There is a lot written about Marilyn Monroe and her life its hard to weed through the fact and the fiction. She was a larger than life beautiful woman who was way ahead of her time. So when I came across this book, I couldn't pass it up.
MARILYN MONROE: ON THE COUCH is a fictional tale that author Alma H Bond Ph D created using well-known and documented facts about Marilyn. In the span of three years, this book is written in the point of view of Dr Darcy Dale, a psychoanalyst in New York City during sessions she has with Norma Jean Mortenson, better know as Marilyn Monroe.
MARILYN MONROE: ON THE COUCH is a heartbreaking look into the most iconic woman's life from her birth until her death. Many have said that when she stepped on screen, she had a glow to her or lit up the screen. Sometimes that glow can also hide things too. Marilyn was a brilliant woman that not many understood. When she says "Men do not see me. They just lay their eyes on me." She knows that they don't love her, but more so the idea of her. Throughout the book, all Marilyn really wanted was someone to lover her for who she was as a person, not the actress.
This book was well above my expectations. It was entertaining, and moving. You just can't help but feel for Marilyn during her troubled childhood and abusive foster homes. Alma Bond sees Marilyn, as few ever have been able to, and that projects in her writing so that her readers able to see and feel the same. It is truly amazing that Dr Bond can produce a fictional tale of this iconic woman and still have it full with compassion and understanding.
If you are a Marilyn Monroe fan, or even if you want to know more about her, MARILYN MONROE: ON THE COUCH is certainly a book to check out.
There is much written, rumored, told, and retold about Marilyn Monroe, but the most unusual and remarkable fact about her is this: In person as well in her films, she appeared to be outright luminous--enveloped by a glow, like a firefly in the dark. Even Laurence Olivier, who costarred with Marilyn in the 1957 film The Prince and the Showgirl, saw it. Though he seemed to dislike her intensely, he had to admit that, in all her scenes, she lit up the screen. But exquisite as it can be, luminosity can be a kind of camouflage. It can hide the truth underneath. What exactly was Marilyn illuminating in the atmosphere that surrounded her? Her beauty was certainly stunning, dazzling--blinding, even--but what did it hide? Marilyn, more brilliant than many understood, knew well the difference between looking upon the light and seeing beyond the glow. Men do not see me, she said. They just lay their eyes on me. Psychoanalyst and longtime woman's biographer Dr. Alma Bond imagines, in detail, a several-year stretch during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when Marilyn, an exceedingly fragile figure, submits to analysis on the couch of Manhattan psychoanalyst Dr. Darcy Dale and, following her return to Hollywood, corresponds with her. Brilliantly, entertainingly, and movingly, Marilyn Monroe: On the Couch shows just what lay beneath Marilyn's radiance. Dr. Dale, a fictional stand-in for the author, Dr. Bond, sees Marilyn Monroe as few ever have, both inside and out, and transfers those insights to readers. It's impossible to imagine anyone providing a better, more complete, intimate, and unforgettable understanding of this truly remarkable, iconic, and even pivotal figure in film and sexual history.
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