Rating: 
Summary: Blonde
Review: Miss Oates style is at first hard for me but once I get the cadence I love every minute of it. I've read several of the books including Brokeheart Blues. This is the best I've read. She gets to the very heart of Marilyn. I think she understands her better that the people who knew her. Her vague, spacey interest in the intellectual life which was never encouraged. Her great need to be loved so apparent in her very appearance.Her fasination with death and dying was part of this complex personality. She was more that a pretty face. The writing style was so poetic. Thank you for a wonderful experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Strange Attitudes
Review: Is this a terrible trend?--some wellknown women authors writing novels that are clearly homophobic? There's Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eyes," and Oates' "Blonde." Morrison makes up hateful gay characters, and Oates goes farther: She CONVERTS two known heteroexuals (Charlie Chaplin, Jr., and Edward G. Robinson, Jr.) into GAY CHARACTERS. Why? It's true that all the men in this strange novel are monstrous, but the straight characters Oates turns gay (really strange twist) are the worst of all. It's strange that these authors, having known abuse as women (and Morrison for her color), would extend it to another minority.... The Oates novel is weird in many others ways. It pretends to get into the head of Norma Jeane, in order to make her hate herself. But that comes off more like Oates hating Norma Jeane. I doubt that any woman would ever refer to herself as a "Cow," over and over or by using the "C" word. The worst thing about the book is the writing, which is messy, and the lifeless characters, all of which become Symbols. Some of the stuff contained here is trashy, about Marilyn's sex life, etc. I read that Oates claims she came to feel that she WAS Norma Jeane, felt that Norma Jeane was talking THROUGH HER. Not only is that weird, but Oates as Norma Jeane is utterly remote.... I bet if this book didn't have the name of J.C. Oates attached to it, it would have been rejected right and left.
Rating:
Summary: Shattering
Review: An amazing - if exhausting - literary experience! Rarely has a novel taken me in so completely. JCO's Norma Jeane Baker aka "Marilyn" is one of the most heartrending characters to come along in literature in a long while. Whether fact or fiction -- as someone who isn't too familiar with the biographical details of Monroe's life I was somewhat curious to learn more about her -- taken as a literary heroine (or anti-heroine as it were) she breaks your heart. Particularly strong is the first third of the novel, detailing her troubled relationship with her mentally unstable mother, the break-up of her first marriage, and her menage a trois with Cass Chaplin and E.G. Robnson Jr, the "Gemini" of one of the book's most intriguing chapters. This is a relationship that will haunt Marilyn for her entire "fictional" life, culminating in one of the cruelest (and most tragic) discoveries I have encountered in recent memory. JCO's writing alternates from an almost Joycean stream-of-consciousness to sheer poetry, becoming increasingly disjointed and fractured as Marilyn dissolves before our eyes. This is not an easy read from an emotional standpoint, though in terms of clarity of prose it reads like a dream. Certain sequences verge into the grotesque. Toward the end of the book (particularly in the sequence involving Marilyn's relationship with JFK and his brother-in-law aka "The President's Pimp") the reader -- at least this one -- may find him/herself saying "Okay, okay, enough already. I know where this is going." You're repulsed, horrified, impatient but you keep reading. I ploughed through the final hundred pages in one sitting, so intent and compulsive my need to get through it. Having read this, I now want to go back and rent all of her films... One must remember while reading that this is NOT a biography but a work of literary fiction ... and as much as possible, it should be treated as such, although I admit, there were many times where I wanted to know where the line between fiction and reality was crossed and how much of the distinction was blurred. Regardless, JCO's Marilyn is a triumph and this book -- whether you like it or not -- is a reading experience one is not likely to forget any time soon ... or ever. How many contemporary novels can honestly claim that distinction?
Rating:
Summary: Trashy fantasy
Review: Anyone who reads this book expecting to discover any insight into Marilyn Monroe will be not only disappointed but disgusted by the violent sexual fantasies Oates imagines for the movie star, and not only that, but they're presented as self-judgements, instead of what they are: Oates' judgement on a life entirely unlike her own. Yes, it is fiction, but Oates keeps insisting that Norma Jeane actually guided her hand, that she, Oates, BECAME, Norma Jeane. Even those who know nothing about Marilyn Monroe will be appalled by this violation by Oates. The sexual scenes constantly humiliate Monroe; all the men in the book are evil, especially the gay men who actually send "Death" to her! The women are hardly better--always whimpering and begging and inviting their abuse. How many years did Oates nurture these views which she now vents? And the writing! It is incredibly clumsy, as if it was written off the top of Oates' head, a tapestry of violent fantasies, convoluted. Does Oates bother to revise, ever? Once she wrote good books, but it may be that now, counting on the blind loyalty of her fans, she feels she can shove anything for publication and it will be greeted with praise, although, it seems, declining praise. I agree with the person who remarked on good writing as exemplified currently by Dianne Johnson, Susan Sontag; they're stylists, real writers. This novel by Oates seems to be written as a salacious series of installments aimed at the Enquirer.
Rating: 
Summary: New Twist On The Monroe Legend
Review: Having read (and collected) almost every available book on Monroe, I was thoroughly pleased to read such a undertaking as Oates' take on Monroe. Her book explores the soul of Norma Jean, the woman behind the legend of Monroe. There is not much new information here regarding facts of Monroe's life and death, but as the author states in the beginning of the work, this is fiction, not biography. None the less all the situations and plotlines ring true against other factual books on Monroe. The beauty of Oates' work is a fresh look at the tragic creature that Norma Jean had to conjure up again and again to satisfy the lust of the American public. This book shows us the incredible burden it was for Norma Jean to become Marilyn at the public's beck and call, and how this detroyed her in the end. A MUST read for any Monroe fan!
