Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates

Synopsis
Blonde is a mesmerising novel about the most enduring and evocative cultural icon of the 20th century: the woman who became Marilyn Monroe. A fragile and gifted young woman, Norma Jeane Baker makes and remakes her identity: she is the orphan whose mother is declared mad; the woman who changes her name to be an actress; the fated celebrity, lover and muse. Told in her voice, Blonde shows a culture hypnotised by its own myths, and the devastating effects it had on Hollywood’s greatest star.

My Review
I first saw Blonde when I was browsing the shelves at Waterstones, I couldn’t help but be drawn to the cover with its picture of Marilyn Monroe. I grew up on the classic films of Marilyn Monroe and her contemporaries, Doris Day, Audrey Hepburn, Deborah Kerr, the golden years of Hollywood, a time when actors and actresses really were stars. Another reason I was drawn to Blonde is it’s author, Joyce Carol Oates, a masterful storyteller who really gets under the skin of her characters and doesn’t shy away from difficult issues. Blonde is a work of fiction, a reimagining of Marilyn Monroe’s life, that Joyce Carol Oates has really researched from different books and documents. In the author’s note she does explain that she has not included all of Marilyn Monroe’s relationships, health problems and abortions, instead she has focused on a select few that give a sense of how these impacted her life. At over seven hundred pages, and small text I’m relieved that only the important details of her life were included if not it would have gone over one thousand pages.

I have most of Marilyn Monroe’s films on DVD, and for me she is a Hollywood Icon and sex symbol. She oozes glamour, confidence and sensuality, but in this book Joyce Carol Oates tells the story of Norma Jean Baker for whom Marliyn is just another character to act, like those in her films, so from here I will call her Norma Jean. I found this idea the most fascinating, Norma Jean was unassuming, vunerable and unaware of her body and her sexuality at first, Marilyn was the invention of The Studio bosses, somebody Norma Jean felt uncomfortable playing a lot of the time. Joyce Carol Oates portrays Norma Jean from a young child, living with her mother who had a mental illness, to her time in an orphanage, to an early marriage, to pin up during the Second World War and then to her role as one of the most successful movie actresses of her time. Joyce Carol Oates really gets into the psyche of Norma Jean, her insecurities in her work and life, her dreams of being a mother,and her need for love and validation from the men in her life, after not having her father around, and not even sure who he is. I found her story heartbreaking at times, how this insecure young woman who wanted to be an actress on the stage and do more serious films, was exploited by The Studio, and it’s patriarchal management to become someone she wasn’t, someone they invented, and someone she didn’t always like.

I have read a few of Joyce Carol Oates’ books over the years, and have enjoyed how detailed her characters are, and how she explores relationships and situations, many of them dark. In the fifties and sixties Hollywood was a male domain, and the casting couch was real, and Norma Jean was groomed from a young age by those in charge. The exploitation of Norma Jean was shocking, she was under the control of The Studio, she was paid less than other actresses although making millions from The Studio, expected to sleep with many of those in charge and having no choice in where her career was going; they owned her. It was also The Studio who got her addicted to drugs, Nembutal to sleep, Benzedrine to keep her awake and many in-between, rather like Judy Garland. Interstingly, Joyce Carol Oates uses initials only for most of the men on her life, Mr Z of the The Studio, Mr C for Tony Curtis and her husbands are described as their professions, the retired athelete and the playwright. I found this makes them impersonal, and at a distance from her, like she shouldn’t be defined by them. There is so much tragedy in this book, most of it I knew from reading biographies, that at times made it difficult to read, but I felt that even though this is a fictional account it made me feel I understood Norma Jean and knew her better, and felt angry at how she was treated.

Blonde is an amazing reimagining of the life of Norma Jean and her alter ego Marilyn Monroe. Joyce Carol Oates holds a mirror up to the mysigony of Hollywood at that time,the exploitation of Marilyn and the drug culture that ultimatley led to her premature death. Beautifully written, Joyce Carol Oates captures the essence of Norma Jean in such detail you feel like another voyeur to her life. She is a star that will always shine bright in my eyes, one of the most iconic actresses of the twentieth century, and it will be interesting to see the Netflix adaptation of this book.