I Wanna Be Loved By You
Marilyn Monroe: A Life in 100 Takes
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Publishing one hundred years after her birth, Andrew Wilson’s biography of Marilyn Monroe is a kaleidoscopic tour of her life told through 100 captivating snapshots.
Dreamer. Bombshell. Icon. Featuring a wealth of unpublished material, I Wanna Be Loved By You presents Marilyn in a startling new light. It draws upon unpublished letters from Marilyn, Arthur Miller, and Joe DiMaggio; case notes and private letters from Monroe’s psychoanalyst, Dr. Ralph Greenson; and unpublished audio recordings from the likes of Jane Russell, Billy Wilder, John Huston, Amy and Milton Greene, housekeeper Eunice Murray (the last person to see Marilyn alive), and many more.
We go behind the scenes of her marriages to teenage sweetheart Jim Dougherty, Joe DiMaggio, and Arthur Miller. We see Marilyn train with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, working to dismantle the common perception that she was merely a dumb blonde. And in the concluding chapters, Wilson dissects what happened on the night Marilyn died after a suspected drug overdose. Were the Kennedys involved, or was she just let down by those closest to her? With a dazzling and unique blend of reportage, archival investigation, interviews, and oral history, I Wanna Be Loved By You is a revealing and nuanced portrait of the life, death and afterlife of an icon who still fascinates us today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Biographer and novelist Wilson (I Saw Him Die) marks the centenary of Marilyn Monroe's birth with a prismatic account of her tumultuous life. Forgoing a linear narrative, Wilson offers vignettes of key episodes, ranging from the religious zeal that shaped her childhood to her romantic relationships with the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Frank Sinatra, and, allegedly, John F. Kennedy. The approach allows for deep dives into the uncanny parallels between her life and that of earlier blonde superstar Jean Harlow and the ways Monroe thoughtfully crafted elements of her star persona, including her singular walking style. Wilson is particularly captivated by Monroe's afterlife, devoting considerable coverage to the myriad theories that surround her death at 36 in 1962 and the convoluted path of her personal effects, which are now scattered around the world in private collections. These details, however, come at the cost of in-depth analyses of Monroe's film performances and other aspects of her complex personality, such as her desire for intellectual self-improvement, which are only touched on glancingly. Wilson characterizes much of what has been written about Monroe as "an intriguing blend of truth and myth, whipped up with a topping of sickly-sweet Hollywood spin." Despite his best efforts, he fails to escape the same trap.
