Product Description

Beautiful, damaged, the ultimate sex symbol, publicly celebrated, privately unhappy - Marilyn Monroe's tumultuous life and untimely death continue to fascinate us.

When Marilyn Monroe became famous in the 1950s, the world was told that her mother was either dead or simply not a part of her life. However, that was not true. In fact, her mentally ill mother was very much present in Marilyn's world and the complex family dynamic that unfolded behind the scenes is a story that has never been told - until now. In this groundbreaking book Taraborrelli draws complex and sympathetic portraits of the women so influential in the actress' life, including her mother, her foster mother and her legal guardian. He also reveals, for the first time, the shocking scope of Marilyn's own mental illness, the identity of Marilyn's father and the half-brother she never knew, and new information about her relationship with the Kennedys - Bobby, Jack and Pat Lawford Kennedy.

Explosive, revelatory and surprisingly moving, this is the final word on the life of one of the most fascinating and elusive icons of the twentieth century.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2642 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 512 pages

About the Author

J. Randy Taraborrelli is the author of twelve books, including the major bestsellers Madonna: An Intimate Biography, Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness, and Once Upon a Time: The Story of Princess Grace, Prince Rainier and their Family.

Customer Reviews

Think you know everything about Marilyn.....


As a huge fan of MM I thought I knew just about all there was to know about this fascinating lady, but Taraborrelli proved me wrong. Using fresh research, including some files recently released by the government, the author adds more color to the affair between Marilyn and President Kennedy, info supplied by an FBI agent who was documenting the affair at the time it occurred! He also interviewed many of the main players from Marilyn's world (many no longer with us) and he was able to review unpublished notes of reporters who covered Marilyn when she was alive. Taraborrelli `s extensive research pays off with one of the most insightful books on Marilyn ever produced. The reader learns of the role Marilyn's mother actually played in her life; I won't give anything away but it is much more extensive than the public ever knew. I was also shocked to learn of the depth of Marilyn's mental problems, I mean any one familiar with her life story knows she had issues, but I never suspected how sick she truly was. This is not just a rehash of old material and I highly recommend it to all interested in this icon's story. For more fascinating Marilyn Monroe reading, do check out "Misfits Country" Marilyn brought to life during the filming of her final movie.

EVEN MORE ABOUT MARILYN
One would think that of all the billions of words written about Marilyn Monroe everything had been made public - at least twice. Not so we discover in The Secret Life Of Marilyn Monroe. Celebrity biographer Taraborrelli who is known for digging deeper than most for collecting data about his subjects really went over the top with this one. He interviewed innumerable sources, all documented in his itemized 30 pages of interviews; everyone from James Dougherty, Marilyn's first husband, to Arthur Miller, whom he found "Maddeningly difficult and not at all open, to Peter Lawford to Mitzi Gaynor.

Perhaps some of the most revelatory information found in this book comes from the files released in 2006 under the Freedom of Information Act. The author details a "truly extraordinary" 3-page document containing information by an FBI agent describing the relationship between Marilyn and Robert Kennedy.

This volume (and it is a volume - 560 pages with previously unpublished photographs) will probably stand as the ultimate word on the ill-fated star. Unfortunately, it is a sad story, sadder than many of us knew. Gladys Baker, her mother who was denied in many publicity releases, was mentally ill suffering from severe paranoid schizophrenia. Marilyn's early years were spent at the Los Angeles Orphans' Home. To come from those circumstances to become one of the most famous movie stars in the world is quite a feat. Regrettably, it seems to have taken a dreadful toll as Marilyn began to deteriorate mentally.

For those who want the definitive story of the woman called the world's greatest sex symbol, here it is, filled with details and minutia from the day she was born until the hour of her untimely death. Taraborrelli has completed a yeoman's task in presenting the story of Marilyn Monroe. One only wishes it could have had a happy ending.

- Gail Cooke

sympathetic
This is a sympathetic overview of the life of Marilyn, the emphasis being on her development as a person, and much less on her film career as such. The book is therefore in tune with current public interest in Marilyn, as a Personality -her glamorous film work only a background to the real drama, her Life.

It is, more than anything, as a suffering individual that Marilyn rivets our attention. The author perceives Marilyn's broken relationship with her Mother as central to her troubled nature. Throughout Marilyn's whole existence, it appears that her mother was present somewhere in Marilyn's mind, even though she was almost always absent in fact. (It would seem that Marilyn meant almost nothing to her mother, and had Marilyn been able decisively to detach herself from her mother, it might have greatly helped her stability and state of mind.)

Marilyn's mother was diagnosed as "paranoid schizophrenic", and Taraborrelli suggests that Marilyn was not only afraid that she herself might succumb to this condition, but that she in fact DID become ill towards the end of her life, (and Marilyn was diagnosed as such by her Los Angeles psychiatrist). However, what is more than clear in the book is Marilyn's serious abuse of barbiturates and alcohol, which was, towards the end, so severe that any number of 'psychiatric' problems might have been the result. The author points out that Marilyn "heard voices", but there is insufficient evidence here that this might have been "voices" in the sense of schizophrenia.

It is impossible to read any account of Marilyn's life without noticing the dangers and risks of fame, -and no one was more famous than Marilyn! This is, in part, a less thorough biography of the star than that by Donald Spoto, and from a literary point of view, it isn't brilliantly written, but it helps us to understand this vivid, troubled, and fascinating woman just a little bit more.