My Story

by Marilyn Monroe

Little known and long unavailable, this autobiography, written by actress and starlet Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962), describes her early adolescence, her rise in the film industry from bit player to celebrity, and her marriage to Joe DiMaggio.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, Autobiography, Biography Memoir, History, Media Tie In

152 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1974

About the author

Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was an American actress, model, and singer, who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s and early 1960s.

After spending much of her childhood in foster homes, Monroe began a career as a model, which led to a film contract in 1946 with Twentieth Century-Fox. Her early film appearances were minor, but her performances in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve (both 1950), drew attention. By 1952 she had her first leading role in Don't Bother to Knock and 1953 brought a lead in Niagara, a melodramatic film noir that dwelt on her seductiveness. Her "dumb blonde" persona was used to comic effect in subsequent films such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and The Seven Year Itch (1955). Limited by typecasting, Monroe studied at the Actors Studio to broaden her range. Her dramatic performance in Bus Stop (1956) was hailed by critics and garnered a Golden Globe nomination. Her production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, released The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination and won a David di Donatello award. She received a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Some Like It Hot (1959). Monroe's last completed film was The Misfits, co-starring Clark Gable with screenplay by her then-husband, Arthur Miller.

Marilyn was a passionate reader, owning four hundred books at the time of her death, and was often photographed with a book.

The final years of Monroe's life were marked by illness, personal problems, and a reputation for unreliability and being difficult to work with. The circumstances of her death, from an overdose of barbiturates, have been the subject of conjecture. Though officially classified as a "probable suicide", the possibility of an accidental overdose, as well as of homicide, have not been ruled out. In 1999, Monroe was ranked as the sixth greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute. In the decades following her death, she has often been cited as both a pop and a cultural icon as well as the quintessential American sex symbol.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

In addition to the gorgeous photographs taken by Milton Greene, I find this half-formed book fascinating for three reasons: for the way the ghost of Marilyn Monroe haunts our image of sensuality, for the way the ghost of Norma Jean Mortenson haunts the image of Marilyn Monroe, and for the way the ghost of ghost-writer Ben Hecht haunts the first person voice of this artful, unfinished narrative.

Three nights ago, for the umpteenth time, I watched Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and for the first time in many viewings I took my eyes off Jane Russell (my favorite, the sex symbol a man could have a beer with) and gazed steadily at the perfectly-crafted image of Marilyn Monroe. It was weird for me, for, in spite of how fascinating she is, I felt compelled to avert my gaze, as if I were peeping at the nakedness of a divinity, as if I were staring presumptuously into a sacred fire. How could the image of one woman, dead for fifty years, still channel so powerfully the archetype of The Goddess? My Story provides a few hints, but no real answers.

Perhaps it is easier for The Goddess to possess a girl who is unsure of her own identity. Young Norma Jean Mortenson was unsure of everything: who her parents were, what it might feel like to be loved, even the legitimacy of the name by which she was called. (She did not know her father, but she knew his name was not “Mortenson.”) Later, when she began to “develop,” she felt alienated from her own body, and thought of it as something other than herself, her “magic friend.” She states that she never realized her “magic friend” was causing sexual feelings in the boys in her math class, because she, at this stage in her life, had no sexual feelings at all. Sure, she consciously dressed in a revealing sweater, and practiced a new “languorous” walk, but still she continued to be bemused and surprised at her effect on the men around her. Perhaps that way it was easier for The Goddess to begin to do her work.

I think, though, that one of the most intriguing thing about My Story is the presence (and absence) of the voice of its ghost writer, the legendary screen-writer Ben Hecht (Scarface, Twentieth Century, Nothing Sacred, and more than a score of uncredited contributions to classics such as A Star is Born, Gone With the Wind, and The Shop Around the Corner). A couple of years after he scripted one of her best early comic performances (Monkey Business), he was hired to get her story down on paper, based on personal interviews and taped conversations. I surmise that the cynical ex-newspaper reporter only gradually warmed to the collaboration, that he often wearied of her tearful delivery and her doeful revelations: his nicknames for her were “the Ex-Orphan” and "La Belle Bumps and Tears." Eventually, though, Hecht seemed to see her emotional reaction as an advantage for him, for as he remarked, “the moment a true thing comes out of her mouth, her eyes shed tears. She's like her own Lie Detector." The completed memoir was also supposed to include her ascension to stardom, Gentleman Prefer Blondes, the death of her Aunt Grace, and her wish to give birth to a child. But—alas!--the marriage with DiMaggio became too combative, and the whole project was scrapped.

Hecht does an excellent job of re-creating the voice of the wide-eyed Norma Jean, but there are moments—references to pushcart peddlers, a sexual “vampire,” a woman with a rose in her teeth—that sound more like the voice of the 60-year-old screenwriter than the superstar still in her late 20's. And there's one anecdote--about a nice young war veteran hawking miniature silver stars in Union Station who asks Norma Jean to marry him--which sounds just like one of Hecht's "cold city with a warm heart" vignettes, straight out of something like his own Miracle in the Rain.

