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This Blonde Doesn't Have Any Fun at All
Pros
A fascinating, disturbing look into Marilyn's world.
Cons
Flow-of-consciousness style of writing can be very difficult to follow.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
A difficult read, but if you take the time and energy to get through it, you'll find it worth your trouble.
When I was in graduate school, working on my MSW, I was assigned to work with a client who had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. One day, she tried to tell me what her world was like.
?I feel as if every day I wake up in a new place,? she said. ?What I felt yesterday, I probably won?t feel today, and tomorrow I?ll feel something different still. Someone I loved yesterday, I may hate today, and they won?t have done anything different. And someone I hate today, I may love tomorrow, and they won?t have done anything different either. It?s like being not-quite crazy, but a long, long way from sane.?
This woman?s words rang in my mind the whole time I was reading Blonde, a novel about movie star Marilyn Monroe by Joyce Carol Oates.
As portrayed by Ms. Oates, Marilyn is a woman on a quest for an identity. Is she Norma Jeane (sic) Mortensen, the submissive daughter of a mentally ill woman and a father whose identity is unknown? Is she Norma Jeane Glazer, a fifteen-year-old wife longing to start a family? Is she Miss Golden Dreams, an aspiring actress who is not ashamed of her body and spites the establishment by posing nude? Is she simply Norma, the naive ingenue who falls in love with two bisexual men, the sons of famous Hollywood stars? Or is she that glamorous creature on the screen, Marilyn Monroe?
By the end of the novel, we still don?t know the answer. Neither does she.
The Plot
Little Norma Jeane Mortensen has loved the movies for as long as she can remember. When her mother has to work, she goes to the theater (careful not to sit by any single men) and watches reel after reel of Dark Princes and their Fair Princesses disguised as Beggar Maids. She hopes one of those Dark Princes might be her father, who, her mother tells her, is an actor.
Even when her mother has a nervous breakdown and Norma Jeane is forced, first into an orphanage, then into foster care, the silver screen remains a magical part of her life.
But when Norma Jeane?s foster father begins making sexual advances, her foster mother pressures her to get married and leave the home. At fifteen, Norma Jeane weds a man only a few years older than herself (whom she calls ?Daddy?). Dreams of Hollywood fade away into the realities of keeping a house.
Norma Jeane?s husband enlists in the army during World War II, and, against his wishes, Norma Jeane goes to work in a factory. There she is discovered by a predatory photographer whose photographs of her bring her to the public eye.
Almost before she is aware her life is changing, Norma Jeane has an agent and contracts with a modeling agency and a movie studio. She begins to appear in small parts in movies, then, as audiences respond to her, in larger parts. At the urging of studio executives, she undergoes plastic surgery to perfect her face, dyes her hair platinum blonde, and changes her name to Marilyn Monroe.
But inside, she is still a lost little girl, wanting a father, wanting the approval of others. And she is very unsure of her place in this tenuous new world she inhabits.
?Is that me? Oh, is that me?? she often stammers after seeing herself triumphant on the big screen.
Her quest for love draws her into the arms of powerful, controlling men including the Ex-Athlete, the Playwright, and the President (all of whom she also refers to as ?Daddy?). And her quest for self drives her to try on one new identity after another, each more destructive than the one before.
Everyone in Hollywood knows that her downward spiral can only end in death?but no one knows quite how that death will arrive, least of all Marilyn.
Style of Writing
Blonde is written in a flow-of-consciousness type style. As Marilyn becomes more and more distraught, the associations become looser, the grammar slips, and fantasy and reality blend together. At times, the reader can scarcely tell what is actually happening to Marilyn and what she really thinks or feels about it. Of course, Marilyn herself can?t make sense of these things either. When I begin reading the book, I found this style annoying and hard to follow. By the end of the book, though, I had gotten used to it and had even come to admire the author?s ability to illustrate Marilyn?s deteriorating mental state so vividly.
In the following passage, for instance, Marilyn, recovering from a miscarriage, reflects on her upcoming role as Sugar Kane in Some Like it Hot and on her marriage to ?the Playwright? (Arthur Miller):
?She turned to the gaunt furrow-browed man beside her uncomfortable in his tuxedo & would have told him of her discovery but could not think how to express it. He remained the master of words. She, an intruder in his imagination. He resents me. Resents loving me. Poor sap. She laughed. Sugar Kane was a girl ukulelist & girl singer & her simplicity was a delight on screen even as in ?real life? such simplicity would be a sign of mental deficiency; how much easier & how much more they will love you if you can be Sugar Kane without irony for once?
Most of the narrative is in third person, from Marilyn?s point of view. However, there are some sections that are told from the points of view of other characters, and some sections where characters, including Marilyn, speak directly to the reader as if granting an interview. Again, this is initially distracting but surprisingly easy to get used to.
