by Kathryn Hyatt

(c) 1996
Seven Stories Press, New York

"I was standing in my kitchen making toast and thinking about shopping for school clothes, when the news of Marilyn Monroe's suicide came over the radio. That moment, exactly where I stood, the August morning light, are fixed in my memory like a polaroid shot. I was shocked. How could anyone so alive be dead? It hardly mattered that I had never met the woman. By the time I was twelve, Marilyn Monroe already had a grip on my imagination."

Kathryn Hyatt

A Review...

This book is a graphic novel. It is written in the form of a comic book. The art is in black and white sketching and is well done. The artist tries to capture the emotions in Marilyn rather than trying to be anotomically perfect. The author tells the story in a condensed form, time is bent, and characters are combined. So this is a work of fiction, not a true biography. She quotes her primary sources as Guiles, Donald Spoto, and Anthony Summers among others.
It should be noted that this book is adult in nature, due to language and nudity. It is not a comic book for children. It is a book that is unique in its style. The author creates images and words that tell Marilyn's story in a whole new way that we haven't seen before. Hyatt creates a sympathetic Marilyn, a working girl trying to make it in a cruel studio system. It would be beautiful to see a book like this done in color, with an expanded story line. Graphic novels for adults are becoming a new genre, and the art itself is worth the purchase price.
This copy was purchased in a remainders book store in Manhattan.

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