But that's okay. Looking for the ghost of the cynical old screenwriter in this book's simple, well-crafted prose is one of the fascinating pleasures of reading My Story.

[Issa Deerbany · Rating 4 out of 5]

مذكرات جميلة لمارلين مونرو وتمنيت انها مكتملة.

عندما شاهدت افلامها وهذا طبعا منذ فترة طويلة لم اشعر انها ممثلة عظيمة بل شاهدت امرأة تملك جسدا مثيرا وتعتمد عليه في هذه الشهرة . المذكرات تدور حول هذه النقطة فهي تريد ان يقوم المنتجون والمخرجون بمعاملتها انها ممثلة جيدة ولكنهم استمروا بالنظر اليها على انها سلعة يحبها الجمهور وتحقق لهم الأرباح الكبيرة .

أسوأ ما في الكتاب هي مقدمة المترجم فقد أشعرني انه مقدم على ترجمة تحفة ادبية عظيمة كالالياذة والأوديسة او الجحيم لدانتي ، فهي اولا وأخيرا مذكرات لممثلة ومن خلال المذكرات نفسها انها كانت ذات ثقافة ضحلة وتعليم سيّء.

ولكن للامانة فالترجمة رائعة جدا.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story behind My Story, the only book credited to Marilyn Monroe, is beguiling as almost everything that has orbited the screen sex goddess since her death in 1962 at the age of 36. Published in 1974 by Stein and Day under the title The Unfinished Biography of Marilyn Monroe, the book is a collection of anecdotes by Monroe and Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky in 1954 to acclaimed screenwriter Ben Hecht, who'd been hired as ghostwriter on a Marilyn autobiography. Hecht's abandoned work was later revised and published by photographer Milton Greene, who established rights to the manuscript and whose photos of Monroe are included in the book.

Monroe's anecdotes focus on her impoverished childhood as an orphan in Los Angeles, her struggle to prove she could make a living as a motion picture actress and some of the experiences she had along the way. Historical detail is fleeting, emotional truth runs high. Her first marriage (at age 16 to James Doughtery) and second marriage (to Joe DiMaggio at age 28) are covered briefly, as is her sexual abuse as a foster child and failed romances, to lovers who are named or remain unnamed. These accounts are more candid than I expected, particularly when they come to Monroe's openness about her depression and feelings of intellectual inferiority.

Highlights include:

-- My mother's best friend was a woman named Grace. I called nearly everybody I knew Aunt or Uncle, but Aunt Grace was a different sort of make believe relative. She became my best friend, too. Aunt Grace worked as a film librarian in the same studio as my mother--Columbia Pictures. She was the first person who ever patted my head or touched my cheek. That happened when I was eight. I can still remember how thrilled I felt when her kind hand touched me.

-- My admirers all said the same thing in different ways. It was my fault, their wanting to kiss and hug me. Some said it was the way I looked at them--with eyes full of passion. Others said it was my voice that lured them on. Still others said I gave off vibrations that floored them. I always felt they were talking about somebody else, not me. It was like being told they were attracted to me because of my diamonds and rubies. I not only had no passion in me, I didn't even know what it meant.



-- The Hollywood I knew was the Hollywood of failure. Nearly everybody I met suffered from malnutrition or suicide impulses. We ate at drugstore counters. We sat in waiting rooms. We were the prettiest tribe of panhandlers that ever overran a town. And there were so many of us! Beauty contest winners, flashy college girls, home grown sirens from every state in the union. From cities and farms. From factories, vaudeville circuits, dramatic schools, and one from an orphan asylum. And around us were the wolves.

-- There's another sort of man I've never liked--the sort that's afraid of insulting you. They always end up insulting you worse than anybody. I much prefer a man to be a wolf and, if he has decided to make a pass at me, to make it and have it over with. First of all, a pass is never entirely unpleasant because men who make passes are usually bright and good-looking. Secondly, you don't have to sit around with a wolf and listen to a lot of double talk about income taxes and what's wrong with the situation in India while he gets up enough courage to get into action.



-- The truth is I've never fooled anyone. I've let men sometimes fool themselves. Men sometimes didn't bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn't argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn't. When they found this out, they would blame me for disillusioning them--and fooling them.

I have even tried to be straightforward with women. This is more difficult than being straightforward with men. Men are often pleased when you tell them the truth about how you feel. But very few women want to hear the truth--if it's going to be in any way annoying. As far as I can make out, women's friendships with each other are based on a gush of lies and pretty speeches than mean nothing. You'd think they were all trying to seduce each other the way they flatter and flirt when they're together.



