The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe

by Sarah Churchwell

Book Overview

A brilliant investigation into the debates surrounding Marilyn Monroe's life and the cultural attitudes that her legend reveals There are many Marilyns: sex goddess and innocent child, crafty... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312425651
• ISBN13: 9780312425654
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: Picador
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Norma Jeane WAS Marilyn Monroe

A book about other books may not sound like a desirable, let alone obvious, choice for someone looking for a biography of Marilyn Monroe. And yet, surprisingly (or not), this may be one of the very best - certainly one of the most comprehensive - books on MM so far. »Marilyn Monroe«, the icon (as the obnoxious byword goes), is largely a construct. I think we all know that, more or less. But just to what extent she - and not just her public persona, but also her own views of herself - was a construct, and what drove her, that is the question. In this book, Sarah Churchwell dissects the traditional - very deceptive and largely false - dichotomy between »Norma Jeane« (the quasi-orphan, the martyr) and »Marilyn Monroe« (the glamour »icon« and, ultimately, the martyr again), and proves it to be fallacious. She analyses the views (and ulterior constructs) of each major biographer of the »icon« - and in doing that, by identifying and thus removing, as it were, the lens that each biographer used, she inevitably presents us with flashes of the »real« Norma Jeane/Marilyn. An icon is, by definition, an IMAGE. And Norma Jeane/MM, as I understand her, really saw herself largely AS an image - through the eyes of others. (One may argue that, in the absence of a healthy childhood and early adolescence, she never outgrew the self-imaging through the eyes of the others that is typical of prepubescents and a natural stage of early development. Ironically - only not really - it was precisely this dysfunctional, »iconic« view of herself what attracted the gaze of others and brought her fame. N.B. At this point, I could include some very a propos ramblings about her function as an embodiment of the Jungian anima... but I know better. ;) Which is why Norma Jeane/Marilyn knew how to exploit the emerging public image of her. She knew what the public wanted or needed to hear, in order to reinforce her image. (Personally, I think she did this on a more intuitive, almost instinctive level than as a result of some premeditated »strategy«.) And which is why, for example, the horror stories about her childhood, including the alleged rapes, may not have been entirely true to fact. Nor is there any evidence of the 14 (fourteen) abortions that not only Norman Mailer attributed to her (and later admitted it was his own invention), but she is claimed to have had spread the rumour herself. For those who already have a definite opinion on MM, either positive or negative, this - as you can imagine - is probably not the most desirable of books. It does nothing to reinforce any of the stereotypical images of her. For those who are looking for insight into the »real« Norma Jeane/Marilyn (and yes, it WAS essentially the same person, as Churchwell successfully proves), it's probably the best - certainly the safest - bet. Sarah Churchwell is not infatuated with the subject of her book, nor has she an ax to grind. This makes her probably the perfect biographer, certainly in

Best Book So Far About Monroe - I've been a MM fan for 20 yrs.

I own, and have read all of, the paperback version of The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, by Sarah Churchwell. I have been a Monroe fan for 20 years now, and I own 60 or more books about her, most of which I have read, including many of the books that Ms. Churchwell discusses in her book. In my estimation, The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe is the best book about Monroe yet. I am glad to see that I am not the only one who rejects the oft - repeated false dichotomy by so many (including biographers) that "Norma Jeane" and "Marilyn Monroe" were two completely different people. This theory stipulates that "Norma Jeane" was real, while "Marilyn Monroe" was totally unnatural, manufactured, and contrived. Like me, Churchwell doesn't seem to buy that, either. Churchwell introduces the argument that if we choose to trust the split identity theory, that Marilyn Monroe can be considered the real woman, while "Norma Jeane" can be seen as the elusive, false identity. Churchwell explains her rationale behind that idea in the book. Churchwell raises an interesting thought in her book, one that demonstrates the hypocrisy of our Western culture: Many who claim to admire or like Monroe for her naturalness and openness about sexuality (yet while maintaining all the while that Monroe was manufactured and fake!) are the same people who will, many times, turn around in the next moment and then condemn Monroe for having worn a "revealing dress," or for having posed once for a nude calendar, and so forth. Something which has always disturbed me in books about Monroe by male authors is how sexist some of them are. I, as a female, get "creeped out" by how biographers (usually males) sexualize almost anything and everything about Marilyn Monroe, even if dealing with a subject that has absolutely nothing, or next to nothing, to do with sex. (Author Norman Mailer, I believe, wins the award for this odd, disgusting, and disturbing habit more than any other.) Additionally (and as Churchwell documents), some biographers attempt to relate and explain much about Monroe and her life by way of her physical body. Much is made of Monroe's looks, her health problems, and so on. The unfortunate result is that the widely held and false stereotype of Monroe as a dumb blonde is still upheld. Nobody takes Monroe's thoughts, her mind, seriously: Monroe's physical body is so fixated upon by authors at the expense of her intellectual life that she is thought of, critiqued, or valued, only in terms of her body and physical appearance, even 40- some- odd years after her death. From the looks of the other customer reviews here, I am the only one who has actually read the book by Churchwell. One reviewer, Maliejandra, states - incorrectly - that the author attributes Jean Harlow's death to a burst appendix, when Ms. Harlow actually died from uremic poisoning. In matter of fact, in my copy of this book, on page 177, the author *does* say that Harlow died from uremic poisoning. Iron

