how “Marilyn Monroe” was created to be just another role played by Norma Jeane Baker, the gifted, intelligent, but abandoned, abused, exploited and deeply troubled young woman who lit up movie screens for an unforgettable decade before her early death nearly a half century ago.

I’ve not read any other books about Norma Jeane Baker (the real person she continued to be, despite the public’s obsession with “Marilyn”), so I can’t accurately judge how much of the book is hard fact, how much is fiction, and how much is Joyce Carol Oates’ attempt to fill in the blanks between the two. Clearly the names of many real people have been changed or obscured; and many factual situations have been re-arranged or consolidated for literary purposes. There are also obvious fictional story elements throughout the book, as well Oates’ efforts to help the reader understand Baker’s turbulent emotional world by creating thoughts and dialogue that, while thoroughly plausible, are difficult (or impossible) to document.

These efforts to explain Baker’s psychology are the most compelling passages in the book, as we watch the abandoned child with a sometimes tenuous grip on the reality around her grow into a world-famous celebrity whose emotional disintegration only seems to accelerate in direct proportion to her growth as an actress. The reader could even conclude that Baker’s innate ability to inhabit difficult roles was made possible by the fracturing of her personality. Unable to fully distinguish reality from performance, she not only acted in movie roles, but lived inside the parts she played and incorporated them into her own life (or perhaps incorporated her own life into them).

In the end, her own madness – worsened by studios that exploited her, drugs meant to manage her behavior but which only made it more extreme, and brutal men to whom she looked in vain for salvation – overtook her obvious talent. Some fans have wondered how great she could have been without the heavy and growing emotional baggage she carried from earliest childhood. Yet Oates demonstrates it was Baker’s shattered personality that not only led to her early burnout and death, but that also made her brilliant acting possible in the first place. Without Norma Jeane Baker’s madness, there probably would not have been a Marilyn Monroe at all.

This is a brilliant book, somewhat unorthodox in structure, but a page-turner for anyone who wants to understand the rise and fall of one of Hollywood’s greatest, most enduring, yet most mystifying legends.
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Mar 04, 2010 BarkLessWagMore rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is an interesting fiction/real life blend about the life and death of Marilyn Monroe. It appears to have pissed off many Monroe as well as Oates fans. Many who claim writer Oates was just bitter and jealous of Monroe's beauty, one reviewer going so far, after seeing Oates picture on the back cover, to say it was because "she'd been beaten with the ugly stick herself". Sheesh, talk about ugly people!

I enjoyed the book even though it was pretty bleak and mostly depressing but how could it be...more

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Jun 28, 2009 Elizabeth is currently reading it · review of another edition

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 full of that stunning Oates prose that I have become completely addicted to. She can take you right through to a character's inner thoughts and feelings, instantly binding you to humanity. The novel ope...more

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Jan 24, 2011 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 11th-grade-books

Blonde
By: Joyce Carol Oates
Pages: 1-738
(Counted as 3 books, Ms. Shah gave approval)

Marilyn Monroe, written in a different perspective. Now you will know much more about her! Joyce Carol Oates writes this book to let the reader unconsciously know that she is writing about Marilyn Monroe. Written in a way that most people do not know about Marilyn Monroe, Oates describes Marilyn Monroe in a way that tells us exciting details about Monroe's life and describes vividly about how Monroe lived.

In a wa...more

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Feb 09, 2013 Downward rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

this is joyce carol oates' version of the life of marilyn monroe but the themes stretch wider than that. its about how female lives can be determined by male interpretation and the poison of the sexism that still permeates our world fifty plus years after monroes death. the book is dvided into sections the largest og which are taken up by either roles that she played or lovers that shehad. superficial things that defined marilyn initially but eventually bled over into 'norma' her true identity....more

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Oct 01, 2012 Estibaliz79 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Después de pasar un intenso fin de semana con Marilyn, aquí estamos otra vez, con ciertas dudas respecto a la puntuación que darle a esta magna novela... y dejándolo en cuatro estrellas que en realidad son cuatro y media, y que por calidad fácilmente llega a las cinco. Pero ya se sabe que esto también es cuestión de gustos y... No sé...

