Fragments
Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Fragments is an event—an unforgettable book that will redefine one of the greatest icons of the twentieth century and that, nearly fifty years after her death, will definitively reveal Marilyn Monroe's humanity.
Marilyn's image is so universal that we can't help but believe we know all there is to know of her. Every word and gesture made headlines and garnered controversy. Her serious gifts as an actor were sometimes eclipsed by her notoriety—and by the way the camera fell helplessly in love with her.
Beyond the headlines—and the too-familiar stories of heartbreak and desolation—was a woman far more curious, searching, witty, and hopeful than the one the world got to know. Now, for the first time, readers can meet the private Marilyn and understand her in a way we never have before. Fragments is an unprecedented collection of written artifacts—notes to herself, letters, even poems—in Marilyn's own handwriting, never before published, along with rarely seen intimate photos.
Jotted in notebooks, typed on paper, or written on hotel letterhead, these texts reveal a woman who loved deeply and strove to perfect her craft. They show a Marilyn Monroe unsparing in her analysis of her own life, but also playful, funny, and impossibly charming. The easy grace and deceptive lightness that made her performances indelible emerge on the page, as does the simmering tragedy that made her last appearances so affecting.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Isabel Keating is a fine mimic of the Marilyn we know from the movies it s the same breathy, cotton-candy douceur, the voice lilting with wonderment, the same rounded consonants, the trill at the end of sentences. She sounds like a precocious child, very earnestly doing the introspective self-searching homework that the Strasberg method demanded. As seamless is Keating s channeling of Monroe; it would have been a pleasure to glimpse the voice behind the baby voice, the woman behind the mask. The content is fragmentary, but there is delight in this picture of the icon as more sincere, striving, intellectually ambitious, and perceptive than we d ever have guessed. A Farrar, Straus, and Giroux hardcover.
Customer Reviews
Fragments. E book
In all likelihood, I might well rate this book one star higher, had I purchased it as a physical book rather than an E book. In this format, much of the writing is nearly impossible to decipher. I attempted on several occasions to read it on my Kindle and on that reader it IS impossible. I found that it had down
Loaded on my iPad also and found it somewhat manageable there. Still, although I do not require reading glasses under normal circumstances even in very dim light, I certainly needed them on the iPad even with its light source set at full strength. In many places, a magnifying glass would have made reading more pleasant. I should say, deciphering, rather than reading since much of the material though photocopied directly from her hand written notes and then translated, the translations were so incredibly tiny that they were rendered nearly as unreadable as her penmanship.
I can't recall the exact description, which was written prior to availability, but I pre-ordered the book as I was so excited. Upon arrival, as I said, on my Kindle, it was a waste of time and effort. Having much later discovered it had down
loaded onto my iPad, I once again made a valiant attempt at this book. Once again, although I finished the book in a short afternoon, I was disappointed in how much less I understood Marilyn than I had expected. I felt only that the book left me feeling nearly estranged from the movie actress I had thought I knew yet yearning to have more - something more with which to connect with this truly wonderful young girl who certainly became my idol in the 1950's. Buy this book knowing you will almost certainly come away from it disappointed. Note: I have read no reviews of this prior to writing mine.
Disappointing
I was very disappointed in this book. Many of the notes Marilyn wrote were too small to read on my iPad. They should have compensated for that when preparing the book for the iPad. I ra
Hard To Read
I just finished this and although I appreciate the convenience of having the book digitally - I will definitely buy it in hard cover.