A review by yukirarin
Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates

dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

A lot of mixed feelings of this book. While I see the author’s intention of portraying Marilyn as how much of the public viewed her, this sex icon and blonde bimbo, it barely did any justice to Marilyn who was known posthumously to be pretty witty and intelligent. Even described in her private life, she’s mostly portrayed as just wanting to be a perfect wife. And we just get reminded over and over again about how this girl has daddy issues by constantly calling her lovers daddy while she is being called baby. 

The most interesting part of this book I found was the focus on her childhood and how she developed her sense of self. As a psychology student currently learning about the development of personality, this book couldn’t have been better timed for me. It’s obvious that Marilyn has quite the inner conflict with the very strong persona that she had to portray in contrast to her true self as Norma Jeane. Ultimately, as the world and sometimes even her lovers couldn’t distinguish the two or even refused to acknowledge the existence of Norma Jeane, Norma Jeane herself became unable to distinguish the two. 

I’ve never delved into the life of Marilyn Monroe before, and perhaps this book that was based in fiction was not the best place to start. I was confused about which events actually happened and which ones were works of fiction. Things that I found strange included the constant letters from her father but never ever seeing the man even as years went by as well as people never recognising Marilyn when she showed up to places like acting classes. The first just seemed kind of ridiculous to me, since her “father” just keeps teasing her with a surprise visit after a shock about his own mortality but then just leaves it for YEARS which seems incredibly contradictory. The second was that even not wearing makeup, Marilyn was obvious Marilyn. The notion that people would not be able to recognise someone on her level of fame just because she didn’t have makeup on felt ridiculous and unrealistic. 

I didn’t like the way Marilyn’s body was constantly being described in a way that suggested that it was disgusting, bodily fluids oozing out of her in disgusting perverse ways. In a way I guess that discomfort when talking about her body could have been something the author was trying to portray. 

Also good god was this book LONG. With it being almost 2000 pages when read on my kobo Clara, I feel like I was skimming through a lot of it just wanting it to end already. Many of these anecdotes in her life didn’t truly add to the story in the end, and by the end of this book I was struggling so hard to even remember half of what happened anyway. I feel that this book could definitely have been condensed a lot better, with less vague names for people involved like C and Z. The vagueness of these names just made it even more difficult for me to keep up as someone who isn’t familiar with the life of Marilyn Monroe to begin with and it lost me at quite a few scenes as to who she was even speaking to. 

TLDR, too long, some interesting anecdotes and gross portrayals of the body and life of this amazing woman’s life.