-- We sat a long time and discussed a new name for me. The casting director had suggested I think up some more glamorous name than Norma Dougherty. "The man at the studio suggested Marilyn," I said. "That's a nice name," my Aunt said, "and it fits with your mother's maiden name." I didn't know what that was. "She was a Monroe," said Aunt Grace. "Her family goes way back. I have some papers and letters I'm keeping for your mother. They show that she was related to President Monroe of the United States."

-- Success came to me in a rush. It surprised my employers much more than it did me. Even if I had played only bit parts in a few films, all the movie magazines and newspapers started printing my picture and giving me write-ups. I used to tell lies in my interviews--chiefly about my mother and father. I'd say she was dead--and he was somewhere in Europe. I lied because I was ashamed to have the world know my mother was in a mental institution--and that I had been born "out of wedlock" and never heard my illegal father's voice.



There are at least three versions of any story: my version, your version and the truth. Based on what amounts to little more than a coffee table book, My Story definitely made me hungry for more details about Norma Jean Baker/ Marilyn Monroe. The icon's name alone brings to mind a mutant from the X-Men comic books, like Raven Darkhölme/ Mystique. Norma Jean has a past as obscure as her identity. Marilyn is a powerful chameleon who had a profound impact on the mortals she came into contact with. Marilyn Monroe: The Biography by Donald Spoto and Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates await.

[عماد العتيلي · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marilyn Monroe!
Judging by her songs and movies, I've always looked at her as a sex icon! I've never imagined her to be such a deep and wonderful writer!

I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but I can tell you that as of this moment, this woman has become one of my favorite characters! She's become one of my teachers!
She taught me a very important lesson: not to judge people, and to know that when I judge people I actually judge myself! When I say: "Marilyn is a bad person", I actually say: "I'm a bad person"!!!

"People had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind of a mirror instead of a person. They didn’t see me, they saw their own lewd thoughts. Then they white-masked themselves by calling me the lewd one.”

After I finished this amazing memoir, I mourned Marilyn. Her entire life - especially her childhood - was tragic! Now, when I look at her pictures I see a huge amount of bitterness in her eyes! I know now that, regardless of her enormous fame, she was a very sad person!
She was just a little innocent sweet girl, who wanted to be happy.
She didn't know her father, and her mother was sent to a mental institution when Marilyn was little! Her only family was her aunt Grace.

{ this is one of my favorite parts }:

"But there was no bitterness in my aunt. Her heart remained tender, and she believed in God. Nearly everybody I knew talked to me about God. They always warned me not to offend Him. But when Grace talked about God, she touched my cheek and said that He loved me and watched over me. Remembering what Grace had said I lay in bed at night crying to myself. The only One who loved me and watched over me was Someone I couldn’t see or hear or touch”

I highly recommend this book to all of my dear friends.

R.I.P Marilyn.

[میعاد · Rating 5 out of 5]

.چادر پُر از آدم شده بود و همه داشتند به سخنان مُبلّغ گوش می کردند. او در مورد گناه در جهان هم سرود می خواند هم صحبت می کرد. ناگهان خطاب به گناهکاران چادر گفت که همگی در درگاه خداوند بلند شوند و توبه کنند. من زودتر از همه بلند شدم و شروع به اعتراف گناهم کردم. او گفت: به زانو بیفت خواهر !
به زانو افتادم و شروع کردم به حرف زدن در مورد آقای کیمل که چطور مرا در اتاقش گیر انداخت و به من تجاوز کرد. دیگر گناهکاران نیز دورم جمع شدند و به زانو افتادند و با گریه و زاری شروع کردند به اعتراف در مورد گناهان شان و من از گود بیرون افتادم.

به پشت سرم نگاه کردم، دیدم آقای کیمل بین بی گناهان ایستاده است و با صدای بلند و خالصانه از خداوند می خواهد که گناهِ گناهکاران را ببخشاید.


مدتها بود كه به يه كتاب ٥ ستاره نداده بودم،واقعن لذت بردم!!! چقدر شخصيتش به دور از تصوراتى بود كه من ازش داشتم...

چقدر خوبه كه يكى انقدر راحت از همه اتفاقات زندگيش بگه، اونم كسى مثل مريلين مونرو كه تو دوره خودش ستاره بوده و حتا الانم بعد اينهمه سال جايگاه خاصى داره!!

پيشنهاد ميكنم كه بخونيدش ! نه به عنوان يه بيوگرافى به عنوان زندگى عجيب و جذاب يك انسان...