Cierto es que la versión novelada de Oates sobre la vida de la mítica rubia engancha, sobre todo una vez que uno se sumerge en su particular universo narrativo, p...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Dawn added it · review of another edition

The combination of a sensational Hollywood story and exquisite, emotive writing make this novel impossible to put down until the tragic end. It is a story we all know, the story of Marilyn Monroe yet Joyce Carol Oates explores it in a way that has never been done before and does this brilliantly. Although it is a work of fiction, you feel such painful truth when ever she writes using Norma Jeane's voice. It is the imagined emotional life of Norma Jeane on her way to becoming Marilyn Monroe and b...more

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Jan 21, 2012 Janne Varvára rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: misc-novels

I have always loved Marilyn Monroe, I just find her an incredibly interesting person, and actress, and that's why, when I discovered this novel of her life by Joyce Carol Oates, it became a must-read.

My expectations were perhaps a little too high.
I was looking forward to some imagined insights into Marilyn's head. I mean, we know the facts of her life, at least to some extent, but I was anticipating how Oates would address her feelings, thoughts and outlook on life. The truth is, she doesn't add...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I wavered between 3 stars and 4 stars for Blonde. 4 stars because, dammit, JCO, sometimes you just put the words together and it's amazing and I want to claw your eyes out. 3 stars because, dammit, JCO, sometimes the words are amazing but they are cold, so cold, with no connection, no emotion, no point, just empty words that take up space and hit us over the head with anvils and it makes me want to claw your eyes out.

It must be emphasized that this is a fictionalized biography of the mythologic...more

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Aug 01, 2012 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So, I should start by saying I know virtually nothing about Marilyn Monroe. I've never watched one of her films and I have no concept of how accurate this biography is. But my word, it's a splendid read. The story of persistence, corruption, manipulation and the success surrounding this most American of icons is gripping from start to finish. I never knew how I felt about Marilyn - no doubt the victim of neglect and poor parenting early on in life, being essentially married off out of Foster car...more

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Oct 01, 2010 Valentina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

How must it feel to be under Marilyn Monroe's skin? What must it be like to be right inside the head of one of the world's first global celebrities, a star so beloved by her fans and yet a woman desperately longing for real and long-lasting affection?

These are the questions that Joyce Carol Oates' imagined autobiography of Monroe tries to answer. And with some success. By the end of the book, the depths of Monroe's peaks of joy and despair are explored, enlightening the contradictions of modern...more

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Jun 16, 2010 Marigold rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: movie-stars, contemporary-lit

Award-winning novelist Joyce Carol Oates gives us a picture of the life of "Marilyn Monroe", born Norma Jeane Baker, in this novel loosely based on Marilyn's life story. From her early childhood (abusive) to her years growing up in an orphanage & various foster homes, to her early marriage & years as a model & starlet, to her stardom, her lovers, her marriages, to her last years, the novel brings to life Marilyn's insecurity, instability, her yearning to prove or justify herself in s...more Award-winning novelist Joyce Carol Oates gives us a picture of the life of "Marilyn Monroe", born Norma Jeane Baker, in this novel loosely based on Marilyn's life story. From her early childhood (abusive) to her years growing up in an orphanage & various foster homes, to her early marriage & years as a model & starlet, to her stardom, her lovers, her marriages, to her last years, the novel brings to life Marilyn's insecurity, instability, her yearning to prove or justify herself in some way, the tremendous battles she fought with herself every day, just to get by, let alone cope with stardom.

