Of Women and Their Elegance

by Norman Mailer, Milton H. Greene (Photographer)

Hardback in dust jacket in very good condition. First US edition . Inscribed and signed by Mailer .

Genres: Fiction, Film

288 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 1980

About the author

Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.

Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe, Mailer is considered an innovator of creative nonfiction, a genre sometimes called New Journalism, but which covers the essay to the nonfiction novel. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice and the National Book Award once. In 1955, Mailer, together with Ed Fancher and Dan Wolf, first published The Village Voice, which began as an arts- and politics-oriented weekly newspaper initially distributed in Greenwich Village. In 2005, he won the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from The National Book Foundation.

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Mailer to tick off the list - even though a lot of his books are very different in my opinion - I kind of felt I knew what to expect. Writing about the US in the 1960s and 1970s and all the characters, politics and showbusiness of that time is interesting to me in any case but I realise may well be of less interest to others. I had already read his other book about Marilyn Monroe (with its execution conspiracy) so I thought this might be similar. He is clearly obsessed with Marilyn, like a lot of people are, but two books about her is going too far really.

The premise of the book is that there are a wealth of quite beautiful photos by Milton Greene, many of which are of Marilyn, but a good number that are not. Mailer has then responded to these pictures by writing a confessional diary of Marilyn in the first person. Not only does he set out his ideas of her thoughts, he also merges together a mix of actual people and events with a number of ones that he has come up with himself in his classic non-fiction/fiction overlap that he loves so much. Some of this is pretty cringeworthy (boobs, bums etc.), quite possibly rather creepy, and/or libellous, I would have thought (sex on motorbikes, plans to murder ex-wives) and obviously shouldn't really work. The whole idea is really rather bonkers - it seems Mailer wrote a pre-emptive court defence of the book for New York Magazine - so he must have know that himself.

Given all of that, the surprising thing to me then, is how much of it does actually seem quite convincing to me, with a Marilyn voice coming through. The writing is simple, gossipy, and often quite fun (rather than Mailer's sometimes over the top style he sometimes employs). I also found some of the interactions with other big characters of the time, like Joe Di Maggio, Lawrence Olivier and Arthur Miller interesting even if they may bear very little relationship to the truth.

Don't get me wrong, I imagine a lot of people might hate this. Presumably anyone who knew Monroe personally would have been appalled and the ethics of "cashing in" around her death are very much open to question. Mailer's wider view of women is also very outdated - perhaps chauvistic rather than misogynistic? - but clearly pining for women to be like the characters you might get in a Raymond Chandler novel rather than real people. There is also a strange discussion about what the meaning of female elegance is - with references to 18th Century France - and whether Marilyn is more elegant than some of the other famous and beautiful woman of the time as she is more "real" than them (at least I think that is what Mailer is driving at).

As always though, I kind of admire Mailer's arrogance in even trying to do something like this (just as he did writing a book about Jesus in the first person). I get the sense that he is really trying to get to some deeper, underlying truth about the realities of Marilyn's tragic personality. If ultimately he doesn't really succeed then that is probably not surprising, how can we ever really know what other people are thinking, but I rather enjoyed his efforts at trying to do this. Other people, particular if they are not Mailer fans in the first place may well disagree, and I wouldn't suggest this as the first place to start if you are interested in him. For me though, despite his flaws, I am always interested in what he has to say and how he says it, and this is just another surprising foray into the vast breadth and depth of his talents.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mlle Alice, pouvez-vous nous raconter votre rencontre avec Mémoires Imaginaires de Marilyn ?
"J'adooOOOoore Marilyn Monroe, elle me fascine, elle m'émeut, elle me touche. J'ai toujours envie de lire tous les romans et livres qui parlent d'elle et lorsque Pavillons Poche a décidé de rééditer celui-ci, je n'ai pas pu résister."

Dites-nous en un peu plus sur son histoire...
"Il s'agit d'une biographie imaginée, en quelque sorte, l'auteur se mettant à la place de la star d'Hollywood pour nous raconter plus particulièrement sa relation avec Mitlon Greene."