[EMMA · Rating 5 out of 5]

چقد زندگي سختي داشته،اصن نميدونستم

[sAmAnE · Rating 4 out of 5]

اصلا فکر نمیکردم مریلین مونرو که نماد واقعی یک آفرودیته همچین زندگی ای داشته، خیلی کتاب جالبی بود برام👏🏻

[Newby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another really fabulous autobiography. I wish it was longer. It answers all the questions about Marilyn's youth and takes you up until she starts touring with the troops. She was a very smart lady. It does make me wonder, however, why every Marilyn biopic totally screws up the story of her youth. You can read it in her own words! There's no excuse to get the story wrong! And it's very dramatic, so it's not like any drama is added by changing the story. See? This is why I prefer autobiographies. Other people screw up the details. Read this book- it's fabulous!

[Ahmed · Rating 4 out of 5]

قصتي.....مارلين مونرو

من هي تلك الفاتنة؟ أهي مجرد أنثى جميلة تم تصديرها كواجهة للثقافة الأمريكية؟ أم ممثلة محدودة الموهبة لم تمتلك إلا فتنة طاغية؟ أهي عشيقة كينيدي المفضلة وزوجة الكاتب الشهير آرثر ميلر؟

أم إنها مجرد إمرأة امتلكت من الإمكانيات ما يضمن لها حياة مديدة،امتلكت الشهرة والسلطة والنفوذ وقلوب الرجال ما يجعلها ملكة موجة،ولكن مع كل ذلك ابتليت بعقل يفكر ولا يكتفي،ابتليت بنفس تطمح في الراحة،فلم تجدها في حياة مصطنعة مهما كانت مريحة وارتاحت بموت أشبه بهروب من ضجيج الحياة.

هذا الكتاب هو مارلين،الحقيقية الصادقة،لا تخجل من حياتها ولا تهرب من نفسها بل تقول وتصارح وتعترف،ورغم أن الكتاب يغطي جزء معين في حياتها،إلا أنه يضمن لنا معرفة كاملة وصادقة بتلك الأنثى الجميلة.

ترجمة النص بليغة بحس أدبي بديع،ومقدمته تستحق الوقوف احتراما لكاتبها.

[Basim Mahmoud · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ladies and Gentile men,

Marilyn Monroe finally speaks Arabic,

and The Master is: Basim Mahmoud

[Camie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Supposedly written in her own words and published 10 years after her death in 1962, this is an unfinished account of some of the transitions Norma Jean Mortensen , who spent her childhood in a procession of foster homes and unyielding poverty made to become the Marilyn Monroe of legends. I haven't read much about Monroe, but still found her story to be tragic. Elton John's famous tribute to her story, Candle In The Wind likens her to a candle in the wind "never knowing who to turn to when the rain came in " and at least in this story which certainly captures her vulnerability, we see that to be true. As the continued lyrics say, I would have liked to know you, but I was just a kid, the candle burned out long before the legend ever did. The heartbreaking part is that the great acceptance and recognition she so longed for did finally arrive ... just much too late and for the most part posthumously after her life was cut short at age 36. 3.5 stars

[Yara Yu · Rating 3 out of 5]

كم شخصية مشهورة في العالم يحسدها الجميع علي ما تمتلكه من شهرة وسعادة ومجد وعند النظر عن قرب لحياتهم تجد التعاسة تتخلل الي كل تفاصيلها

مارلين مونرو الغانية عن التعريف من أجمل نساء هوليود وملكة الاغراء لا يجد أحد صوره لها في حياتها وحتي بعد موتها ولا يحسدها علي كم هذا الجمال الذي بها والسعادة التي تظهر علي ضحكتها دائما والشهرة والمجد
ولكن وراء كل ذلك كانت طفلة يتيمة مشردة لا أب ولا أم تتنقل بين العائلات ودور الرعاية لتعيش لتكبر وتبحث عن الشهره لعلها تجد الاهتمام
واذا بها تدخل في علاقات مؤذية باحثة عن الحب والحنان تزيد من حياتها تعاسة أكتر
سيرة تعيسة لممثلة يحسدها الجميع علي كل ما تملك

[Paria · Rating 4 out of 5]

داستان زندگی مریلین مونرو از زبان خودش که به قلم خودش نوشته شده و ده سال پس از مرگش منتشر شده. نورما جین، دختری که حاصل یه رابطه ی نامشروع بوده، پدرش هرگز اونو نپذیرفته، و مادرش هم به یه بیمارستان روانی منتقل شده، سال ها بعد تبدیل به جذاب ترین زن قرن بیستم میشه. تا پیش از رفتن مادرش به تیمارستان، در ازای پرداخت یه پول کم، خانواده های بی بضاعت اون رو به عنوان خدمتکار خودشون میپذیرن و در عوض اجازه میدن با اونا زندگی کنه. توی 9 سالگی بهش تجاوز میشه و توی 15 سالگی مجبور میشه به ازدواج تن بده تا مجبور به زندگی توی خونه ی دیگران نباشه. تمام سال هایی که تلاش میکنه بازیگر بشه، بارها و بارها با پیشنهادهای بیشرمانه مواجه میشه.
کتاب خیلی زیباییه و چقدر تعجب برانگیزه که یه سلبریتی در اوج شهرت حاضر به چاپ چنین مطالبی بشه. این نوشته ها تقریبا هشت سال آخر زندگیش رو شامل نمیشن. به همین دلیل وقایع مربوط به ازدواج با آرتور میلر توی کتاب قید نشده. کتاب از لحاظ ادبی و متن نگارش قوی نیست. که یا به ترجمه برمیگرده و یا به این دلیله که مریلین مونرو نویسنده نبوده و فقط خاطراتش رو به رشته ی تحریر دراورده.