I've read most of JCO's novels & this is one of my favorites. I love the way Oates uses "soft focus" and "hard focus" moments to depict Marilyn's life - the life of a movie star. One moment impressionistic & the next sharply concentrated on a single incident, the technique Oates uses is like the camera in Marilyn's life - shifting around, showing the best of Marilyn one moment & the worst the next. The camera gave Marilyn some of the best times of her life - and some of the worst - & that's how Oates moves around throughout the book - so you really get a sense of the different sides of Marilyn. "Good" Marilyn was talented, beautiful, loving, friendly, funny, studious, a writer, a perfectionist. "Bad" Marilyn was silly, self-destructive, lacking in personal hygiene, self-absorbed, despairing, wasteful, messy, promiscuous, & uncaring about her own time or that of others. I liked the shifting narrators, & bits of journals, letters & other people's stories scattered throughout, to show the different ways Marilyn was perceived and known. Oates also brings to life the Hollywood era of big studios & McCarthy scare tactics - a world in which female stars, even big stars, had little power. Overall a haunting book that made me want to learn more about the real Norma Jeane.

Why you might not like this book though I did - it's very long. It's very sad. You might get impatient with Marilyn. You might get impatient with just about every character in the book - other than Arthur Miller ("the Playwright"), who is given a sympathetic portrayal. If you don't like shifts in narrator, timeframe, etc., you probably won't like it - it can be a little hard to figure out in that way. And yeah...we all know how it ends.
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Jun 19, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In this sprawling bildungsroman, Joyce Carol Oates gives a voice to the iconic Norma Jean Baker/ Marilyn Monroe. Is the book historically accurate? Perhaps. I will have to get back to you once I read Oates's source material. Is historical accuracy important here? Not a wink. Against the backdrop of mid-century Hollywood, Norma Jean emerges as a subtle, witty character abused by the Studio and by men, which are of course one and the same in "The City of Sand." Indeed, Monroe jokes when asked by a...more

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Feb 14, 2012 Sunflower rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-read-2012, library

Marilyn Monroe is everywhere - she is still a part of our psyche somehow, even though you can't help noticing that if she was alive today she would be would be thought to be overweight. This book is also a doorstopper size-wise, with huge scope, following the young Norma Jean as she goes through her life, carrying her childhood wounds and lack of self esteem, to the eventual train-wreck conclusion that you know is coming.Her incredible fame didn't translate to success in her own mind, which appa...more

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Feb 11, 2010 Jenny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm giving this 5 stars because JCO is such a talented writer, I really felt like I was in MM's head listening to the non-stop babble of every thought and worry that plagued her. However, there were some things I didn't like.

One thing I didn't like was that JCO did not stay true to the facts regarding MM and Joe Dimaggio's relationship after their split. Actually JD and MM remained friends after their divorce and JD made MM's funeral arrangements and tried to help MM with her dependency problems...more I'm giving this 5 stars because JCO is such a talented writer, I really felt like I was in MM's head listening to the non-stop babble of every thought and worry that plagued her. However, there were some things I didn't like.

One thing I didn't like was that JCO did not stay true to the facts regarding MM and Joe Dimaggio's relationship after their split. Actually JD and MM remained friends after their divorce and JD made MM's funeral arrangements and tried to help MM with her dependency problems later in life. In the book, MM fled from JD after a brutal beating, divorced him, and never spoke with him again. Obviously, this book is a novel, and the conversations between the (real) characters and such is just JCO's imagination, she can't have really known what they said, but I really would have liked her to stick to the facts that are known.

Another thing I didn't like is sometimes I feel JCO just went over the top with some of MM's borderline hallucinations. Some of it was just too abstract and unbelievable for me.

JCO did such a wonderful job displaying the conflicts in MM's personality/person. Just amazing. I'm in awe.

I have to say one other thing. Several of the reviews about this book talk constantly about how MM was victimized and the book has a feminist theme. I don't think so. Certainly MM was badly used and taken advantage of early in her life. But as she gained a lot of fame and box office appeal, she gained bargaining power with the Studio and others in her life. But she continued to let herself be used.

