All reviews for My Week with Marilyn & The Prince, the Showgirl and Me (2011)
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The book “My Week With Marilyn” was an okay read. This book gives a really interesting point of view of the life of Marilyn Monroe. It’s really interesting how the author got to spend the time with her and experience her real life. The only thing that I didn’t really like about the book is that I felt that the author might have been slightly biased. He seemed to be in love with Marilyn which may have swayed the way he wrote about her. On page 91 he says "'You are the future. Now, come on the set and show those old fogies what you fan do." He believed in her so much and I think he wanted everyone else too as well. He put Marilyn in the absolute best light and justified her actions of her somewhat wild life. Despite this, I did enjoy the book.Another part of the book that I liked was the way it was set up. It was split into sections. One of the sections was information from the actual time, documented in his diary, that Colin Clark, the author, spent with Marilyn. Another section was many years later. The section documented from his diary, in my opinion, was less interesting to read. One part of what the author wrote about what he thought of Marilyn many years later was interesting to read. He talked of how he felt bad for her and he hoped they'd never regain contact. On page 111 when he's talking about when Marilyn didn't answer the phone he says, "I am ashamed to say that I was relieved." I thought it was interesting to see the contrast in his state of mind from one point in the book to the other. I would recommend this book to any Marilyn Monroe fan or to anybody who wants to get a deeper look into Marilyn’s life. It his book really takes you down the path of Marilyn's life while she filmed one of her movies. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone though because at times the book can get boring and kind of be a pain to read. It can get a little boring reading the diary section, it's a little repetive with some abbreviations, such as "SLO" and "MM". But it's still enjoyable.
After all the hype about the movie, I found this book strangely disappointing. It was interesting to hear about what it was like to make a movie in that era, but I think this could have been a magazine article instead of a novel. The author frequently repeated a few ideas: Marilyn Monroe wanted to be taken seriously but kept getting cast as a bimbo; She wanted to work with Lawrence Olivier so that she would be seen as a serious actress; Lawrence Olivier wanted to look less old and stodgy so he hired Marilyn; The cast and crew hated Marilyn.Also, despite the author's profession to worship Marilyn as a goddess, he frequently talked to down to her and gave unsolicited advice. On the whole - mediocre.
Some dull parts, but really afterwards and shows what a old holliwood movie set is like