Blonde cover art

Blonde

A Novel

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Blonde

By: Joyce Carol Oates
Narrated by: Jayne Atkinson
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About this listen

The National Book Award finalist and national bestseller exploring the life and legend of Marilyn Monroe

Soon to be a Netflix Film starring Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale and Julianne Nicholson

In one of her most ambitious works, Joyce Carol Oates boldly reimagines the inner, poetic, and spiritual life of Norma Jeane Baker—the child, the woman, the fated celebrity, and idolized blonde the world came to know as Marilyn Monroe. In a voice startlingly intimate and rich, Norma Jeane tells her own story of an emblematic American artist—intensely conflicted and driven—who had lost her way. A powerful portrait of Hollywood’s myth and an extraordinary woman’s heartbreaking reality, Blonde is a sweeping epic that pays tribute to the elusive magic and devastation behind the creation of the great 20th-century American star.

©2001 Joyce Carol Oates; (P)2001 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Biographical Fiction Fantasy Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Biography Fiction Heartfelt Mythology Celebrity

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All stars
Most relevant
Sadly this is an abridged version which is not noted in the description.
The narrator and content are excellent, but I returned it as I wish to read the full text.
Audible should make it clear upon purchase if a text is abridged.

Abridged version

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The more you know about Marilyn the more fascinating she becomes. I knew a lot of the information in this novel but Joyce Carol Oates has created an absorbing, disturbing and compelling piece of work. It is beautifully narrated too.

Totally absorbing

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Extremely well told, the husky voice of the narrator really added character and back bone to the book and opened my eyes. Wasn't sure at first about the book in the first 30 minutes but glad i stuck with it.

Liked it

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Two things to highlight about this book:
ABRIDGED
FICTION
This book is so good, it was a crime to chop it.
The writing is practically perfect, so is the narration.
I have never read Joyce Carol Oates but now I have another one lined up from her, which is unfortunately not on Audible. Not a problem, I will need to read Blonde as well anyway, because now that I have been so inattentive and bought the ABRIDGED version and heard the beautiful narration, I can't make myself to return it but I want the whole story.
The book wants to capture the essence of Marilyn the girl and the woman, but it is important to realise that although a lot of the characters really existed and knew her, while some are inspired by people she knew, this is FICTION.
To me, the performer's breathless, husky voice to represent Marilyn is perfection. She doesn’t overdo her characters, doesn't do "voices" and doesn’t embellish. She is just perfect.

Beautiful writing. Perfect Narration

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Wow. I wonder how many of the viewers of the film of this novel, even know it came from a novel? Even if they did, how many have read/listened to it? Not many, I’ll guess. This is a genuinely caring and interesting novel about it’s subject. It tries to show her as a thoughtful and struggling woman abused by almost all who knew her, at some level. It is all too believable, if difficult to deal with at times.
I would particularly recommend that listeners take in the author interview that is the final chapter. It provides some insight and I’d like to think will strip away much of the silly criticism of the film, too. This is not an attempt to use the image of Monroe, but to explain about the real person behind it. Yes, it’s a fictionalised account of Norma-Jean’s life, but the incidents are taken from known facts about her and similar people’s lives. It’s not an attempt at a Hollywood type of trite biography just like a hundred others. This tries to show us, through fiction, about the sort of upbringing and adult life she struggled through until she succumbed. It is very well written and narrated. If you come to this wanting to know more about her, you will learn more. I can recommend this wholeheartedly. Now, I will watch the film to see how true it is to Joyce Carol Oates’s vision of Monroe’s existence.

Sometimes fiction has more truth than reality can show.

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