What Works
In many ways this is a fascinating novel, mainly because Ms. Oates is eerily adept at drawing us into Norma Jeane?s world?a world where emotional realities change daily and where certainties are non-existent. The reader never knows from one chapter to the next whether Marilyn will be in love or out of love, pleased with the work she is doing or disappointed in it, content in her life or miserable. And of course, the sad fact is, Marilyn is every bit as bewildered as the reader.
I wish I?d had this book when I was working with my client in graduate school. I have a feeling it comes very close to capturing the emotional turmoil she dealt with on a daily basis, and although I don?t generally take clinical cues from novels, I believe I might have understood her a little better if I?d read Blonde before we began our work.
What Doesn?t Work
Blonde is not a particularly reader-friendly novel. It is long, 738 pages, and reading it is something of an endurance test, since the reader must keep alert every single second to make sense of Norma Jeane?s ramblings.
Some of the length is unnecessary?I really don?t think a description of Norma Jeane?s first marriage is worth thirty-three pages of small type?and some of Norma Jeane?s flow-of-consciousness reflections go on too long and are convoluted beyond all hope of understanding. At these moments, it is hard to keep sympathy for the character.
On the very first page of the introduction, Joyce Carol Oates makes it clear that she has taken great license with historical fact and that she is indeed writing a novel, not a biography. I appreciate her being so upfront, and I won?t complain about historical inaccuracies. I will, however, complain about the number of characters known only by a letter (e.g., ?C,? the actor who hated working with Marilyn), or by a description (e.g., ?the President?). Most people who know about Marilyn Monroe?s life and career can figure out fairly easily that ?C? is Tony Curtis and ?the President? is John F. Kennedy. People whose first introduction to Marilyn is this novel, however, will be confused and annoyed by all the needless puzzles.
Finally, it is annoying that Marilyn is a fairly passive character in this novel. She drifts from one controlling person to another, making very little effort to take charge of her own life. The resistance she does mount is generally passive and manipulative (e.g., being hours late for shoots, refusing to come to work, deliberately taking so many pills she is unable to perform, etc.). Again, this behavior is typical of someone with a personality disorder, but frankly it does not make for an especially likeable literary character.
Family Reading?
Blonde contains all of the three elements most parents worry about: strong language, violence, and explicit sex (including more than one rape scene). It is not appropriate reading for younger children, although some teens may find it interesting.
Summary
Joyce Carol Oates provides an in-depth look at a brilliant but delicate star with a non-existent sense of self. It is a disturbing, often difficult, novel; however, I do recommend it. The power of the language is amazing, and Norma Jeane/Marilyn will linger in your mind long after you close the book.
?I feel as if every day I wake up in a new place,? she said. ?What I felt yesterday, I probably won?t feel today, and tomorrow I?ll feel something different still. Someone I loved yesterday, I may hate today, and they won?t have done anything different. And someone I hate today, I may love tomorrow, and they won?t have done anything different either. It?s like being not-quite crazy, but a long, long way from sane.?
This woman?s words rang in my mind the whole time I was reading Blonde, a novel about movie star Marilyn Monroe by Joyce Carol Oates.
As portrayed by Ms. Oates, Marilyn is a woman on a quest for an identity. Is she Norma Jeane (sic) Mortensen, the submissive daughter of a mentally ill woman and a father whose identity is unknown? Is she Norma Jeane Glazer, a fifteen-year-old wife longing to start a family? Is she Miss Golden Dreams, an aspiring actress who is not ashamed of her body and spites the establishment by posing nude? Is she simply Norma, the naive ingenue who falls in love with two bisexual men, the sons of famous Hollywood stars? Or is she that glamorous creature on the screen, Marilyn Monroe?
By the end of the novel, we still don?t know the answer. Neither does she.
The Plot
Little Norma Jeane Mortensen has loved the movies for as long as she can remember. When her mother has to work, she goes to the theater (careful not to sit by any single men) and watches reel after reel of Dark Princes and their Fair Princesses disguised as Beggar Maids. She hopes one of those Dark Princes might be her father, who, her mother tells her, is an actor.
Even when her mother has a nervous breakdown and Norma Jeane is forced, first into an orphanage, then into foster care, the silver screen remains a magical part of her life.
But when Norma Jeane?s foster father begins making sexual advances, her foster mother pressures her to get married and leave the home. At fifteen, Norma Jeane weds a man only a few years older than herself (whom she calls ?Daddy?). Dreams of Hollywood fade away into the realities of keeping a house.
Norma Jeane?s husband enlists in the army during World War II, and, against his wishes, Norma Jeane goes to work in a factory. There she is discovered by a predatory photographer whose photographs of her bring her to the public eye.