The Woman Behind the Image Becomes Clearer

Wrong, Jerry Saperstein! It sounds like you want Marilyn to remain mythologized. Churchwell's book is the best so far in uncovering the real woman behind the image. I've been reading Marilyn biographies for 25 years, and this book gives me the clearest sense of who Marilyn Monroe really may have been. She was a HUMAN BEING who thought her early life was "boring," so her first biographers, with her consent, DRAMATIZED many childhood events, making them more traumatic than they may have actually been. These events took on a life of their own, a life that Marilyn was unable to control. She had to have been relatively sane to have survived in the business as long as she did. She was not unloved as a child--she had a mother with mental problems, a sister whom she knew and saw throughout her life, and she remained loving with some of her childhood caretakers. Just look at pictures of the young Marilyn. She looked well-adjusted, didn't she? It seems obvious to me that drugs were her undoing, not her childhood. By humanizing her, Churchwell makes her deeper and, to me, even more interesting. I'm not even halfway through with the book, and I've already decided to get rid of all my other Marilyn tomes. What Churchwell says about Marilyn and her biographers makes such perfect sense! If you're a Marilyn fan, buy this book. It's deep and very rewarding.

Whose Marilyn do you know (or want to know)?

While there are so many positive things I can say about what Sarah Churchwell's book does for Marilyn Monroe - the person and the 'persona' - the best advice I can give you is to read it yourself. This book doesn't attempt to ensnare readers by promising some earth-shattering revelation or by tempting you with some hitherto unheard of 'dirt.' I'll fully admit that concept alone had irresistible charm. I've always been somewhat skeptical of the myriad biographies that have been released about such a fascinating 'icon', and the possibility that someone could present a thorough examination of these biographies was intriguing. Exercising an admirable, objective, distance, while never losing passion for her subject, the author makes this book a joy to read. The book creates an effective `view from above,' and Churchwell takes the time to cite her sources (something sadly neglected by some looking to capitalize on the MM phenomenon). Churchwell tackles an impressive number of biographies overall, but focuses on some of those that have contributed the most to the overall 'idea of Marilyn Monroe'. From the general biographies to the more sensationalist to the fictional interpretations; the reader of "Many Lives" is given a delightfully readable comparison of the books, bringing into stark contrast the sometimes surprisingly different accounts they convey. By exposing how one short life, Marilyn's, can produce so many different 'lives,' the author then shows that unraveling The Girl becomes much more than just trying to 'get the facts straight'. The book not only serves as an examination of the biographies, but it also makes interesting observations about our perceptions of women, ourselves and about our culture as whole (just to name a few things). I won't say much more as I think the BEST way to go into this book is with NO impressions of the actual content except those images/impressions of the Marilyn that has made you interested in her in the first place. Then, sit back and enjoy the questions that Sarah Churchwell is bound to make you ask... yourself.

wonderful

having read all the main 'lives' of marilyn monroe this book is a blast of fresh air. not a biography but a timely study in what has been said and written about her over the years, how we have mythologised and fictionalised her life. a biography of the biographies if you like. the author looks at the many conflicting interpretations of marilyns life (and death) and in doing so has written easily the best book on mm to date. objective and intelligent, i can not recommend this highly enough.