Blonde

This novel imagines from the inside, largely in her own voice, the life of the woman who became Marilyn Monroe. Norma Jeane grows up with a mother who goes mad and a father she never meets, then is placed for years in an orphans' home and let down by a foster family. Taking a new name to become an actress, she climbs to fame in the Hollywood of the 1940s and 1950s, trading sexual favours with studio bosses who think her stupid while they profit from her films. Her three marriages, with men drawn from Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, her need to feel safe and loved, and her dread of failure and ridicule shape a five-part portrait of a star and of the culture that made and used her.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Historical (assigned by AI)

Set in

United States

First published

2000 by Ecco

Author's age

62 when first published

ISBN

9780060196073 (Ecco, United States)

9781841153728 (Fourth Estate, United Kingdom)

9780060934934 (Harper Perennial, United States)

9780062968456 (HarperCollins, United States)

9780008590185 (Fourth Estate, United Kingdom)

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