Word: marilyns
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...Courage of Elizabeth Taylor (Cliff Street Books/HarperCollins), and it is still sort of riveting--amazing trashiness and unforgivable self-indulgence redeemed by a sense of humor and a fierce refusal to succumb. What used to be called sex goddesses made their living by enacting a travesty of sex. Marilyn Monroe played wriggling, dumb-blond comedy, and ended in tragedy. Taylor has got through by the grace of a life principle that lives in the house of comedy...
...This is outrageous. I'm willing to tolerate this for a couple of minutes, but they can't stay here," said Director of Admissions Marilyn McGrath Lewis '70-'73 when she first encountered the demonstrators...
Exiled for 30 years, she established herself as an international star, recording with Harry Belafonte (their collaboration won a Grammy), singing for President John F. Kennedy (she performed the same night in 1962 that Marilyn Monroe cooed Happy Birthday) and touring with Paul Simon. Her personal life was sometimes tumultuous--she's been married to South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela and American black-power activist Stokely Carmichael. Now single, she laughs and says she is "too old to marry again." In 1990, after Nelson Mandela's release from prison, Makeba returned to South Africa. On Homeland Makeba's music sounds...
...answer, unfortunately, is not very much. As Oates warns readers right at the beginning, "Biographical facts regarding Marilyn Monroe should not be sought in Blonde, which is not intended as a historical document," but she proceeds to provide what seems like thousands of biographical facts about her subject. She changes, for no discernible reason, some details, including the names of the actress's first husband and first Hollywood agent. Hundreds of other people in Monroe's life appear accurately named or identified by easily decoded initials. Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller are "the ex-Athlete" and "the Playwright...
Such questions may seem niggling, but Oates has asked for them, and for many more like them. Her novel works best during the early years, when her subject is unknown, a pretty but troubled young woman in search of a love that will always elude her. When Marilyn appears in all her platinum glory, the point of Oates' project fades. As a character in the novel says, "The fact was, you never looked at anybody else if you could look at Monroe." Still true...