Customer Reviews

Cursum Perficio: Marilyn Monroe's Brentwood Hacienda:The Story of Her Final Months

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There has been some confusion about the second edition of this book and the sales information on this site. According to the publisher, Iuniverse, the hardcover edition offered here is actually a "second edition" released in October 2003, although the release date printed is still listed as 2000. This is because it is a "re-do" under the same title previously released by the publisher. The new second edition cover for the paperback and hardcover depicts Marilyn standing beside the gates of her home and sell respectively for $20.95 and $30.95. The first edition was only published in paperback with a different cover for $11.95. The publisher says that vendors will continue to sell the first edition paperbacks until supplies depleted. The second edition contains new images, new chapters, re-worked chapters and information not included in the first. Having seen this book, the quality of photo reproduction in this new version are far superior than in the first. It also includes professional, "photorealistic-style" illustrations by artist Brandon Heidrick depicting the interior and exterior of Marilyn's home and furnishings. The images serve as a "virtual tour" of Marilyn's last home similar to the author's website.

Cursum Perficio is a well researched and well thought out book. It takes you on a tour of Marilyn's last home at 12305 5th Helena Drive. Gary delves into the possible reasons behind the purchase of this, her last home, and of the furnishings as well. The reader also gets a brief introduction to Marilyn's life. With Gary's mental health background, I think we get a fresh look at what may have triggered many of the events in her life and in this home. The book is full of photographs and original art. A must for every Monroe collector.

This is an excellent follow-up to the author's first paperback edition. I enjoyed this handsome, hardcover version and its wealth of new photos and illustrations. The artist's depictions looked like actual photos. This edition fleshed out more details of Marilyn's last weeks without dwelling on murder-theories.

Well-researched with new information, this book avoids re-hashing what has already been written. It is a page-turner and must-have for any Marilyn fan. Now I feel as though I really know Marilyn, and I've read nearly every biography written on her in the last fifteen years.

Using Marilyn's last days in the house as a context for a biography is a novel approach to understanding this icon. Vitacco-Robles wove together Marilyn's past as it related to the events during her last year. Marilyn's last year always fascinated me, and I was really interested in learning more about her months in the home in Brentwood. The book is the end-all for anyone who ever secretly wished to visit the home and see inside. It is now hidden by a huge gate to deter fans like me!

The last chapter focused on Frank Lloyd Wright designing a home for Marilyn & Arthur Miller. I was not aware of this. Marilyn wanted a large nursery for the children she never had and a study for the husbanc whom she later divorced. I was amazed that the home was eventually built in Hawaii as a golfing resort.

Vitacco-Robles is a therapist who works with abused children. He knows his subject well and is sensitive to Marilyn's emotional troubles created by her horrendous childhood. As a male biographer, I think Vitacco-Robles does Marilyn justice with his sensitive writing and fresh perspective.

Yes, it's the latest in a long line of biographies about this remarkable woman, but one of the best!

More than 600 books have been written about Marilyn Monroe since her death in 1962. While most of them have focused on the theories surrounding her apparent suicide at age 36, author Gary Vitacco-Robles focuses his new book on the actress' last home. Cursum Perficio: Marilyn Monroe's Brentwood Hacienda/The Story of Her Final Months reframes and redefines Marilyn through the context of her efforts to establish a secure home following a childhood spent in a succession of foster homes. The author theorizes that the actress was trying to correct her past by putting down roots of her own. While several previous authors depict her final months as tumultuous, Vitacco-Robles provides evidence that suggests Marilyn was trying to pull her life together and give it some personal meaning. During the spring and summer of 1962, Marilyn embraced her newfound domesticity by pulling weeds in her garden, writing recipes in her copy of The Joy of Cooking and actually using the pots and pans in her kitchen. The book contains actual photographs of the house, interspersed with realistic renderings of the home by artist Brandon Heidrick. The author divides the photos and illustrations with floor plans for each room and includes pictures of an architectural model that depicts the entire property as it appeared in 1962. After she purchased the 2,300 square foot house, Monroe began extensively researching authentic Mexican design, landscaping and furnishings in an effort to slowly transform it into the home of her dreams. She arranged for an 11-day trip to Mexico where she painstakingly selected fabrics, tapestries, painted tiles, pottery and art. Monroe met the native artists who had made by hand the objects that she would later display in her home. Vitacco-Robles is donating a portion of the royalties from sales of this book to Hollygrove Children and Family Services, formerly the Los Angeles Orphans Home Society, where Marilyn Monroe lived as a child.

When I first received my copy of Cursum Perficio: Marilyn's Brentwood Hacienda, I wasn't sure what to expect. Much to my surprise, I was enthralled and fascinated by the details of Marilyn's final months, so eloquently chronicled by Gary Vitacco-Robles. Void of any media hype and speculation about the cause of her death, Vitacco-Robles explores how Marilyn searched and found the perfect place to call home...a respite from the choatic life she led in the media spotlight.
You will journey with her as she went on shopping sprees for furnishings and ornaments in a quest to make the only home she ever owned a reflection of herself.
The book contains a vast collection of actual photographs, as well as impressive photo-recreations of the home's interior as it looked in 1962 and now.
I applaud Vitacco-Robles for a superb testamant to the woman so many longed to know. This book reveals a whole other side of Marilyn that has never been revealed.
A MUST HAVE for any Marilyn enthusiast!

I highly recommend this book. It is beautifully, informatively and affectionately written, without the sentementality that so many Marilyn fans for victim. Most commendably, Gary Vitacco-Robles has chosen to avoid all the conspiracy theories--this may be the first Marilyn book in twenty years to do so! Bravo! It drives me to distraction that our lovely Marilyn is reduced to a mass conspiracy theories. I think Cursum Perficio with be an important book in Monroe literature.

Gary Vitacco-Robles writing style is a breeze to read. Anything you would want to know about Marilyn's plans for her new home and her life in those last few months is so graciously written here. It is one of the rare books that actually presents a realistic, non-sensational portrait of Marilyn. He writes not only about her house and day to day living and plans for her future, but about her generousity to friends and strangers alike, and her many contributions to charities. I felt I was seeing Marilyn as a very real person, planting in her garden and going about her daily life. The 10th chapter titled "Farewell" brought me to tears. Gary is obviously someone who loves Marilyn very much, I know she would be so touched by his work in her behalf.

This is a fabulous book and very well illustrated and written. A must have for any Marilyn fan. You feel as if you've stepped into her last home and had a cup of coffee at her dining room table. For those who never get to go into her last home or tour the house, this is a must have book and the next best thing to being there.

I bought the book after stumbling across the author's web-site and finding myself riveted by every page of the site. I am regretting not having splurged and bought the hardcover edition as I'm sure the colour pictures are wonderful. As it stands, the paperback version could use some better editing but the story is warm and always respectful. I really recommend it to anyone who is fascinated by the charm of Marilyn, but is sick of the sensationalism.

Gary Vitacco-Robles weaves an intricate tapestry of Marilyn Monroe's last months showing how her career, state of mind, and new outlook on life were reflected in the purchase, decoration, and nurturing of her Brentwood home. Surprisingly moving, I recommend this unique book to any Monroe fan.