Describe your latest work. Blueprints of the Afterlife is a novel about the following things: giant heads that appear in the sky, a mystical...
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"The final question, of course, and the ultimate test of Blonde's success: Do we believe it, do we buy it, and this version of her? The answer: Yes, we do believe that this is the 'true' Marilyn Monroe — inasmuch as we'll allow ourselves to believe that there is a "truth" behind an image. By the end of Blonde, not only do we feel as if we know her, we feel as if we are her. She is as searching, conflicted, confused, inspired, and passionate as we hope ourselves to be." Adrienne Miller, Esquire (read the entire Esquire review)
"In Blonde, Joyce Carol Oates has produced a stupefying novel of iconicity. Though Oates has fused some real people into composites, and invented some characters and events out of whole cloth, she has stuck vampirically close to the details of Monroe's biography....Attempting to embellish chronology with an inner life, driving her narrative not with any kind of plot but with the leitmotifs of innocence, fantasy, sexual exploitation and Hollywood baseness, Oates gets very intimate indeed." Lee Siegel, The New Republic
(read The New Republic's entire review)
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis:
In her most ambitious work to date, one of America's most celebrated writers examines the inner, spiritual life of the woman who became Hollywood's most enduring legend--Marilyn Monroe--as seen through her own eyes.
Me Me, January 12, 2012 (view all comments by Me Me)
Joyce Carol Oates, one of the most prolific writers on the planet has written a massive fictional biography that reads as true as today's newspaper but without the journalistic language of a daily. Instead Oates has given us a totally credible life and laid it out on page after page, building the life as she writes - swelling the tragedy as she coaxes the reader along in the balloon that is filled with Marilyn Monroe's heart, lungs, soul and pain. We think we know her story and so willingly travel along on an epic journey of a very shortened life only to still be surprised at the end of Marilyn Monroe's story. I am a Joyce Carol Oates fan and a Marilyn Monroe fan but if a reader is neither he or she will become a fan of both by the end of Blonde. It is an absolute stunner.
Lana, April 9, 2008 (view all comments by Lana)
This book is like a 700 page poem, and reading it feels like hurtling down a dark tunnel when you know what lies at the end. You know how it's going to end, and what the whole book is leading up to, but you can't help hoping that the poor woman will get a break. Oates' beautiful, sensitive, haunting portrayal of the icon Marilyn Monroe leaves you feeling like you've just finished her diary; I constantly had to remind myself that it was fiction, and not to hate JFK too much.
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"Review A Day"
by Adrienne Miller, Esquire,
"The final question, of course, and the ultimate test of Blonde's success: Do we believe it, do we buy it, and this version of her? The answer: Yes, we do believe that this is the 'true' Marilyn Monroe — inasmuch as we'll allow ourselves to believe that there is a "truth" behind an image. By the end of Blonde, not only do we feel as if we know her, we feel as if we are her. She is as searching, conflicted, confused, inspired, and passionate as we hope ourselves to be." (read the entire Esquire review)
"Review A Day"
by ,
"In Blonde, Joyce Carol Oates has produced a stupefying novel of iconicity. Though Oates has fused some real people into composites, and invented some characters and events out of whole cloth, she has stuck vampirically close to the details of Monroe's biography....Attempting to embellish chronology with an inner life, driving her narrative not with any kind of plot but with the leitmotifs of innocence, fantasy, sexual exploitation and Hollywood baseness, Oates gets very intimate indeed." Lee Siegel, The New Republic (read The New Republic's entire review)
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
In her most ambitious work to date, one of America's most celebrated writers examines the inner, spiritual life of the woman who became Hollywood's most enduring legend--Marilyn Monroe--as seen through her own eyes.
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