The Missing Person

by Doris Grumbach

The Missing Person is a tellingly achieved fusion of thought and action and the most fully realized evocation of Hollywood themes in a long, long time.” ―Alan Cheuse, Los Angeles Herald Examiner The Missing Person is a daring work that tells the story of Franny Fuller, the sexy, voluptuous movie star whose glorious blonde mane and whispery voice have aroused the fascination of every gossip columnist and moviegoer in the country. But beneath her radiant, compelling image lives still the frightened little girl from upstate New York. Define only by the way the studios, the flacks, her husbands and lovers, and the public perceive her, Franny Fuller is a “missing person,” no more tangible than the image projected of her on a thousand silver screens. Framing her portrait of Franny Fuller within a persuasive and moving story, Doris Grumbach has created a haunting work that probes the private misery behind public glamour.

Genres: Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Doris Grumbach is an American novelist, biographer, literary critic, and essayist. She taught at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, and was literary editor of the The New Republic for several years. Since 1985, she has had a bookstore, Wayward Books, in Sargentville, Maine, that she operates with her partner, Sybil Pike.

Reviews

[Gribblet · Rating 1 out of 5]

Blech. A thinly veiled fantasy about Marilyn. Basically, she's crazy and fucks everybody. Natch. Better executed than conceived.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this book 30 years ago. It was a big influence on me as a writer, and in terms of my fascination with old movies and Hollywood. Coming back to it much later, I still find it quite enchanting. The main character is partially based on Marilyn Monroe - same wretched childhood, same marriages to an athlete and a writer. However it is set in the Hollywood of the 1930s and 40s, whereas Marilyn came later. As regards Monroe, I think Grumbach gets one thing wrong - her 'Franny Fuller' is very passive, whereas MM, vulnerable as she was, was passionately engaged in creating her own image. I think Grumbach underestimates her in this respect, but even so her point is that star identity is only a cipher. So it shouldn't be taken too literally as a portrait of the 'real' Marilyn. In other respects Grumbach gets it absolutely right, far more so than other, more celebrated literary efforts to capture Monroe's essence. Perhaps this is because Grumbach shows a deep understanding of what is like to be an outsider. Franny's sense of disconnection from reality - seen by some as dumbness, but really an acute sensitivity - is very much like Marilyn and other fallen stars. The writing is, at best, exquisite. Although the real-life references are obvious - a barely-disguised Greta Garbo and John Gilbert also appear, along with several non-celebrities, including a stand-in, a nun, and an outcast black man - The Missing Person is not so much biographical fiction as a kind of expressionist painting in words.

[Andrew Pessin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grumbach writes in a lovely way, a light touch which conveys much -- reminds me a little of penelope fitzgerald -- and is very adept at bringing fairly rich characters to life -- this is a very sad story about a woman who becomes a major hollywood star in the 1920s/1930s -- the reason i didn't give it 5 stars is that the main character, in the end, is not someone you feel warm towards, sympathy for, etc. -- the book was a pleasure to read but in the end I didn't really care what happened to her ....