Marilyn Monroe : a life of the actress /

In order to demonstrate that Marilyn Monroe was an actress and artist worth taking seriously, Rollyson scrutinizes her life, her dramatic studies at the Actors Studio, and the films in which she appeared. The biographical particulars are already well known, and the cinematic analysis is largely descriptive and focused on literary themes. The book relies too heavily on the author's academic discourse as justification for Monroe's stature as an artist. Norman Mailer's Marilyn: A Biography (CH, Nov '73) told the same story with more poetic flair and greater personal honesty, emphasizing the author's fetishistic relationship to his subject. Gloria Steinem's Marilyn (1986) restates Rollyson's biographical information, but she develops greater depth, writes in a more readable style, and analyzes Monroe's career as well as our continuing fascination with her. Not recommended.-L. Rabinovitz, University of Iowa

Rollyson's book has been praised by Maurice Zolotow, Fred Lawrence Guiles, and others who have already published books on Monroe. Rollyson acknowledges these books but says that ``none of them treats movies as events in the biography of a working actress, events that might fill in the gaps in her identity.'' While he does concentrate more than other authors on Monroe's acting methods, Rollyson too often writes in purple prose, e.g., ``She is a figure of shadow and light, a delicately poised dark impenetrable body, more nearly a part of the photographic medium than she had ever been before. . . .'' Much of the book is straightforward biography, which is better handled by Anthony Summers in Goddess ( LJ 9/15/85). An earnest but nonessential addition to the many Monroe books. John Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Freehold, N.J. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.