Readers' Prize Picks: August 2012
15 loaded readers vote for their favorite among new releases we love—this month, fiction about Marilyn Monroe's death a half-century ago
“I was never much of a Marilyn Monroe fan,” one reader confessed about her leery approach to this reimagining of the last weekend of the star’s life by Braver, an admired literary novelist and writing teacher, “but this story rewinds the clichés that have become the story of her life and death and brings you the actress as a newly empathetic character.”
Misfit is a novel about how Norma Jean Mortenson tried to overcome her difficult childhood by becoming Marilyn Monroe, and then how she in turn struggled to get past her Marilyn Monroe image. It recounts how she tried to reinvent herself by marrying outside Hollywood and studying acting in New York City. The insights into her marriages are interesting, as are the descriptions of her relationships with other celebrities, such as Frank Sinatra. However, it was often frustrating not knowing which details are real and which are from the author’s imagination.
—Cynthia Taub, Washington DC
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