I don't even know how to explain how attached I feel to this woman.
This behemoth of a book is nearly 800 pages of sadness.
It dives deep into the psyche of Norma Jeane Baker from the time she was a little girl right up to the end of her life. It talks about her tumultuous home life, the abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother and her acquaintances, her struggles at the orphanage, even her grossly sexualized teen years. It details her relationships (both real and fictionalized for the sake of literature), her horrific rise to stardom, and becoming a creation of The Studio.
The Studio seems to believe they created Marilyn Monroe, someone so vastly different from Norma Jeane's real life. They wanted a starlet, a sexpot, a blonde. Norma Jeane became Marilyn Monroe and Marilyn took over her life. I think the reason Marilyn Monroe has become such an icon is because we all see a little of ourselves in her. Not the glitz and the glamour, but the hurt and the trauma. The gross abuse that Norma Jeane went through at such a young age transcended into her life in Hollywood. She was used time and time again by high powered executives who did not care about her in the least. They knew how to sell sex, but they wanted a taste for themselves too.
I spent the last two months reading Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates.
I can't even tell you how many time I broke down while reading this book.
She deserved so much better.
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