Rating:
Summary: Assault on beauty
Review: Marilyn Monroe was a beautiful woman, one of the most beautiful. She celebrated her own beauty. Many people derided her for that, mimicked her brutally, and the reason, unstated, was vengeful. Now she's gone, and the vengeful attitudes have found outlet in novels, books about her. Joyce Carol Oates' novel is a salient manifestation of that. In an interview Oates went so far as to claim that she came to feel that she WAS Norma Jeane, that she felt Norma Jeane's hand guiding her to write. (That notion, Oates as Marilyn Monroe, is ridiculous.) At the same time, she wants to disengage herself by claiming over and over that this is only a novel. In its endless pages, there runs a current of resentment toward the beautiful woman, an attitude that manifests itself by degrading her, throwing a blanket of resentment over her life. The novel's chronicling of Norma Jeane's rise to stardom is followed with angered eyes, judging her at every step, ridiculing her. Beyond that, Oates seems now to be relying so totally on the guaranteed loyalty of her fervid fans--who seem to care nothing at all for the beautiful movie star-- that she seems now to feel that she can turn out book after book after book without attending to its prose, its structure, simply setting down random thoughts that quite often do not make sense at all, using arcane language, dialogue that does not sound like anything anyone would speak, tricks that are arbitrary and just throw the whole novel into upheaval. Then there are the truly ugly sexual fantasies about the protagonist's sexual life. The novel is, altogether, a vengeful assault on a woman who, in addition to being beautiful, was also a wonderful actress, a woman always striving to assert her intelligence, which she exhibited throughout her life. She doesn't deserve this. If the novel were beautifully written, then there might be justification for it as fiction, just fiction. But the prose is as reckless as the characterization of Norma Jeane/Marilyn Monroe.
Rating:
Summary: Vulgar, badly written novel
Review: Leaving entirely aside the connections to Marilyn Monroe drawn up in this novel, one is nevertheless left with an astonishly badly written exercise in vulgarity. Ms. Oates repeatedly aims the crass "C" word at her fictive character, to the point that one recoils. The prose is at best "lax," and the only humor occurs when a sentence becomes so entangled that the result is hilarious. Ms.Oates' character begins as a victim and continues for over 700 pages as a victim. In the interim, Ms. Oates puts her through a spectrum of degrading situations. It is surprising that anyone could praise this tawdry, messily written, repetitive novel as a masterpiece. Even if Ms. Oates' character had been called "Carol" instead of Marilyn or Norma Jeane, the novel would be as crude as it is. If readers want truly superb prose, narrative power, and carefully delineated characters, they should look to Susan Sontag, say, or Toni Morrison. I think that with this shoddy novel Ms. Oates has reached a low point in her career as a serious writer.
Rating:
Summary: American Beauty, Indeed!
Review: The life of Marilyn Monroe is still a hot debate topic, it seems. The blonde goddess with the silversweet smile and figure that drove the world crazy is brought back to you courtesy of that unbelievably prolific author of the American novel. Joyce Carol Oates' BLONDE is a tour-de-force that attempts to take us inside the head of the actress who suffered the slings and arrows of Hollywood life in full view of the postwar public who alternately adored and reviled her. This treatment, a novelistic approach to the celebrity biography, takes us inside the great star and spends its first pages laying out the reality of life with a crazy mother, living close to the poverty level --- immediately, we feel for this girl. Granted, anybody who has read any of the many other tomes on Monroe's life will find this familiar territory. However, the introspective aspect of this inner monologue going on inside the girl's head, the honesty of what Oates contemplates were Monroe's feelings about her lovers, husbands, friends and associates, makes BLONDE something we haven't exactly read before. It is like Maguire's WICKED, a more contemporary telling of an old fairy tale. MM's life is the stuff of American legend and, as she has done with the Kennedys (read Black water -1992) and serial killers, Oates mines this territory with great confidence and elán. In the hands of a lesser writer, this would be a lurid and awful book. But Ms. Oates understands the importance of the confessional element of the book and how it fits into our therapy-honesty-obsessed culture (Marilyn meets Sylvia Plath, in a way). Although excruciatingly long for most readers, the book is compelling --- but what did you expect from the ripe mind of our most hardworking novelist? BLONDE is a book about the ageless story of a starlet who was martyred by the town that created her in order to make money. How much more American can you make a story?
Rating:
Summary: misunderstood
Review: I was a fan of Marilyn Monroe's long before I was I was a fan of J.C.O.'s . And I had, as apparantly, many other reviewers, expected to have "issues" with this book. But after thinking about it, I realized that Joyce was writng about a fictional character, which any true fan of M.M 's will realize is that that is what she really was. Lets face it Marilyn was a wonderful actress who never got her due, and I personally, think that a "treatment" by one of Americas preemminent authors is long overdo.
Rating:
Summary: A shameful performance, all around.
Review: It's distressing to me to read the violent criticism that Oates' fans are aiming at those who disagree about their view of this really terrible novel. The word "Masterpiece" recurs with amazing regularity; the tone is almost the same in each "review." To call those who dislike this book "fascistic" is extreme, as extreme as this novel that purports to be non-fiction, and yet uses actual names. The book at times is so assaulting that one has to put it down, disgusted by some of the sexual details that Oates makes up; they amount to violent fantasies, really. To say that this book is well written is to say that one doesn't recognize good writing. Messy, has been used, and I agree with the Kirkus reviewer that called it "one of the worst novels ever written." Oates should indeed be ashamed of herself.
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