I have a lot of sympathy for MM, she had an absolutely horrible childhood. But at some point in our life we all have to try to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them. MM didn't. Unfortunately MM had a very destructive streak and developed a hard core drug/alcohol problem later in life. And she treated her third husband, Arthur Miller, like SHIT later in their marriage; when he loved her and was kind to her and was concerned about her. It was then much harder for me to feel sorry for MM when JFK used her like a hooker - after she had just openly cheated on AM and cursed at him when he tried to help her when he thought she was going to overdose on RX/booze - clearly hurting him. At that point in her life she had made her choice to ingest massive amounts of drugs and alcohol every day and let men use her.

In sum, a very interesting, well-written period piece - I will never look at MM the same way again. (less)

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Nov 05, 2011 Farrah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is about 750 pages long and I honestly thought it would take me much longer to finish it than it did. It's been sitting on my shelves for a few years, waiting to be tackled. I've always been fascinated by Marilyn Monroe's life - the classic Hollywood story-grew up an orphan, was "discovered", became a huge star, died young, tragically, and I knew I liked and respected Joyce Carol Oates as an author so I expected to like this book and I really did.

It's basically historical fiction - all...more

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Sep 15, 2011 Katrina Miller rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a fictional account of the life of Marilyn Monroe told in her words.

I like the fact that the real names of the people in Marilyn's life were not mentioned, instead Mrs. Oates used descriptions. Exp: "The Playwright," "The Ex-Athlete," and "The President."

The story is very captivating, powerful writing from Mrs. Oates. I first read the novel when I was eighteen? I was browsing a bookstore at the mall and came across this. I didn't want a biography of Marilyn, I wanted a story. I bought t...more

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May 10, 2011 Charisma Bell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have always found Joyce Carol Oates really intense to read, and this book was no different. Even though I tried really hard to remember that this was this fictionalized life story of Marilyn Monroe I kept feeling as if I were reading her autiobiography. Before you read this book you should definitely do you research on MM. Even though her life is already public knowledge you get the feeling that you are getting an insight to this woman that has been an icon for decades. There is a lot of image...more

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Apr 16, 2010 Sara rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001, historical-fiction, 2000s, 2010

For all of Blonde's claims as a novelized, feminist retelling of Marilyn Monroe's life, I have seldom come across a book with more disturbing, dehumanizing references to the female body and mind. I am aware that these are intended to further emphasize Marilyn's loathed and loved standing in the American psyche as the virgin/whore goddess/garbage dichotomy, but the painful overuse of the adjectives "cow", "cunt", and "mammalian" to describe Marilyn, as well as endlessly repetitive descriptions of...more

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Jun 08, 2010 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Somehow never having read a Joyce Carol Oates book, I didn't know what to expect from Blonde. I was silmotaneously impressed and let down. The book is long (over 700 pages) and even being a voracious reader currently trying to drown myself in books, it took me over a week to finish. Why? I had to read it in instalments. Norma Jean and all iterations of her personality presented as different characters she had played, including Marilyn Monroe, were hard to stomach for too long. Although I eventua...more

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Feb 20, 2012 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, fiction

Blonde is the fictionalized biography of Marilyn Monroe, from birth to her 'suicide'. I've never followed Marilyn Monroe or known anything more than sketchy details about her life. Joyce Carol Oates tries to make some of the details intentionally vague - referring to famous people by just a single initial, and calling her husbands/lovers 'The Ex-Athlete', 'The Playwright' or 'The President'. The story is told through a combination of 3rd person narrative and Marilyn's point of view. A big part o...more

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About Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. She is also the recipient of the 2005 Prix Femina for The Falls. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and she has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978. Pseudonyms ... Rosamond Smith and Laure ...more

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“Death is just the last scene of the last act.” — 32 people liked it

“Exotic: meaning you're "desired."
For madness is seductive, sexy. Female madness.
So long as the female is reasonably young and attractive.” — 25 people liked it

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