95/11/6

[Nada Elshabrawy · Rating 4 out of 5]

جميل جدًا, يعيبه فقط انه انتهى بسرعة, الله يرحمك يا مارلين.

[Annie · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s something about this one that puts me ill at ease. I either don’t believe Monroe wrote this at all (it was, after all, an admitted collaboration with a ghostwriter— and it was only published after her death) or else I believe Monroe wrote it insincerely, as an autobiography that suited/enhanced her public persona.

I just don’t see how this infantile, blushing voice belongs to the same person who reads Turgenev, Zola, Proust, Joyce, Camus, Mann, Aristophanes, Aristotle, and Lucretius, or to the same person who started her own production company and broke an unfair contract with a gigantic film company and started something of a revolution in the film industry.

I don’t see how that woman could say things like "I bought woolen suits because I remembered that New York and Chicago were in the North. I had seen them in the movies blanketed with snow. I forgot it was summertime there as well as in LA."

Now, does that sound like something any competent person (in their twenties) would say? Or does it sound like something that fits into the carefully curated persona of a dizzy little dream of a working class girl whose cup size is higher than her IQ?

Yeah.

I also struggle to harbour any warm feelings for a woman who perceives all other women as bitches who just aren’t good enough to satisfy their husbands. And that “women’s friendships with each other are based on a gush of lies and pretty speeches that mean nothing. You’d think they were all wolves trying to seduce each other the way they flatter and flirt when they’re together.”

For that, I sincerely hope Monroe had no hand in this ‘autobiography.’ Because I kind of hate her if she did.

It’s also a little too tidy. Everything fits together too tightly—like a novel more than an autobiography. And the emphasis is in the wrong events for me to believe it’s a genuine autobiography.

Still, I guess whoever wrote it, whether Monroe herself or a friend, at least it provides some sense of her and her life. And it had its moments.

[Sara Jesus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nunca foi uma grande fã do trabalho de Marilyn como actriz. No entanto esta personalidade é uma das personalidades que mais me tem inspirado ao longo da minha curta vida. Pois ela foi capaz de lutar pelos seus sonhos, por mais que os outros dissessem que ela não podia.

Começou por ser modelo, depois actriz e actualmente é um ícone de moda para muitas gerações. O mundo só a valorizou realmente depois de ela ter morrido. Porque será que o ser humano só reconhece o talento dos verdadeiros artistas depois de eles estarem mortos?

Este livro é um conjunto de desabafos escritos pela própria Marilyn Monroe. Conhecemos a sua dura infância, os seus medos, os seus sonhos e os seus amores. Entendemos que na verdade ela era uma mulher bastante frágil e solitária. Não mostrava realmente para os outros quem realmente era.

Foi um livro muito agradável de se ler. A muito tempo que queria ler algo escrito por Marilyn. Sei que também escreveu poemas. Assisti o documentário que fizeram sobre a sua vida. E por fim por dois anos ou três passou uma série na TV intitulada "Smash" que foi inspirada na figura de Marilyn Monroe. Durante muito tempo foi a minha série favorita. E ainda hoje adoro ouvir as músicas (pois tinha o formato de um espectáculo de Broadway). Marilyn Monroe é uma figura que deve ser mais valorizada, não pelo seu corpo bonito mas pela sua inteligente mente.

[فهد الفهد · Rating 4 out of 5]

قصتي.. مارلين مونرو

مارلين مونرو مثال دائم على قسوة الوسط الفني، وصعوبة حياة النجومية والأضواء، امرأة فاتنة وذات شخصية طفولية، عاشت حياة صعبة جداً وفي فقر وجوع قبل أن تتحول إلى معشوقة الملايين وصديقة للرئيس الأمريكي جون كينيدي – نظريات المؤامرة تقترح أن جون وروبرت كينيدي كانا خلف مقتلها -، ولكن هذا كله لم يمنحها إلا شعور من التعاسة، وهذه حالة غريبة من عدم التوازن نجدها لدى بعض الفنانين والذين يسقطون تحت تأثير الكحول والمخدرات والعنف، هل هي ضغوطات العمل في بيئة تنافسية شرسة، النجومية فيها سريعة الزوال، والكل يحاول إسقاط الآخرين؟ ربما!! وربما يعود ذلك إلى التعب والإنهاك والإحباط الذي يمرون به، هناك أسباب كثيرة، وقصص صرعى هوليود كثر.

