Marilyn

Like her art, Marilyn Monroe was rooted in paradox: she was a powerful star and a childlike waif; a joyful, irreverent party girl with a deeply spiritual side; a superb friend and a narcissist; a dumb blonde and an intellectual. No previous biographer has recognised - much less attempted to analyse - most of these aspects of her personality. Lois Banner has. Since Marilyn's premature death in August of 1962, the appetite for information about the star has been insatiable. Biographies of Marilyn abound, and whether these books are sensational or flawed, Marilyn's fans have always come out in bestselling numbers. This time, with Lois Banner's Marilyn the fans won't be disappointed. This is no retread of recycled material. As one of the founders of the field of women's history, Banner reveals Marilyn Monroe in the way that only a top-notch historian and biographer could. In researching Marilyn, Banner's credentials opened doors. She gained access to Marilyn intimates who hadn't spoken to other biographers, and to private material unseen, ignored, or misinterpreted by her predecessors. With new details about Marilyn's childhood foster homes, her sexual abuse, her multiple marriages, her affairs, and her untimely death at the age of thirty-six, Marilyn is, at last, the nuanced biography Marilyn fans have been waiting for. Here, finally, is a book that does not sensationalise her erratic and exotic life, but reveals her as the damaged, childlike and lost feminist she was ... An excellent book ... A detailed narrative that does not scream with hyperbole, or moan with lust. It is much sadder than that ... It is fascinating ***** Daily Telegraph Banner presents a rich and often imaginative narrative of Marilyn's life. By the end, Monroe feels at once like an earthly being - an almost-friend - and an enigma, still slightly out of focus and just beyond reach. That seems right New York Times Book Review A dazzling portrait of a fragile but remarkably ambitious and determined personality, as spiritual as she was corporeal, as canny as she was careless Elle Banner elegantly and skillfully chronicles Monroe's short life ... [she] paints a portrait of Monroe as a complicated, many-faceted woman Publishers Weekly Exciting to read; Banner's admiration of, and belief in, her subject really animate the text -- susie Boyt Financial Times Banner gives us a powerful portrayal of a savvy self-publicist who worked tirelessly to ensure her trajectory from glamour model to screen goddess -- frances Wilson Sunday Telegraph 'Book of the Week' Offers a new perspective on her story. Drawing on new material from her diaries and private papers, it's a revelatory and intelligent tribute Good Housekeeping Offering a new interpretation of the star's life which draws on feminism and the history of gender ... Banner's book provides the most detailed account yet of Marilyn's fractured childhood -- joan Smith Independent 'Book of the Week' Rigorously researched and scholarly Daily Express Banner sheds new light on the life and legend of Marilyn Monroe ... A fascinating portrait Choice