- Paperback: 752 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial (April 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 006093493X
- ISBN-13: 978-0060934934
- Product Dimensions: 15.6 x 3.1 x 23.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 501,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
In Blonde, Joyce Carol Oates--one of America's most prestigious and versatile writers, author of numerous novels and short fictions--joins the ranks of those who have competed to tell the story of one of her nation's most compelling legends: Norma Jeane Baker, or Marilyn Monroe. In her "Author's Note" to this monumental novel, Oates describes the work as a "radically distilled life in the form of fiction". "For all its length", she continues (the book is over 700 pages long), "synecdoche is the principle of appropriation". No straightforward account of a life, then--supposing such a feat were possible--Blonde is both fragmentary and exhaustive, fictional and historical. Divided into five chronological sections from "The Child 1932-1938" to "The Afterlife 1959-1962", the narrative voice shifts from first to third-person perspective, telling of a life that, from the start, is bound to the fascinations of cinema: "This movie I've been seeing all my life, yet never to its completion". Almost she might say: "This movie is my life!" In Oates's revision of "Marilyn", that fascination is, in turn, bound to Norma Jeane's painful, and paradoxical, tie to her mother: "When I was born, on June 1, 1926, in the charity ward of the Los Angeles County Hospital, my mother wasn't there". Being loved as an actress, being loved as a child, are crucial themes of Blonde, themes which agitate throughout Oates's telling of Baker's drive to fame and love, to "Daddy" and babies--"Except if Daddy could make her pregnant she would love Daddy again"--to beauty and death. It's the stuff of sensation and scandal, but Oates's reading of her subject is tactful, empathetic and, above all, alert to the complex femininity now carried through the life and image of Marilyn Monroe. --Vicky Lebeau
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Amazon.co.uk Review
In Blonde, Joyce Carol Oates--one of America's most prestigious and versatile writers, author of numerous novels and short fictions--joins the ranks of those who have competed to tell the story of one of her nation's most compelling legends: Norma Jeane Baker, or Marilyn Monroe. In her "Author's Note" to this monumental novel, Oates describes the work as a "radically distilled life in the form of fiction". "For all its length," she continues (the book is over 700 pages long), "synecdoche is the principle of appropriation." No straightforward account of a life, then--supposing such a feat were possible--Blonde is both fragmentary and exhaustive, fictional and historical. Divided into five chronological sections from "The Child 1932-1938" to "The Afterlife 1959-1962", the narrative voice shifts from first to third person perspective, telling of a life that, from the start, is bound to the fascinations of cinema: "This movie I've been seeing all my life, yet never to its completion." Almost she might say: "This movie is my life!." In Oates's revision of "Marilyn", that fascination is, in turn, bound to Norma Jeane's painful, and paradoxical, tie to her mother: "When I was born, on June 1, 1926, in the charity ward of the Los Angeles County Hospital, my mother wasn't there." Being loved as an actress, being loved as a child, are crucial themes of Blonde, themes which agitate throughout Oates's telling of Baker's drive to fame and love, to "Daddy" and babies--"Except if Daddy could make her pregnant she would love Daddy again"--to beauty and death. It's the stuff of sensation and scandal, but Oates's reading of her subject is tactful, empathetic and, above all, alert to the complex femininity now carried through the life and image of Marilyn Monroe. Vicky Lebeau
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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"This movie I've been seeing all my life, yet never to its completion." Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
"This movie I've been seeing all my life, yet never to its completion." Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Blonde is a novel about the use, abuse and exploitation of Monroe by a society that values commodities above people. Oates' book is a brilliant account of the way this iconic figure was systematically degraded by all who came to touch her. From her earliest memories of an abused childhood, through a mother who rejected her, a father who never appeared and a succession of men who wanted her body but not her brain, we are witnesses to the most comprehensive and cynical cycle of use, made more apalling by the casual carelessness of it all.
This is quite simply a staggering work from an excellent writer.
This is quite simply a staggering work from an excellent writer.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A simply beautifully written book - stunning. I highly recommend this. I read a really bad book before I picked this up and had started to despair - thinking there were no good writers left in the world, well there are - and here's one. This is a work of genius, warmth, compassion and style. Such style. Oates is a captivating writer, cleverly offering clues to characterisation and creating sentences of such sheer force, that the book bursts into life before you. Wow. I would suggest that if you have eyes, you read this. I can't recommend this highly enough.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a wonderful, but heartbreaking fictional account of Marilyn Monroe/Norma Jean Baker's life. From a difficult childhood made easier by movies and make-believe, through her unhappy marriages and struggles with the Hollywood studio system to her final days abused by world-leaders and revered entertainers. Forget any preconceptions you may have about Marilyn, about her being a "dumb blonde" - as a disturbed and seemingly unhappy woman, this touching account explores how she was abused by those whom she tried to impress and how the various men in her life couldn't see past the images they had created of her and allow her to be herself.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
'Blonde' by Joyce Carol Oates
This is a stunning novel. Chronicling the life of Marilyn Monroe, Joyce Carol Oates goes far beyond biography to create something that is hugely involving and spectacularly... Read more
Published 3 months ago by IK
Only part way through reading
Still got quite a bit to read but so far I am enjoying this book. The star rating may increase (or not)by the time I get to the end. Read more
Published 17 months ago by J. Davison
We will never know the truth
Immediately after finishing the book, I wanted to give 5*s as it was such a great read, but now I've had time to reflect, I have to say that the mixing of fact and fiction doesn't... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Skippy
Truer than fact
This book - fiction, not fact - seemed truer to me, or closer to capturing the spirit of Marilyn Monroe than the couple of biographies I've read. Read more
Published on 6 May 2010 by wordparty
hate to giving one star
My first thought about `Blonde' is my confusion over the authors intention. It seems the author suffered from this same problem. Read more
Published on 19 April 2010 by N. Finch
fictional bio of marilyn monroe
This is a massive novel (over 900 pages)but a simply gripping read from start to finish.Anyone interested in Marilyn's life shouldn't hesitate to buy this. Read more
Published on 28 Nov 2009 by Mr I Robertson
A little maudlin, but entertaining
From what I've read of hers, it seems to me that Joyce Carol Oates likes very much to centre her story around a girl who is an innocent of the soul, whose very loveliness is her... Read more
Published on 18 Mar 2008 by Morena
Losing Her Self
The novel Blonde immediately raises questions concerning the reasons for its creation beginning with the choice of its subject: Norma Jean Baker. Read more
Published on 14 Nov 2002 by Eric Anderson
truly amazing
A truly enthralling book, once you start to read it you can't stop.You forget that it's fiction and embrace every character as if real. Read more
Published on 13 Jun 2002 by "mirrorballcat"
A Masterpiece
Despite its length the novel is totally absorbing.It seemed to me to capture the essence of Norma Jean's troubled,complex personality. Read more
Published on 5 Mar 2002
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