Mais que s'est-il exactement passé entre vous?
"Honnêtement, il ne m'a fallu que quelques pages pour oublier que ce n'était pas Marilyn qui parlait, peut-être parce que c'est elle que j'avais envie d'entendre, mais quand même. Il y a certains passages, autour du sexe, un peu glauques, où le fait que c'est un homme qui tient la plume me revient subitement en mémoire, il faut bien l'avouer, mais malgré tout j'ai aimé passer ces quelques heures en compagnie de Marilyn Monroe, de ses tourments, ses passions, ses incertitudes. On aime Marilyn je pense parce qu'elle était le fantasme absolu tout en étant aussi humaine et fragile que nous mais aussi parce qu'elle était victime de son image et bien moins sotte que ce qu'on pouvait penser d'elle et je trouve que ce récit le retranscrit parfaitement."

Et comment cela s'est-il fini?
"Un livre sur Marilyn, ça ne finit jamais bien malheureusement et on en a jamais assez je crois. J'ai d'ailleurs enchaîné avec le visionnage de Bus Stop, pas son meilleur film à mon avis mais le fait même que le livre vous donne envie de prolonger le plaisir de ces moments avec Marilyn est plutôt significatif, non ?"

http://booksaremywonderland.hautetfor...

[Megargee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Consisting equally of photographs by celebrity and fashion photographer Milton Greene and text by Mailer, Of Women and Their Elegance defies easy categorization. The text purports to be a diary or memoir written by Marilyn Monroe during the four years she lived with Milton Greene and his wife Amy and during her marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller. In his Author's Note at the end of the book, which you should read first, Mailer wrote, "Perhaps we may call this an imaginary memoir, an as-told-to book, a set of interviews that never took place between Marilyn Monroe and Norman Mailer." He tells us that some parts were all made up and others may have actually taken place. Most of the characters that appear in the supposed memoir are real but others are totally fictional. Mailer's goal, apparently, was to convey the essence of Monroe and, perhaps, through her, of elegant women generally.
There are approximately 100 8.5 by 11 inch B&W photographs by Greene illustrating the text and in a gallery at the end. Some are of ordinary people or street scenes, but most are of celebrities. Some the 25 - 30 photos of Monroe have become iconic such as Marilyn in her white tutu. Other frequently photographed celebrities include Marlene Dietrich, Audrey Hepburn, Nelly Nyad, Gene Kelly, and Jimmy Durante.
The photos are worth 5 stars, the text 3 stars, for an overall rating of 4 stars.

[Sally Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous book - you fall right into the story and right in love with the Marilyn that Mailer writes. The elegant legend that she is, and yet lifting a veil on the complexity of her mind.

“Milton’s photographs…tell us so much about women in general and Marilyn in particular…the pictures speak of those little mysteries women traverse on the road to beauty, and that as we know is the beginning of all legend. Three cheers for Marilyn, then. Three for Helen of Troy.” - Mailer, Author’s Note

[michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

boring af…great pictures tho

[Ted Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

An under appreciated Mailer work, one which, to my mind, debunks the general charge that Mailer couldn't write complex or compelling women characters. The controversies involving Mailer and his feminist critics is likely to remain current for the foreseeable future, but his fictionalized account of Monroe presents the troubled actress--part naif, part fighter, smarter than likely men and women film goers and critics preferred to think--as someone caught between different personalties that make up the Hollywood snakepit. Mailer allows her a first person narration and creates a voice and personality that attempts to be a serious artist and to do good work and also please bosses, boyfriends, husbands, friends real and doubtful. The accusation might be put forth that this merely more male fantasy stuff that Mailer was give to composing when he sought to discuss the dynamics of difficulties of men and women relating to each other in a consumer culture --his previous "Marilyn biography, a marvelous and occasionally beautiful tribute to the actress did, at times, veer off into the most purple of prose stretches this side of Cornell Woolrich--but I think here the author allows the actress to address her own narrative, in a clearly plain-spoken and sympathetic tone. It's a product of Mailer's imagination, I admit, but it is an intriguing read, a very mine short novel.

[ℳatthieu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Je ne connaissais Marilyn plus que ça. Le portrait dressé n'est pas flatteur!
On suit quelques épisodes de sa vie.
Les quelques dernières années de sa vie sont baclées en quelques pages à la fin du livre.
La "note de l'auteur" qui termine l'ouvrage est vraiment la bienvenue.

Donc moyen, moyen!

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book 27 years ago and have never forgotten how much I loved it.Norman Mailer really brought Marilyn Monroe to life,going way beyond the shallow view we so often have of Hollywood celebrities.This book is a true classic.I just want to find a new copy of it!

[David Buhler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great!