Joe & Marilyn: A Memory of Love [Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Roger Kahn (Author), Dick Hill (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 2009

He was the most famous and best ballplayer of his generation. She was America’s blonde. They were intense, impassioned lovers, and, long after that, gentle and loving friends. The only thing that didn’t work between Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe was their marriage. Joe & Marilyn is a portrait of DiMaggio, as godlike as his legend on the field, but vulnerable and intensely human off and of a stormy Marilyn of whom it was said, “She doesn’t need a husband. She needs salvation.” After DiMaggio retired from baseball, he saw a publicity photo of Marilyn and his courtship began. She was reluctant to meet him fearing an old, vulgar ballplayer and instead finding a poised and graying man—"a little shy, like me"—impeccably tailored and financially secure. When they married in 1954, reporters called them “Mr. and Mrs. America.” But their married life was strained from the start. She was messy. He was compulsively neat. He wanted a certain primness and she liked to show her storied body. The marriage lasted nine months. In later years as Marilyn drifted through mental illness, DiMaggio reappeared as a stalwart friend. But even he could not rescue her. In the end all that was left for him was to plan her funeral. He barred some of Hollywood’s most famous names. Why? "Because they killed her," he told a friend.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The recording of Kahn's 1986 biography arrives at a fitting crossroads. As the public wades deeper into the waters of reality television, 24/7 media coverage and celebrity overexposure, the star-crossed—and frenetic press coverage—of DiMaggio and Monroe's pairing more than 50 years ago is surprisingly relevant. Dick Hill puts his slightly nasal delivery and urban-tinged accent to remarkably good use, and his portrayal of young Marilyn's Dickensian journey through a series of foster homes and orphanages remains especially haunting. Evocative and never affected, Hill's narration is compelling even for those listeners already familiar with the biographical revelations. An Avon paperback. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

From the Publisher

7 1.5-hour cassettes --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on MP3-CD Lib Ed; Library edition (February 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 142337777X
• ISBN-13: 978-1423377771
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,642,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A STORY OF ENDURING LOYALTY AND LOVE, March 23, 2009

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Joe & Marilyn: A Memory of Love (Audio CD)

Just when we think there couldn't possibly be one word left to be written, said or whispered about the tragic life of Marilyn Monroe something else comes along. Roger Kahn (The Boys Of Summer) has chosen to focus on the sometimes passionate, sometimes stormy, ultimately caring relationship between Joe DiMaggio and Monroe. Often called "the dean of sportswriters," Kahn has an encyclopedic knowledge of sports figures and offers insights into DiMaggio's personality not previously explored.

Of course, one can never know what is truly in another's thoughts or heart yet Kahn has done a yeoman's job of relating Joe and Marilyn's story from their first meeting when she finds Joe attractive, really quite shy as she saw herself to be, through their courtship to their marriage and its dissolution a scant nine months later. Ultimately, there is DiMaggio's dawning realization that Marilyn cannot be saved and then the heartbreak of her too-early death. All that was left for him was to plan her funeral.

Topnotch voice performer Dick Hill brings respect and meaning to this story which has so often been sensationalized in the press. With an easy listening voice, nuance, and intonations he captures the couples and joys and sorrows. Many will remember the popular Hill from his previous audio book recordings. He has received three Audie Awards and been named a Golden Voice and a Voice of the Century by AudioFile magazine.

This is, in large part, a touching, sad story but also one of enduring loyalty and love.

- Gail Cooke

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Of The Best Books Written By Kahn, September 25, 2006

By 

Bicycle Day - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This is perhaps the most underrated book written by Roger Kahn.

From the opening pages where a Hollywood hack "mourns" the death of Marilyn Monroe, Kahn takes the reader on a touching journey of the life & times of Joe DiMaggio and Monroe.

As much a history of the pop culture as it is a biography, Kahn touches all the bases on how both were drawn to each other's fragility, but their love was virtually doomed from the start.

There are so many books that explore the couple for entertainment value only, as if Joe & Marilyn were living their lives in a drama on the large screen. Kahn addresses them as human beings who were not like the public personas created for consumption by fans or curious observers.

It is truly a memory of love, but also a tragic tale on how those with apparantly so much ultimately are so alone at the end of the day.

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BRONX BOMBER AND THE BOMBSHELL, July 5, 2010

By 

COOL JEWEL (MACEDONIA, OHIO USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Joe & Marilyn: A Memory of Love (Hardcover)

ROGER KAHN DOES A VERY GOOD JOB WRITING THIS VERY INTERESTING AND ENTERTAINING STORY. HE DOVOTES THE MAJORITY OF THIS BOOK ABOUT JOE, A SMALLER SEGMENT ABOUT MARILYN AND FINALLY A VERY SMALL BUT INTERSTING SEGMENT ON THEIR LIFE TOGETHER. SINCE THE MARRIAGE ONLY LASTED 9 MONTHS NOT MUCH COULD BE WRITTEN. THE READER GETS A VERY GOOD LOOK AT WHAT BOTH OF THEM WERE LIKE PERSONALLY. SHE CAME FROM A FAMILY OF MENTAL ILLNESS AND WAS VERY VULNERABLE AND INSECURE AND SEEKED THE LIME LIGHT. JOE CAME FROM A LARGE FAMILY AND WAS VERY QUIET, DISTANT AND COLD. HE PREFERRED HIS PRIVACY. SO RIGHT OFF THE BAT THEY WERE A HUGE MIS-MATCH. KAHN GIVES ALOT OF FACTS AND INFO ABOUT BOTH OF THEIR CAREERS AND DOES AN EXCELLENT JOB WITH BASEBALL STATS AND MOVIE TRIVIA. KAHN ALSO DISCUSSES THE QUESTION OF FOUL PLAY IN HER DEATH. ALL IN ALL I THINK THIS IS A NICE READ FOR ALL FANS WHO LIKE BASEBALL AND HOLLYWOOD GOSSIP. WELL WORTH READING.