The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe
by Sarah Churchwell
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Book Summary Information
Author: Sarah ChurchwellEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-12-27
ISBN: 0312425651
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Picador
Book Reviews of The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe
Book Review: Best Book So Far About Monroe - I've been a MM fan for 20 yrs.
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Ironically, reviewer dionysius2 accuses Ms. Churchwell of using sordid details of Monroe's private life, including childhood sexual abuse, to be sensationalistic, when Ms. Churchwell not only does *not* do such a thing, but she goes out of her way to condemn biographers before her who have done so.
Further, I did not find or see any of this "exhausted postmodern jargon" that dionysius2 claims to have seen in The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe. If anything, most of the text is readable with a few scholarly turns of phrase used every so often. If you can read at college level, this book will not pose a problem for you.
Dionysius2 falsely summarizes Marilyn's childhood as having been "without incident." At first glance, Dionysius2 description may appear to be true:
Ms. Churchwell, at much length, points out Monroe's childhood may not have been *as bad* as some biographers have claimed - sometimes, for instance, the number of foster homes Norma Jeane (a.k.a. Marilyn Monroe) was said to have been sent off to gets inflated as time goes by.
However, Ms. Churchwell rightly criticizes the tendency of some male biographers who outright and arrogantly dismiss Monroe's allegations of having been molested and raped when she was a child (and, as an adult, as having almost been raped at a party).
Ms. Churchwell and other biographers do not dispute that Monroe lived in foster homes, that she never knew her real father, that her real mother was placed in and out of hospitals for mental health issues, and that Monroe had to marry at a very young age (16), to avoid being sent back into foster care.
Therefore, far from being "without incident," Monroe's childhood did indeed have its difficulties and traumas at times.
The most bizarre and untrue statement dionysius2 makes in his review is to charge Churchwell with holding "...obvious contempt ... [for] her subject matter" when the direct opposite is true!
Churchwell respects Monroe and spends much of the book defending Monroe from the biographers who really do demonstrate contempt for Monroe in their books, such as Anthony Summers, who wrote "Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe."
Either dionysius2 read an entirely different `Many Lives' book from the one I did, or else mistakenly posted his review for another Monroe biography to the page for Churchwell's.
Reviewer Betty Burks, who seems to hold a very dismal view of Monroe, apparently did not read the book - or not carefully enough - as she claims that, "Norma Baker was a person, while Marilyn was an object." Churchwell disputes *that very notion*; it is one of the major principles in the book. Churhwell also refuted some of Betty's other assertions.
Jerry Saperstein is another who did not actually read the book - the entire book. Saperstein makes many inaccurate and untrue claims in his review, such as "... [the author] cites so-called feminist authors whose politics are clearly fascistic without comment."
As Gloria Steinem is the only "feminist" author who has written a book about Monroe, I would assume Saperstein is referring to Steinem.
First of all, this is not a book about politics. Politics are discussed in the book only in-so-far as they touched Monroe's life. This is not a book intended to critique and dissect the political views of feminists, or the motives behind their written views of Monroe. It's telling that no request for a critique of the male biographers' political views is made by Saperstein.
Saperstein must have skipped over the content in which Ms. Churchwell expends some effort pointing out that Steinem's work on Monroe is faulty in places, or is skewed, precisely because of Steinem's feminist sympathies.
Churchwell maintains that while Steinem's intent is to offer a feminist defense of Monroe, that Steinem, ironically, offers up instead a sexist interpretation of Monroe's problems when Steinem places Monroe's fate in the hands of men.
The implication being that Monroe, who Steinem must assume is a weak, helpless female, could not make her own choices or fight back against males.
I did not find any "political correctness and academic hypocrisy" that Saperstein says "permeates" this book.
I gather Saperstein's unhappiness over the terms "right wing" and "conservative" being in this book comes from the examination of Monroe's marriage to Arthur Miller, in light of the HUAC fiasco. I think it goes without saying that most feminists and most people in the entertainment business are liberals, so it's not necessary for Churchwell to describe each and every person she cites from those groups as being such.
HUAC really was a "right wing" entity. Therefore, I do not think that mentioning such a fact in `The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe' makes it a piece of liberal propaganda.
While the author takes pains to insist that you will not find the "real" woman behind Marilyn Monroe in her book, (as so many other books claim), it still somewhat succeeds at doing just that.
Glimpses of the "real" woman behind Monroe are in the book, maybe because Churchwell shed light on much of the inaccurate information about Monroe contained within books that came before.
Churhwell's book does not answer every question or mystery of Monroe's life or death (and it is not intended to), but if you're a true fan of Monroe's and want a book that cuts through the garbage and confusion (and is a very interesting read), by all means, purchase this book.
Summary of The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe
There are many Marilyns: sex goddess and innocent child, crafty manipulator and dumb blonde, liberated woman and tragic loner. The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe reviews the unreliable and unverifiable--but highly significant--stories that have framed this Hollywood legend, all the while revealing the meanings behind the American myths that have made Marilyn what she is today.
In incisive and passionate prose, cultural critic Sarah Churchwell uncovers the shame, belittlement, and anxiety that we bring to the story of a woman we supposedly adore and, in the process, rescues a Marilyn Monroe who is far more complicated and credible than the one we think we know.
In incisive and passionate prose, cultural critic Sarah Churchwell uncovers the shame, belittlement, and anxiety that we bring to the story of a woman we supposedly adore and, in the process, rescues a Marilyn Monroe who is far more complicated and credible than the one we think we know.
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