لهذه السيرة ميزة هي قوتها وضعفها، قوتها هي أنها قريبة جداً من مارلين، فهي من تروي قصتها، وضعفها هو أنها سيرة ناقصة، فيما تحتاج شخصية مثل مارلين إلى سيرة ذاتية شاملة، تحلل شخصيتها وأعمالها وزمنها وعلاقاتها، والنظريات حول مقتلها، فمارلين ليست مجرد فنانة أمريكية، وإنما هي رمز لحقبة زمنية مهمة من تاريخ أمريكا.

[Wissal H · Rating 4 out of 5]

قصة ملكة الإغراء و الجمال على مر التاريخ مارلين مونرو .. الجميلة التعيسة للأسف.

حالها كحال العديد م الفنانين الذين بدأوا من تحت الصفر و الذين عانوا من الفقر المدقع لسنوات عديدة.

جميلة السينما العالمية كانت واحدة منهم و طبعا فقرها و ضعفها عرضها للاستغلال و تقديم التنازلات لربح المال من أجل لقمة عيشها، تعاطفت معها كثيرا خصوصا في بداياتها الأولى و ماعانته لمدة طويلة.

وكيف يمكن تصديق أن أيقونة الجمال عانت كل هذه المآسي قبل نجاحها و سطوعها في سماء السينما العالمية و تحفر لنفسها مكانة كبيرة و تفاجئ كل ما راهن على فشلها ..

مارلين مونرو حالها حال الجميلات في الحب لم تكن قصة حبها و زواجها من أنجح ما يكون كما أن هذه السيرة الذاتية كانت من كتابتها من خلال رسائل كانت قد كتبتها من قبل لتنشر بعد ذالك بسنوات، سردت معاناة طفولتها البائسة و مراهقتها المحرومة من الكثير من الأشياء و كذالك بداياتها الأولى في استوديوهات التمثيل وما عانته من إقصاء و استغلال.

قصة تعاطفت معها من خلال العديد من المواقف المؤثرة و المؤلمة
❤️

[Mahmoud Masoud · Rating 3 out of 5]

فصول من حياة نورما جين، المعروفة بإسم "مارلين مونرو". حكايتها من الفقر والتنقل من أسرة إلى أخرى، إلى الشهرة وشاشات السينما.

الفصول قد تبدو مفككة إلى حدٍ ما، مع ذلك كنت أتمنى لو تطول أكثر، حيث لا تغطي هذه السيرة سوى سنوات حياتها الأول، وبداية مشوارها في هوليوود.

[Laurel-Rain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written at the height of her fame but not published until over a decade after her death, this autobiography of actress and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) poignantly recounts her childhood as an unwanted orphan, her early adolescence, her rise in the film industry from bit player to celebrity, and her marriage to Joe DiMaggio.

The Marilyn on these pages is a revelation: a gifted, intelligent, vulnerable woman who was far more complex than the unwitting sex siren she portrayed on screen. Lavishly illustrated with photos of Marilyn taken by renowned photographer Milton H. Greene, this special book celebrates the life and career of an American icon—from the unique perspective of the icon herself.

There is apparently some doubt as to whether or not Marilyn actually wrote the words in this book, or if someone else did it for her. In either case, there is a poignancy about the book that is haunting.

Like many women growing up when I did, Marilyn was definitely a screen star in every sense of the word. Larger than life, glamorous, enviable...But then the image began to slip a bit, with stories of her various mishaps—her unreliability, her marital discords, her futile attempts to have a baby. Then one tragic night in August 1962, the whirlwind life of Marilyn was over. But the stories continued as the media ruthlessly circled the life and times of Marilyn, speculating about whether or not she died accidentally, or in a suicide attempt. Then later, there were conspiracy theories, hints of murder. But none of those questions were answered.

When I bought this illustrated tome a couple of years ago, I was hoping to find information not previously known to the public. Perhaps a peek into her world through her own eyes. Hearing the story in her words (if they are her words) satisfied some of that curiosity; she came across as a wounded, but spirited woman who always dreamed big, despite the odds. She conveyed that famously described depth often belied by the surface exterior.

The most chilling words in this "memoir" are the prescient vision she had of herself as "the kind of girl they found dead in the hall bedroom with an empty bottle of sleeping pills in her hand."

None of us growing up in the fifties will ever forget Marilyn, and her story lives on in the various books out there. But her own story in her own words adds significantly to the collection.

