Attempts to debunk Monroe’s dumb-blonde reputation through the Murphy door of her private library ... It is refreshing to contemplate Monroe as reader ... Someone so holographic is far more humanized by what was on her shelves than by some rotten rouge or the moth-eaten, Kardashian-appropriated frocks from her closet.
Too much is being extrapolated out of not enough information ... But the core question that drives the book, the subject of a central chapter, is valuable: 'Why is Marilyn Monroe’s reading ability doubted?' ... Crowther keeps her focus narrowly on Monroe, but it doesn’t require a substantial mental leap to see how Monroe is just one example of a cover-model-worthy woman artist being told she’s a try-hard for demonstrating intelligence.
It is the persistent skepticism about Monroe’s intelligence that fascinates Crowther, and while trying to understand the 'why' of it all, she explores the nature of reading itself. Monroe read for the very reasons all readers do: to escape, to learn, to be entertained. In coming to know Monroe as an avid literature lover, Crowthers’ readers will also gain insights into their own bookish lives.
A perfect read for literature lovers and cinephiles alike, showing Monroe in perhaps her favorite light, as a girl curled up in a chair with an open book.
Monroe may very well have had a prodigious intellect, but one wouldn’t know it from the evidence presented here ... A weak attempt to prove that Monroe wasn’t just a pretty face.
An intimate exploration ... By illuminating and uplifting Monroe’s love of books, Crowther helps rewrite the narrative that cast the actor as a 'dumb blonde' and takes seriously the impact Monroe had on film and culture. This is an enlightening study of a misunderstood icon.
