Tuesday, October 19, 2010

I love Marilyn Monroe. But it's not $30.00 worth of love


I must have been living in a vacuum because I didn't hear about this little gem. Fragments is Marilyn...yes that Marilyn's notes, thoughts and poems. I loved the book she "wrote" entitled My Story. I reviewed it for this blog. So when I found out about this one I ran to the bookstore.

The price is high, $30.00. I'll confess I'm not sure if its worth that much. I haven't read it yet. I have a copy on hold at the library. Amazon.com has a huge discount (who doesnt love Amazon?) and the book is $16.00.

Marilyn Monroe is an icon. Everyone thought she was a ditsy blond she was a smart person. I'm looking forward to getting this book.

Here is a summary:
Marilyn Monroe’s image is so universal that we can’t help but believe that we know all there is to know of her. Every word and gesture made headlines and garnered controversy. Her serious gifts as an actor were sometimes eclipsed by her notoriety—and the way the camera fell helplessly in love with her.

But what of the other Marilyn? Beyond the headlines—and the too-familiar stories of heartbreak and desolation—was a woman far more curious, searching, and hopeful than the one the world got to know. Even as Hollywood studios tried to mold and suppress her, Marilyn never lost her insight, her passion, and her humor. To confront the mounting difficulties of her life, she wrote.

Now, for the first time, we can meet this private Marilyn and get to know her in a way we never have before. Fragments is an unprecedented collection of written artifacts—notes to herself, letters, even poems—in Marilyn’s own handwriting, never before published, along with rarely seen intimate photos.

These bits of text—jotted in notebooks, typed on paper, or written on hotel letterhead—reveal a woman who loved deeply and strove to perfect her craft. They show a Marilyn Monroe unsparing in her analysis of her own life, but also playful, funny, and impossibly charming. The easy grace and deceptive lightness that made her performances so memorable emerge on the page, as does the simmering tragedy that made her last appearances so heartbreaking.

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