Rating: 
Summary: Better than the other reviews
Review: I read the other reviews and was disappointed in them. JCOates is an incredible writer for starters (having read several other of her books) and she chose a superstar icon as her subject...getting perhaps too close to the truth for some. Her portrait is profound. She imagines a reality that may or may not be close to the truth, we have to remember that, but she got the essesnce of NJBaker and MM as I have understood her. I wasn't at all disturbed by her technique of using titles instead of names: The Author, The President, "C", etc., just added to the bit of mystery that was MM. Face it, most people wouldn't have survived her life. Bravo, Ms Oates. A fine read. I am now going to read the MM biographies, however, and create some balance in my mind and heart.
Rating:
Summary: I'm still sick from it
Review: I have never read Joyce Carol Oates before. I have actually never read a Marilyn book, or seen a Marilyn miniseries, so I came to this a MM virgin.I finished the book two day ago, and I was so impacted by this novel that I can't stop thinking about it. It drained me. I am left almost hurt, and I can't understand how seriously I connected with the Marilyn character. I hope to goodness that this was completely fiction, because I don't see how Norma Jean could have lived as long as she did, trapped in herself. As a portrait of madness, this book is amazing. You know how it's going to end, but you are driven to read to the last sentence, with no hope that it will turn out well. There is an amazing amount of reviewers who do not like this book at all. Maybe people's projections of Marilyn and her life are still too strong to allow her to be Norma Jean. Otherwise, I don't see how this book could get one star. The powerful use of imagery, stream of consciousness, shifting points of view, and poetry make this beautiful book perhaps out of reach of the John Grisham crowd. That is not an insult, I also read John Grisham. However, this style of writing is measurably different than most NY Times Bestselling authors. I would recommend this book to those who can adapt to different styles and views in the same novel. Otherwise, if you are reading this only because you want to know about Marilyn Monroe, but have a short attention span, then look elsewhere for your information.
Rating: 
Summary: The Nonfiction Novel Syndrome
Review: This is a highly readable book for about half way through it, then begins to get tedious. As we already know how the story ends, the pleasure of the book is in the imagined details of Marilyn's life--details, of course, that have no real basis in fact. Thus we have the usual problem of the "non-fiction" novel. On the one hand the author wants to evoke a sense of what life was really like for Marilyn and how she experienced it, on the other, she's making up most of the details out of whole cloth. Her idea that Marilyn pined for her unknown father is retrospective pop psychology and may or may not have some actual grounding in truth. On the other hand, Joyce Carol Oates' prose has never been better, even though the book could have been substantially shortened.
Rating: 
Summary: The Pits!
Review: I adore Marilyn Monroe. I have read numerous biographies and novels based on her life. Of everything I have read in the last 15 or so years, this is the absolute worst. This book was very disjointed and hard for me to follow. On many occasions characters in the book were given initals instead of names which made it even harder to follow. Worst of all, it was just plain boring. I am not one to give up on a book without finishing it and I toiled through this one down to the very last page and I cannot say it ever captured my heart or my attention. I would not recommend this book to anyone but particularly not to anyone who considers themself a fan of Marilyn.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring!
Review: I am an avid Joyce Carol Oates reader. She is an amazing, complicated, intelluctually stimulating writer. When I saw this novel in the bookstore I was hesitant at first. I was never a Marilyn fan and I didn't know if I would enjoy it. I pushed my inhibitions to the side and picked it up. The prologue is what got me. The way she wrote that Death could be anyone, anytime, anywhere was thought provoking. I was instantly moved by the beginning piece. The book engrossed me. I have now become one of the million aewstruck fans of this beautiful woman's mysterious life and death. The writing is beautiful and I think MM herself would have been moved by the way Joyce Carol Oates has portrayed her, as human who was searching for love. The emotions are raw and the story sad, but true. She is a living legend. I didn't care for the TV movie either (what I could watch of it). I urge all fans and non-fans to read this amazing masterpiece. It is truly well written.
