Dreamlike Life: A Literary Portrait of Marilyn Monroe

Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-07-01
Features: This book was nominated for the 2000 National Book Award in the United States. Oates, a delicate giant in contemporary American literature; Marilyn Monroe, a fallen sex symbol of Hollywood. The strange combination of the two makes this literary portrait both real and illusory, enigmatic and elusive. It erases the gaps of time and space, allowing you to touch the trembling soul directly with a gentle heart. As a sex symbol of the 20th century, Marilyn Monroe's birth remains a mystery, her early death shrouded in fog; her body and passion are an uncontrollable fire; her heart's longing for holiness and perfect art could not stop Hollywood from pushing her into the mire of commercial films. She spent her entire life searching for paternal and romantic love, yet was constantly exploited and harmed by male power. Her thirty-six years were so beautiful, so beautiful, so fragile.
Marilyn Monroe was a sex symbol of 20th-century Hollywood, her life full of legends; Joyce Carol Oates is a renowned serious female writer in contemporary America, enjoying a high reputation in the international literary world. Therefore, Dream Life is a life portrait of a great star by a great writer. Readers will find in this book a biography of Marilyn Monroe unlike any other biographical or works about her.