Joe & Marilyn: A Memory of Love

by Roger Kahn

Book Overview

Here, Roger Kahn describes the love, the joy, the heartbreak that was Joe and Marilyn, one of the great poignant romances. Drawing on more than five years of research, Kahn gives us a DiMaggio who was almost as godlike as his legend on the diamond, but vulnerable and human off the field.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 068802517X
• ISBN13: 9780688025175
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 269 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A STORY OF ENDURING LOYALTY AND LOVE

Just when we think there couldn't possibly be one word left to be written, said or whispered about the tragic life of Marilyn Monroe something else comes along. Roger Kahn (The Boys Of Summer) has chosen to focus on the sometimes passionate, sometimes stormy, ultimately caring relationship between Joe DiMaggio and Monroe. Often called "the dean of sportswriters," Kahn has an encyclopedic knowledge of sports figures and offers insights into DiMaggio's personality not previously explored. Of course, one can never know what is truly in another's thoughts or heart yet Kahn has done a yeoman's job of relating Joe and Marilyn's story from their first meeting when she finds Joe attractive, really quite shy as she saw herself to be, through their courtship to their marriage and its dissolution a scant nine months later. Ultimately, there is DiMaggio's dawning realization that Marilyn cannot be saved and then the heartbreak of her too-early death. All that was left for him was to plan her funeral. Topnotch voice performer Dick Hill brings respect and meaning to this story which has so often been sensationalized in the press. With an easy listening voice, nuance, and intonations he captures the couples and joys and sorrows. Many will remember the popular Hill from his previous audio book recordings. He has received three Audie Awards and been named a Golden Voice and a Voice of the Century by AudioFile magazine. This is, in large part, a touching, sad story but also one of enduring loyalty and love. - Gail Cooke

Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?

I liked the book because of the insight it gives into the character and nature of Joltin Joe. A good guy in a little over his head with Marilyn.When asked what he thought about the refrain in the song "where have you gone Joltin Joe DiMaggio, a nation turns its hungry eyes to you" he didn't understand....and answered "I haven't gone anywhere."I understand. I miss him.

An Interesting Take On An Old Story

Roger Kahn turns his formidable skills on two calcified pop culture icons and makes them fresh and worthy of our attention. Kahn reveals Joe DiMaggio as an Ordinary Joe who was grist for the sportswriters' mill, a comic-book reading kid who turns into a suspicious and haughty skirtchaser in New York. Kahn reminds us that Marilyn Monroe was a troubled girl who grew up to become a complicated woman of great ambition and intelligence but, sadly, was still troubled. He weaves the tales of their lives into the context of their times and helps us understand what brought them together and tore them apart. Kahn pulls no punches, and perhaps tells us a bit more than we want to know, but he is a brilliant writer -- a brilliant writer -- who knows how to tell a tale so that it rings true and is entertaining at the same time.