Marilyn and Her Books: The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroe
Attempts to debunk Monroe’s dumb-blonde reputation through the Murphy door of her private library ... It is refreshing to contemplate Monroe as reader ... Someone so holographic is far more humanized by what was on her shelves than by some rotten rouge or the moth-eaten, Kardashian-appropriated frocks from her closet.
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Marilyn and Her Books has a tantalising premise: it is dedicated to examining the actor’s 430-volume library in time for what would have been her 100th birthday ... What a pity, then, that the book is so silly, brimming with anodyne observations and saccharine psychology ... Perhaps as a grab bag of facts – some interesting – for those new to the topic, Crowther’s book can provide some service. But most readers drawn to this book that promises insight into the 'literary life of Marilyn Monroe' will want, I imagine, original and closely considered scholarship.
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Too much is being extrapolated out of not enough information ... But the core question that drives the book, the subject of a central chapter, is valuable: 'Why is Marilyn Monroe’s reading ability doubted?' ... Crowther keeps her focus narrowly on Monroe, but it doesn’t require a substantial mental leap to see how Monroe is just one example of a cover-model-worthy woman artist being told she’s a try-hard for demonstrating intelligence.
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