Rating: 
Summary: Astonishingly horrible novel
Review: I went to this novel because I saw Part 1 of the miniseries based on it--only Part 1, because the whole thing was so bad, so tasteless that I didn't want to follow it further. Apparently many others felt exactly the same way since the television special was a gigantic flop. Could the novel--by a well known writer I had heard of but not read before--be that bad? I decided to find out for myself, having read the dozens of bad reviews that decried it. I had an open mind, not being particularly partial to Marilyn Monroe, whom I thought of as a beautiful actress who died young. If the miniseries was stomach-turning terrible, the novel is much worse. I can think of one word: Repugnant-and that would be so if the author had written about someone named "Carol." There is a terrifying anger that runs through this novel, as if its main purpose was to assault an object of jealousy, a beautiful woman, to humiliate her, bring her down--yes, debase her in scenes of mind-boggling vulgarity. Oates is relentless in her attack on her protagonist, and in her extreme anger she seems to become almost unintelligible, the way people do when their anger is simply spilling out. I paused often to try to decipher what she was saying, and I realized that it was impossible; it was just ranting, certainly not the careful stream-of-consciousness of great authors, no-it was a stream of non-sense. Hundreds of pages of such unintellible writing--nothing experimental about it, just plain bad prose--make me wonder whether those who praise this novel, and even nominated it for literary prizes, have actually read it. Truly I doubt it. How could its admirers ignore rampant sentences that result in unintended humor, real howlers. (I have to admit that those come as a relief to the turgid prose.) Finally, the novel is insulting because it is presented as a literary work. I hope never again in my life to read anything this trashy; and I realize now that the television play (what I could stand of it) paled in comparison to the awfulness of this ... novel.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: I came across this book in my local bookstore and read it cover to cover within a week. It was at times at times painful to read but most of all, it's style and content was so original and challenging (in a positive way) MM is portrayed as a woman fighting to be loved, heard and respected. She was intelligent, witty and deeply insecure. I LOVED this book and thought it was beautifully written and shocking at the same time. I was left feeling I had just read MM's own account of her sad, poignant life. One of my top 5 books ever. If you love MM read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Blonde On Blonde
Review: In her book "Blonde", Joyce Carol Oates again creates a masterpiece of introspection. Through Oates' depiction of Monroe's life, one can truly start to understand at least how Oates' sees the inner pathways of Monroe's thought patterns. Oates seems to project the image of an actress who is a "natural", one who is defined by the parts that she plays. But, interestingly, although she can play a part, as though it was her real life, it is her real life that is destructive to her and it seems as though Marilyn has no true personality of her own, but in fact, lives vicariously through the roles of the characters that she played. Additionally, Oates is able to slip in a very graphic description of the movie business, especially in the 50's and 60's. At that time, women actresses were exploited in ways that would clearly be labeled as heinous sexual harassment today, although, it is likely that one version or another of the same type of behavior is exhibited in Hollywood even in the 21st Century. Once again, Joyce shows her ability to get inside a person's mind and allow that person's introspection to flow out onto the pages that she writes. To illustrate Oates puts this thought into young girl Marilyn's mind (Norma Jean at the time), "... because with movie eyes, aesthetics takes on the authority of ethics. To be less than beautiful is sad, but to be willfully less than beautiful is immoral." Thus does Norma Jean observe, that beauty and appearance is everything, and that only her incredible vivacity, her amazing diaphanous existence and her incredible empathetic role assumption makes Monroe one of the most illustrious and talented actresses of all time. But, along with this fame, came a terrible price, one that Oates well describes as Monroe's basic struggle with life and what it is she wanted out of it. It is probable, that Marilyn never really knew what she wanted out of life, but she certainly left a legacy for all to see. As with virtually all of Oates' books, this one draws the reader into the depths of the mind of the character, and allows one to understand the outrageousness of their behaviour, because the reader is in the mind of the character and feels that character's reactions and emotions. While Oates obviously is speculating on the precise conversations that Marilyn had with herself, Oates has an ability to capture and extrapolate what is very likely to be a significant portion of the thought process of her characters. If you are a Joyce Carol Oates fan, then this book is not to be missed.
Rating: 
Summary: Marilyn Monroe-icon to millions
Review: I thought the author captured much of the soul of the fascinating movie queen, but I wish she had left out the fiction part of Marilyn's life. Marilyn was loved by millions because she was so lovely and different, she had compassion for the poor, the misfortunate and unloved, and especially for children. She was very intelligent, a rare natural quality in one whose childhood was so tragic that it left her with many emotional scars. The author does a great job in writing about the emotional abuse that Marilyn endured, especially by her mother, her husbands and the studio bosses. So many took advantage of her and used her. Despite all of this abuse, she fought to overcome her past and become a great actress. I believe she succeeded far beyond all expectations. She will always be loved by the people of the world for generations to come. It is so tragic that she lived at a time when her talents were not recognized and she was misused by the studios. The author does an excellent job in bringing back to us the fragile Marilyn and what she had to endure, which finally resulted in her death. I wish the author had given recognition to the love which existed between Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn. I believe Marilyn was the love of his life. Those who abused and used Marilyn will be forgotten, but Marilyn Monroe will live on as the icon to millions.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Powerful
Review: The writing is far less than elegant, but the emotional power of this book more than makes up for it. Oates does capture the essence of Marilyn's wounded personality through her imagination, and I think a lot of the bad reviews here are just offended by how explicitly it's done. The 2 most famous women of the last century are Jackie Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. Jackie O. mesmerizes because in spite of all that's been written about her she still remains inscrutable and guarded, protected at all times as if by her own sense of entitlement. Marilyn was her mirror image -- She seemed totally defenseless even at the height of her career. This is what Oates' conveys most heartbreakingly about Marilyn; how she seemed unable to find shelter anywhere
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