Almost before she is aware her life is changing, Norma Jeane has an agent and contracts with a modeling agency and a movie studio. She begins to appear in small parts in movies, then, as audiences respond to her, in larger parts. At the urging of studio executives, she undergoes plastic surgery to perfect her face, dyes her hair platinum blonde, and changes her name to Marilyn Monroe.
But inside, she is still a lost little girl, wanting a father, wanting the approval of others. And she is very unsure of her place in this tenuous new world she inhabits.
?Is that me? Oh, is that me?? she often stammers after seeing herself triumphant on the big screen.
Her quest for love draws her into the arms of powerful, controlling men including the Ex-Athlete, the Playwright, and the President (all of whom she also refers to as ?Daddy?). And her quest for self drives her to try on one new identity after another, each more destructive than the one before.
Everyone in Hollywood knows that her downward spiral can only end in death?but no one knows quite how that death will arrive, least of all Marilyn.
Style of Writing
Blonde is written in a flow-of-consciousness type style. As Marilyn becomes more and more distraught, the associations become looser, the grammar slips, and fantasy and reality blend together. At times, the reader can scarcely tell what is actually happening to Marilyn and what she really thinks or feels about it. Of course, Marilyn herself can?t make sense of these things either. When I begin reading the book, I found this style annoying and hard to follow. By the end of the book, though, I had gotten used to it and had even come to admire the author?s ability to illustrate Marilyn?s deteriorating mental state so vividly.
In the following passage, for instance, Marilyn, recovering from a miscarriage, reflects on her upcoming role as Sugar Kane in Some Like it Hot and on her marriage to ?the Playwright? (Arthur Miller):
?She turned to the gaunt furrow-browed man beside her uncomfortable in his tuxedo & would have told him of her discovery but could not think how to express it. He remained the master of words. She, an intruder in his imagination. He resents me. Resents loving me. Poor sap. She laughed. Sugar Kane was a girl ukulelist & girl singer & her simplicity was a delight on screen even as in ?real life? such simplicity would be a sign of mental deficiency; how much easier & how much more they will love you if you can be Sugar Kane without irony for once?
Most of the narrative is in third person, from Marilyn?s point of view. However, there are some sections that are told from the points of view of other characters, and some sections where characters, including Marilyn, speak directly to the reader as if granting an interview. Again, this is initially distracting but surprisingly easy to get used to.
What Works
In many ways this is a fascinating novel, mainly because Ms. Oates is eerily adept at drawing us into Norma Jeane?s world?a world where emotional realities change daily and where certainties are non-existent. The reader never knows from one chapter to the next whether Marilyn will be in love or out of love, pleased with the work she is doing or disappointed in it, content in her life or miserable. And of course, the sad fact is, Marilyn is every bit as bewildered as the reader.
I wish I?d had this book when I was working with my client in graduate school. I have a feeling it comes very close to capturing the emotional turmoil she dealt with on a daily basis, and although I don?t generally take clinical cues from novels, I believe I might have understood her a little better if I?d read Blonde before we began our work.
What Doesn?t Work
Blonde is not a particularly reader-friendly novel. It is long, 738 pages, and reading it is something of an endurance test, since the reader must keep alert every single second to make sense of Norma Jeane?s ramblings.
Some of the length is unnecessary?I really don?t think a description of Norma Jeane?s first marriage is worth thirty-three pages of small type?and some of Norma Jeane?s flow-of-consciousness reflections go on too long and are convoluted beyond all hope of understanding. At these moments, it is hard to keep sympathy for the character.
On the very first page of the introduction, Joyce Carol Oates makes it clear that she has taken great license with historical fact and that she is indeed writing a novel, not a biography. I appreciate her being so upfront, and I won?t complain about historical inaccuracies. I will, however, complain about the number of characters known only by a letter (e.g., ?C,? the actor who hated working with Marilyn), or by a description (e.g., ?the President?). Most people who know about Marilyn Monroe?s life and career can figure out fairly easily that ?C? is Tony Curtis and ?the President? is John F. Kennedy. People whose first introduction to Marilyn is this novel, however, will be confused and annoyed by all the needless puzzles.
Finally, it is annoying that Marilyn is a fairly passive character in this novel. She drifts from one controlling person to another, making very little effort to take charge of her own life. The resistance she does mount is generally passive and manipulative (e.g., being hours late for shoots, refusing to come to work, deliberately taking so many pills she is unable to perform, etc.). Again, this behavior is typical of someone with a personality disorder, but frankly it does not make for an especially likeable literary character.
Family Reading?
Blonde contains all of the three elements most parents worry about: strong language, violence, and explicit sex (including more than one rape scene). It is not appropriate reading for younger children, although some teens may find it interesting.
Summary
Joyce Carol Oates provides an in-depth look at a brilliant but delicate star with a non-existent sense of self. It is a disturbing, often difficult, novel; however, I do recommend it. The power of the language is amazing, and Norma Jeane/Marilyn will linger in your mind long after you close the book.
