Customer Reviews

All the Available Light: A Marilyn Monroe Reader

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Although there are a few interesting pieces contained within, the majority is a collection of ultra-feminist psychobabble. Since I assume that these feminist writers were paid for their efforts, they too profited from the one they claim to be objectified and victimized by the male-dominated, Hollywood machine. How much better is that? With their theorizing and analyzing, they all seek to reveal the 'real' woman beneath the mask of Marilyn. Most probably they are all off-the-mark. For a better understanding of Marilyn, you would be much better off watching and enjoying her films, and reading her interviews. The painful truth is, we will never fully know the woman behind the curtain. She is gone and not able to defend herself against this onslaught of ridiculous speculation.

This book was given to me as a gift. As a fan of MM, I used to buy a lot of books on her, which were all pretty redundant. This was a great diversion. It is a collection of writings from other publications and some strictly for the book itself and also the author, Yona Zeldis McDonough's, insights and thoughts on MM.

It is interesting to read what other people think, and some of these writers are quite well known -- Joyce Carol Oates, Gloria Steinhem, Marge Piercy,. These essays show Marilyn in a positive and worst possible light. -- Every little available, hence the title, "All the Available Light". I think this book needs to be read with an extreme open mind by the fans.
As a woman who truly loves and is a fan of Monroe, I got the feeling that woman writers here are not fans. They stepped up on their soapbox and tore Marilyn into pieces because of her overt sexuality and the fact that she appeared to be the dumb blonde. They seemed almost intimidated and resorted to stupid remarks about her intelligence. No one truly knew Marilyn, she was and still is an enigma. We can only form opinions, which is what this little blurb of writing really is. Every opinion you can think of is here. There are some facts thrown in for good measure, and the author ends it with a "Chronology" From this, we find out that the author thinks MM was murdered.

Even though Marilyn didn't particularly like Sir Lawrence Olivier, I thought his chapter was one of the best ones. He was her leading man in "The Prince and the Showgirl". After speaking rather bluntly about his sometimes frustrating experience working with her, he realizes in retrospect that in the finished product, she was brilliant and quite beautiful.
Which is my own opinion as well. So, I'm biased, I'll admit that.

A lot of this book was very boring and read like text book material with the contributors making up their own words like Monroeivitiy and Monroean. Please...
I don't highly recommend this book, but it is an interesting peek into other people's minds and how Marilyn affected them in both their personal and professional lives.

Yet another sad tale of the twisted life of poor old Norma Jeane. The book left you hanging on a sad note. It had several small essays (most of which were typical and boring, and of common knowledge to any wouldbe MM fan), some of which had depressing titles like "The Love Goddess Who Found No Love" and the like. Get it if you want to twist the knife further into little Marilyn's poor ghostly soul...

I was very disappointed in this book.About the best thing I can say for it is that it has a great photo of Marilyn on the cover.Then again,I don't think I ever saw a picture of Marilyn thatI didn't like,especially if it was a posed picture.

At the start of the book it seemed that a real attempt was going to be made at explaining what Marilyn had, that made her so special and probably the most sensual female of the entertainment world.

Marilyn conveyed the impression that she loved males and thus males loved her back.

Unforunately most of the essay writers in this book are ultra feminists and seem out to discredit Marilyn because she never fell for that anti-male attitude and that flew in the face of the libbers agendas.They are so full of bitterness that they cannot see any good in people like Marilyn;and therefore are unable to see what a precious personality Marilyn was ;and for that reason could not see what made her so popular.

If you want to know what the libbers felt about Marilyn;this is the book for you.If you enjoyed her as I have, and still do,pass up this one.

Elton John said it all in his tribute to Marilyn:

"A Candle In the Wind"

Then, get out one of the many excellent photo books and enjoy the beauty and one of a kind she really was.

only an analyse of Marilyn with passages of other books about Marilyn in it .. I read some 70 books about Marilyn in the past years and this is realy one I'd like to lay aside; nothing new and boring! Great coverphoto though ..