936. Blonde

Blonde
Joyce Carol Oates
2000

Around 740 pages

I don't know if I will watch the movie. I do know that the film contains a CGI-fetus talking to Monroe, which is some weird Ninjababy shit I don't need. I also don't think we need to continue to mythologize  Marilyn Monroe as a society. But it's a Joyce Carol Oates novel, which means it's an original and haunting story that doesn't even need to be about Marilyn Monroe.

Basically, this is a fictionalized biography of our girl, with many names changed or given aliases, like The President, The Playwright, or the Ex-Athlete. Monroe's life really did play out like literary fiction, and Oates does her due diligence in building the character, rather than simply relying on our public knowledge of Monroe's persona. 

It's hard to sustain interest for 740 pages, but this is a very detailed and moving portrait, and it's easy to see that once she started, she couldn't stop writing. It feels like a spiritual successor to Black Water, which tells the story of a young woman exploited and betrayed by older men in her life. 

Oh, and MM was totally murdered by the way, I'll die on this hill.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts: 

Adapted to film in 2022.

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