I give "My Story" four stars, primarily because so much is left unanswered....but then again, at the end of this book, the collaborator's note says: "This is where Marilyn's manuscript ended when she gave it to me." A book unfinished, perhaps—just like her life.

[Rosita · Rating 4 out of 5]

همیشه برام دوست داشتنی بود. کل دنیا مریلین مونرو رو می‌شناسن اما بعد از خوندن این کتاب بود که "نورا جین" رو شناختم.
خیلییییی غم‌انگیزه . انقدری که واقعا الان عصبانی‌ام! مطمئنم مریلین هیچوقت فکر نمی‌کرد جاودانه بشه و اینکه تبدیل به یک اسطوره شده زیباست، ولی اینکه تبدیل به یک نماد جنسی شد و به او لقب " زن بلوند خنگ" دادند منصفانه نیست!
مریلین چیزی فراتر از اینها بود. اون عاشق هنر و یادگیری و مطالعه، و سرشار از عشق بود . دوست داشت کلکسیون کتاب جمع کنه، بتونه دانشگاه بره.... حقش این نیست که اینطوری با این دید سطحی ازش یاد بشه.
راستش پشیمونم که ترجمه کتاب رو خوندم . باید سراغ زبان اصلیش برم، مطمئنم حذفیات زیاد داره . متاسفانه داستان تا نیمه‌ی راه زندگی هستش و نمیتونیم احساسات و زاویه دید مریلین رو درمورد ازدواج با آرتور میلر، ماجراهایی که با رئیس جمهور کندی میوفته و غیره رو هم درک کنیم .
کاشکی میشد بفهمیم واقعا آخرین روز زندگیش چی گذشت.
و کاشکی نمیفهمیدم بعد از مرگش چی بهش گذشت... بهتره بگم ای‌کاش همچین اتفاقی نمیوفتاد....
واقعا حالم از بعضی آدمها و وسواسشون بهم میخوره که متاسفانه کم هم نیستن.
________
مریلین در کتاب اشاره میکنه که گاهی مردم اون رو یک آیینه می‌ديدند نه یک انسان . به او نگاه می‌کنند و کمبودها و یا افکار و فانتزی‌های جنسیشون رو می‌بینند. و بخاطر این موضوع اون رو شماتت می‌کنند.

[Flora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Her unfinished memoir, and a spare, no-nonsense one. It by no means aims for thoroughness, and in fact simply offers a series of brief, haunting accounts of episodes in her life, most of which have little or nothing to do with her stardom. The first chapter, for instance, is called, "How I Rescued a White Piano," and delivers with disarming matter-of-factness an innocuous little story that reveals more about her tragic childhood than if she had addressed it directly. If this book had been a novel about a completely made-up person, I'd be utterly taken with it and its author. Strange and un-pretty, and lovely.

[Fatemeh Nazari · Rating 3 out of 5]

«سومین کتاب از چالش تابستونیِ پنج کتاب در ده روز ~چالش اینستاگرامی~»
من خلاصه ی زندگی مرلین مونرو رو می‌دونستم. اسم اصلیش نورما جینه و حاصل یه رابطه ی نامشروع بوده و پدرش رو هیچ وقت از نزدیک ندیده. مادرش بیماری روانی داشته و تو بیمارستان بستری بوده. نورما جین تو یتیم خونه بزرگ میشه و گاهی فرستاده می‌شده پیش خانواده های مختلف و اونجا کار می‌کرده. تو ۹ سالگی بهش تجاوز میشه و در نوجوانی هم ازدواج می‌کنه و تو ۱۹ سالگی طلاق می‌گیره و بعد از اون تصمیم می‌گیره هنرپیشه بشه اما به مشکلات خیلی زیادی برمی‌خوره که مهم ترینش اینه که همه (از جمله رئیس های استدیو های سینمایی) دیدِ جنسی بهش داشتن. یه عده هم معتقد بودن قیافه ی خوبی نداره و خوش عکس نیست!!!
از ماجرای شکست عشقیش میگه و از ازدواج دومش.
بیشتر کتاب درمورد هالیووده. از کثیفی های هالیوود حرف می‌زنه و خیلی چیزای دیگه.
من خیلی طرفدار مرلین مونرو نیستم و علاوه بر اون متن کتاب از لحاظ ادبی ارزش چندانی نداره و مدام از موضوعی به موضوع دیگه ای می‌پره و برای همین یکم برام خسته کننده بود.
یه جاهایی اواخر کتاب مرلین درموردِ افسردگیش بعد از شهرت چند خط میگه اما توضیح زیادی نمیده. من خیلی دنبال این بودم که بیشتر بگه و بنویسه که چرا بعد از این همه سختی کشیدن برای رسیدن به هدفش یهو احساس پوچی کرد.
اما به هر حال دونستن زندگی آدم های مشهور و مشکلاتی که داشتن در راه رسیدن به شهرتشون، چیز خوبیه و همیشه ازش استقبال می‌کنم.

