Donald Spoto (1941–2023)

Writing is at times hamfisted but not bad. Many actor/actress bios are poorly written. I read Spoto's Hickcock book about 20 years ago (???) but I have no recollections of the writing itself.

I always wondered what made Crawford seem so demented (just saw Johnny Guitar for the fourth time and it never fails to be a car wreck of a film) and now I have a better idea of what a weird life she had. Her entire childhood was spent in servitude, essentially working as a maid, and when she made it in Hollywood, her mother and spoiled brother just used her (although probably not in as evil of a way as did Clara Bow's family). Crawford was beautiful when she was young, before she started wearing almost clownish amounts of eyebrow pencil and lipstick exaggerating her already very prominent features.… (plus d'informations)

Marilyn Monroe: The Biography by Donald Spoto is a 2001 Cooper Square Press publication. (Originally published in 1993)

I read biographies and memoirs on a fairly regular basis, but have not read one about Marilyn Monroe. One big reason for that is my wariness about the legitimacy of the facts. Conspiracy theories can be lucrative, and if desperate for money, the temptation to create misinformation for profit can be irresistible. But the damage is impossible to eradicate. All these speculations about Marilyn, her connections to the Kennedy’s or the mob or whatever, prompted this author to do a thorough investigation and a ton of in-depth research to write a book that tells Marilyn’s life story as accurately as humanly possible.

Another reason I decided chose to read this book was in preparation for the Joyce Carol Oates book- "Blonde" which has been on my TBR list for a long time.

Once I started reading, and since the book is currently in the KU program with added audio, I listened to parts of it, as well, it became obvious the author took his job very, very seriously!!

To say this biography is comprehensive is an understatement. The book moves in strict chronological order, and details both Marilyn’s personal life and her professional one and chronicles all the ups and downs in those segments of her life. Though the portrait of Marilyn is one a woman who is dedicated to her craft, smarter than anyone realizes, and could brilliantly drop into character and instantly go from Norma Jean to ‘her- the created image of Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn was also very insecure, torn by her longing for a true love, children, and still balance a successful career in a time when those aspirations were not encouraged. She was chronically late for everything- work, doctor’s appointments, classes, you name it, which is something I don’t find appealing in a person, but she seemed to have a few hang ups that kept her constantly going over her appearance before she went anywhere. Her drug addictions were, as they were with other actresses, a part of the Hollywood system, where pills were passed out like candy. Marilyn, for someone her age, seemed to also have an awful lot of health problems, on top of everything else.

As everything starts to point to Marilyn’s realization that she needs to make some changes, with the pills, with the doctors, with people in life, and with the possibility of another chance at love, the unthinkable happens.

As the book heads into the last night of Marilyn’s life, it would indeed seem that there was something very, very wrong. It was so intense, and eerie, but not as everyone seems to think, though. Yes, there was a cover-up, but not the fodder for insane conspiracy theories involving the mob or the government or the Kennedy’s or deliberate suicide. It was a horrible, tragedy and yes, someone should have had to answer for what happened to her.

Overall, I think the author did a really good job with this biography. The book has a little bit of an old school layout- and approach- but there’s nothing wrong with that if it works. There are many, many, many book written about Marilyn, but if you want one of the most trustworthy ones, that covers her entire life and offers a plausible explanation of what really happened to her the night she died, this is the one you want to grab.

4.5… (plus d'informations)