Product Description

Since her death, Marilyn Monroe has been the subject of some 600 books, all of which claim to uncover the 'real Marilyn'. But the biographies can't agree on many of the most sensational details of the life of the twentieth century's most famous woman. Rather than promising another 'definitive life', Sarah Churchwell's book looks at the writing of Marilyn Monroe's many life stories, comparing the competing versions of some of the key moments in her life including: her father's identity, her mother's mental problems, her alleged childhood molestation, her teenage marriage, stories of prostitution and the casting couch, her own psychological problems, her marriages to two other legends, her difficulties on the set and with directors, her affairs with one or both of the Kennedy brothers, and of course the highly charged debates about her death. Churchwell looks at how these stories have continued to trivialize a woman we supposedly 'worship', and explains what the stories reveal about our attitudes to sex symbols and icons, to women, sex, and death, to biography as an enterprise and to Marilyn herself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49893 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

The Herald (Glasgow)
Churchwell’s studious attention to detail cuts through the many mythologies and gets to the real heart of this tragic, warm and intelligent woman’

The Daily Express
'Churchwell has chosen here to concentrate on the controversies that still surround [Monroe's] life and legacy'

Lancashire Evening Post
‘A fascinating exploration of the controversies which still surround Marilyn’

Customer Reviews

The Woman behind the legend
Sarah Churchwell has written an objective view of Marilyn's life and death and myth through the many 100's of books and articles written about one of the most famous women in history to come up with one of the best ever "biographies."
She doesn't claim to know every detail of the actress' life or the claim to solve the mysteries that surround her death. No, she's much too smart for that, instead she explores the myth that's grown up around the woman we know simply as, Marilyn. She scratches at the surface to find what the real person was like, the person that Hollywood tried to keep in line by editing and re-writing magazine articles to suit their 'dumb blonde' image that she played so well, but soon came to detest.
Marilyn never quite broke free from her image or Hollywood's perceived idea of what she should be like but in this book she does and we are left with an honest look at the woman she really was, a truly gifted actress and entertainer that died before she reached her peak.
A great book and well written and researched.

Marilyn Monroe was so much more
I've grown intrigued with that book 'cause it shows you Marilyn Monroe, a person whose "official image" everyone still seems to know such a long time after her death, as a very complexe personality. Also, about many events in her life there seem to be several, often conflicting, theories.
You end up intrigued by M. Monroe; some-one who escapes the claim made by so many to be easily understood. 'Cause she was so much more.

As A conclusion, I think this books does Marilyn Monroe justice by showing her as an intelligent, at times difficult person, with convictions, hopes and strength. And humor.

Not the book it could have been
A detailed and fairly comprehensive examination and comparison of the most popular Marilyn biographies. The depth of research is commendable, but is let down to some extent by the frequent forays into how Marilyn's image fits with aspects of feminism and feminist doctrine, and to interpretations of how her life and death are exploited by the underlying sexual desires of society.

Churchwell reserves a disproportionate quantity of ink for criticism of Joyce Carol Oates' 'Blonde', which, while arguably serving to demonstrate how Marilyn's image is manipulated for profit, adds no real substance to her book and gives a somewhat churlish feel to those sections.

The style of writing, while rather better than many offerings on the subject of Marilyn, is often indigestible. There are so many references and comparisons that it becomes hard work and there is a constant thread of high-mindedness throughout, which is tiresome. There is a feeling at times that the author tries to bolster her authority by the use of flowery terms and obscure language. Many of the paragraphs are simply too long.

This will be somewhat of a niche book. For some readers the detail may be too much, but for serious researchers may not be enough as there are many areas unexplored or given insufficient detail. While there is no sensation of glossing-over important areas, there are some key issues she has missed and which a book of this type one should expect to contain.

Churchwell reaches no conclusions from her comparisons of available sources and while this is acceptable, there is a constant feel that she derides, if not sneers at, all those whom she reviews.

In a more digestible format this would be a valuable resource and earn a higher rating, but it takes a determined reader to get the best out of it and will be unlikely to appeal to a general readership. It may be worth noting that Ms Churchwell writes for The Times Literary Supplement and The Observer, the latter giving her book glowing praise, so the reader inevitably wonders if her 'in' with two of the foremost newspapers in the country assisted her passage to publication and praise.

For those readers who prefer the usual hagiography of Marilyn, they will need to turn to the last chapter, in which Churchwell's own view of Marilyn is given. While making reference to accounts of Marilyn's less appealing qualities, her view is largely a dewy-eyed opinion of a stoic and fallen heroine.

Nonetheless, a meta-biography has been long overdue and this succeeds in part to sort the wheat from the chaff.