Mr. Guiles again gives an in-depth and touching, personal, human side in his biography of Marilyn Monroe. I highly recommend this book, and all his Hollywood biographies to anyone who wants to learn about the story behind the famous and beautiful faces on the silver screen.

Awesome! I loved every page, I read with a desire! This book had so much information on Marilyn Monroe it was scary. It gives the 411 on all her stories and how she came to be-and die- one of the most glamourus women in Amercan Culture ever! The devine Ms. M's fairy tale started out by chance, and gives light on how Marilyn really was and how she came to be. I would recomend this book to everyone!

I'm a fan of Tyrone Power & really enjoyed his book. However, one of Powers' main complaints in life was not being respected as an actor and this is blamed, almost entirely, on 20th Century Fox and I don't agree with it.

Fox was the only studio willing to give Power a chance, even if it was based purely on his looks and not his acting talent. Over the years, his acting skills would develop, but not enough to convince the studios to cast him in more substantial, non-glamour boy roles. To change this glamour boy image, he pursued such masculine activites as joining the marines, riding motorcyles and flying planes. To prove he could act, he took every opportunity perform on the stage. But to no avail... the studios weren't convinced in the end.

Perhaps it is because they knew he wouldn't leave because no other studios were all that bothered with him in the beginning and and in later years his reckless off screen lifestyle meant that he had to stay with Fox & take whatever roles he was given just to make ends meet.

Tyrone Power owed his career to 20th Century Fox. If it wasn't for them I wouldn't be writing this review because I wouldn't know who he was.

With careful attention to the social climate of her life Marilyn Monroe's pscyhe is revealed as tellingly as her body was in the famous calender photos. Norma Jean addresses the inevitability of Monroe's multiple marriages and disintegration into depression. The reader will empathise with this driven young woman who seemed to "have it all" and tragically had nothing. The lonely childhood and increasingly isolated adult years of Monore are presented against the backdrop of a world that idolized her without sympathizing with her. The book is a great read for femenist, film buffs, Monroe fans and anyone interested in Tweniteth century American culture.

The first thing that struck me was the numerous personal photographs in the center of the book, including the calender page of 'golden girl'. When I had time to read, I picked it up and started, from then on unable to put it down [as an avid reader this is a HUGE compliment to the writer]. I was to finish the almost 400 pages in less than 3 days. It was the BEST biography I have EVER read. It is a classic, heart wrenching tale about the personal struggles of a beautiful and sensitive woman. I am now a HUGE fan of hers, and I feel honored to have had a glimpse into her soul [through this book]. Also, the book is beautiful looking, with a simple gold script Norma Jean on the hard cover, hot pink inside the covers, beautifully haunting images in the center.
I can't imagine finding another biography of her that can even come close to comparing. It changed my life.

I was visting my boyfriends parents in Bay City Michigan, and wandered about there wonderful antique shops. At one of them, I came across some old hard covered books, including some first eddition star biographies. Among them was Norma Jean by Lawrence Guiles. I didn't know much of the life of 'Marilyn Monroe', but I was drawn to it none the less. The price of the book was around $30, alittle too much for something I knew little about, besides I just didn't have the money [I regretted having to leave it behind]. Two months later it was Christmas. I had gotten it as a gift.
The first thing that struck me was the numerous personal photographs in the center of the book, including the calender page of 'golden girl'. I had put the book aside for a few months. When I had time to read, I picked it up and started. I was to finish the over 300 pages in less than 3 days. It was the BEST biography I have EVER read. It is a classic, heart wrenching tale about the personal struggles of a beautiful and sensitive woman. I am now a HUGE fan of hers, and I feel honored to have had a glimpse into her soul [through this book].
I can't imagine finding another biography of her that can even come close to comparing. It changed my life.

Compared to other Crawford biographies "Joan Crawford: The Last Word" is a slender volume. However the facts of Crawford's life move along in a steady fashion and the photos are lovely. The author refrains from waggling a scolding finger at Christina Crawford and gives weight to both sides of the Joan the Monster, Joan the Queen of Kindness images that Crawford summons.

Frederick Lawrence Guiles' intention in 'Joan Crawford: The Last Word' is to liberate the real Joan Crawford from the maniacal control freak enshrined in the public mind by her daughter's hatchet-job biography 'Mommie Dearest' and its subsequent shlock movie adaptation. It's a noble aim which is becoming very fashionable of late - especially with the recent publication of 'Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography' - but it's also a difficult one. Paint the subject in too negative a light and Christina's claims seem justified; too positive a light and, to paraphrase Shakespeare, it appears you are protesting just a little too much.

Guiles does quite a good job of walking the line in between, but what results inevitably remains little more than a short biography with infrequent interjections about Christina's inaccuracies and misinterpretations. Admirably, he resists the temptation to demonise Christina herself, although her distortions of the truth are manifestly obvious as Guiles explains. Perhaps the most potent example is the fact that, while 'Mommie Dearest' gives the impression of having been written as a reaction to having been left out of her mother's will, Christina actually began the book while Joan Crawford was still alive. Guiles conjectures that it may well have been Joan's horror at the venomous portrait her daughter was painting that prompted her to leave her out of the will in the first place, not the other way around.

What really comes across here - and in 'Mommie Dearest' itself - is that Joan and her daugher did not get along simply because they were too similar to one another, their personalities so strong that a clash was inevitable. Christina even grew up to take on many of the characteristics she hated most about her mother, including professional competition. Neither woman was perfect but, as Guiles attempts to emphasise, Crawford does not deserve to live on only in the guise of shrewish mother-from-hell. She was an emotionally crippled person, but not the cartoonish monster most people see her as today.

If you have read 'Mommie Dearest' and taken it as gospel, I definitely recommend giving this book a read, to learn that the truth was more complex. If you're after a straight biography of Crawford, leave this one for later.