[Zahra · Rating 4 out of 5]

از دیگر اشکالاتم این بود که قادر نبودم همیشه در مهمانی ها غش غش بخندم، انگار که دارد خیلی خوش میگذرد، یا این که نمیتوانستم عین بلبل ها بی وقفه حرف بزنم، که البته این عیب ها از خیلی عیب های اجتماعی دیگر که در دیگران می دیدم، بی اهمیت تر به نظر میرسید.
بدترین چیزی که در لباس عوض کردن و مهمانی رفتن برای مردم اتفاق می افتد این است که خود واقعی شان را در خانه شان جا میگذراند. آن ها عین بازیگری که در صحنه است، نقش فرد دیگری را بازی می کنند.آن ها نقش یک آدم مهم را بازی می کنند و دوست دارند شما هم این فرد مهم را ببینید نه خود واقعی آن ها را. اما بدتر از آن، این حقیقت است که وقتی مردم “اجتماعی” می شوند، شهامت انسان بودن یا باهوش بودن را ندارند. اصلا شهامت این را ندارند که به هیچ چیز دیگری غیر از آدم هایی که در آن مهمانی حضور دارند فکر کنند! مردها و زن های مهمانی نه تنها لباس هایشان عین هم است بلکه مغزهایشان هم عین هم است و همه از یکدیگر انتظار دارند که حرفی غیر از از مهمانی و لوازمات آن نزنند.

[Koala · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب جذابی برای من بود.
خیلی حزن آور بود.
مرلین آدم جالب و قوی‌ای بوده.

[Nazanin Moshiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب شرح زندگانی مرلین مونرو ، ستاره ی جذاب و جنجالی سینماست.
 نثر چندان قابل قبولی نداشت چون از زبان خود او نوشته شده و طبیعتا نمی توان انتظاری در حد نویسنده ای ماهر از او داشت.
بیشتر مربوط به دوران نوجوانی و ابتدای جوانی ست و کمبود های آن دوران . ای کاش شخصی که این خاطرات را گردآورده ، در رابطه با دوران اوج شهرت ستاره و سال های انتهای زندگی خصوصا ازدواج با آرتور میلر هم مطالبی اضافه می کرد.

با این که مرلین مونرو به هیچ وجه از بازیگران محبوب من نیست ولی نمی توان از خواندن این کتاب گذشت.
ناگفته نماند که با دانستن نکات بیشتری از او ، تا حدودی ذهنیتم درباره ی شخصیتش عوض شد.

[Ali Najafy · Rating 3 out of 5]

چهره واقعی هالیوود و زندگی یک ستاره

بعد از خوندن کتاب دلم برای مرلین مونرو سوخت
به خاطر همه‌ی مشکلاتی که پشت سر گذاشت و نتیجه‌ای که در پایان مورد پسندش نبود
کاش به جای اینکه تبدیل به سمبل جنسی بشه
فقط به عنوان یک بازیگر خوب معروف میشد


" همیشه با این جور برخوردها مشکل داشتم ، مردم همیشه طوری به من نگاه می‌کردند که انگار آینه‌ای روبه‌روی‌شان بودم ، آن ها مرا نمی‌دیدند ، بلکه افکار هرزه خودشان را در من می‌دیدند.
بعد نقاب بی‌گناهی به چهره می‌زدند و مرا هرزه می‌خواندند! "

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I didn’t mind being a goof if only he loved me. I felt when we were together that I walked in the gutter and he on the sidewalk. All I did was keep looking up to see if there was love in his eyes.”

[Sadra Kharrazi · Rating 3 out of 5]

دیگه وقتی دنیا با مرلینِ زیبا انقدر بی‌رحم بوده، از نحوه رفتارش با منِ چپرچلاق خیلی نباید انتظار داشته باشم یا تعجب کنم...

[Atefeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

اتوبیوگرافی ها را دوست دارم چون هیچکس اندازه خود شخص نسبت بهش شناخت ندارد
هرچند ممکن است بعضی جاها نسبت به احتمال اغراق یا صحت اتفاق شک کنم اما باز هم برایم شیرین تر از بیوگرافی است
چون حتی اگر آن اتفاق به نحوی که تعریف شده رخ نداده باشد باز هم بخشی از شخصیت نویسنده را بازگو میکند که حداقل دوست داشته اینچنین شود
من از مرلین مونرو در حد شنیده ها و یک مستند که نصفه دیدم شناخت خیلی کمی داشتم. این کتاب روایت خوبیست از نورماجین تا مرلین.
متن روان و دوست داشتنی که در مدت کوتاهی خوانده میشود.

من چاپ دوم این کتاب را از نشر میلکان خواندم علی رغم ترجمه خوب اما کاش متن ویرایش شود