My Sister Marilyn

Rating:
Summary: Well written and insightful
Review: I recommend this book to anyone vaguely interested in Marilyn Monroe, not merely the die-hard fan. I do not fall into that category, , but am aware of her enduring presence as an icon. This book lived up to its intriguing promise of providing ANOTHER viewpoint about Marilyn – other than the myriad biographies which have been about Marilyn by ‘outsiders’ and those enriching themselves on the proceeds.

This is very much the biography of Norma Jean Baker as she came to be known by her sister.

The picture of ‘private Marilyn’ depicted here does an enormous amount to restore Marilyn’s humanity, her connection with her family and peers, the person behind the impenetrable Goddess Icon that she has become in the decades since her death. This is the uncommodified, unexploited Marilyn, a person who loved and was loved. It’s a great corrective to the hagiographic or shallow tendencies of most Marilyn-abilia and I thoroughly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Not at My sister Marilyn's house today,I have a modem again
Review: Ok I admit it Im weird...now onto the review...

So many biographies have been written about MARILYN but if you are interested in reading one by a person who knew and loved her,I'd suggest this one.Written by marilyn's half-sister and neice(Berniece and Mona Rae),this doco-with never-seen-before photos of Norma Jeane,reveals a nice young girl who loved children and dogs.Anyone who likes dogs is ok with me.It also appears that the belief that Marilyn was promiscuous may be debatable.Although,Berniece did seem determined to keep her beloved sister on a pedastal,even going so far as to say that MArilyn was always pleasant on set whereas we know that isn't true.
Berniece revealed also that Marilyn was never in an orphanage(except as a baby)and was never in foster care.She lived with a few different families,all of whom were related to her or knew her mother.Her life WAS sad and disturbing,but she wasn't shuttled around even close to as much as has been believed.According to Berniece,and I don't see the reason why Berniece would lie in this instance.However it is true that her mother was severely ill with schizophrenia and that Marilyn was fatherless.The book is written a little like a novel,Berniece and Mona Rae exercising just one of the talents that abound in the bloodline they share with Marilyn.I wish Marilyn had written even one book of her own,a novel,an autobiography,it wouldn't matter.But I know she could write and it would be cool if there was something.Overall it is a very interesting book and the photos reveal that,at least in my opinion,Marilyn was more stunning with dark hair than with blonde.It also tells us about a sweet girl with a good heart.

Rating:
Summary: Short On Scandal, Long On Genetic Sensitivity
Review: Please buy this book instead of one written by someone who didn't know Marilyn...

Berneice Miracle was Marilyn's half-sister. They shared the same mother, a fitfully employed lab worker at a Hollywood studio during the silent film era. When Marilyn aka Norma Jeane was seven and didn't know Berneice existed, their mother bought a house in Los Angeles, a daring move for a divorced woman at the height of the Great Depression. But Mom became mentally ill a few months later and spent the next fifty years as a revolving door mental patient and old-folks-home resident.

Berneice's father seems to have been a stable man who abandoned the liberal lifestyle of California for the Kentucky of 1926, a different planet. Whoever Marilyn's father was never claimed her as his daughter unless you count a phone call that C. Stanley Gifford supposedly made to her out-of-the-blue a year before she died. Even if Gifford was a dishonest stalker, we still know Marilyn's real father kept quiet, likely out of guilt and sensitivity.

That point brings me to Berneice. While she adds little to her half-sister's previously documented fights with Twentieth Century Fox, Arthur Miller and Patricia Newcomb, she nonetheless shares her sisterly information with sensitivity. Possibly without meaning to, Berneice demonstrates that Marilyn's amazing sensitivity, a requirement for all the artists who share her degree of fame (Billie Holiday, Georgia O'Keeffe, Elvis, Andy Kaufman, etc), ran in the family. The reader experiences Berneice's thin skin in every sentence. The reader witnesses mother Gladys' fragility overpower her, shattering her dream of becoming the new Norma Talmadge (the silent film star after whom Gladys named Norma Jeane). The silence of Marilyn's father echoes with meaning throughout this and other books.

I will close by segueing to the money issue. If you assume Berneice inherited big bucks and she hates everyone who profited from her half-sister's death, then remember the old saying about what you do when you [assume]. The abundant love in Marilyn came through when she made major provisions for Berneice in her will, but the suddenness of her death and the huge debts of her Estate blocked Berneice from getting a penny for fifteen years.

During that time Norman Mailer famously made money from a sloppy investigation into the Kennedy brothers sleeping with and killing Marilyn mixed with a pseudointellectual portrait of his beloved stranger as "the Stradivarius of sex." Mailer's attitude didn't exactly thrill Berneice, but she still wanted very much to know how her sister had died. She had no money to hire a private investigator. To this day Berneice harbors suspicions of foul play. If she, with her genetic sensitivity in the same league as Marilyn's, entertains these thoughts, then a lot more people should. Not just nerdy JFK researchers.

Please buy this book. Berneice, born in 1919 and alive as of this writing, deserves a little money and empathy. As Arthur Miller wrote in "Death Of A Salesman," "attention must be paid to such a [person]." If Berneice's grandchildren are out there reading this, please give her my love. If things sometimes stretch her or you to the breaking point, please remember the love.

Rating:
Summary: Finally the truth about Marilyn Monroe's family
Review: This is a very enjoyable book. I'm so glad Berniece Miracle finally came out with the book with help from daughter Mona. The photos are wonderful, as you watch the transition from Norma Jeane to Marilyn, get to see her wedding photo to Jim Dougherty and hear words of Joe DiMaggio and learn some of the insides of Hollywood as Marilyn shared them with her sister.

Sadly, the book also describes how Berniece was hounded by the press and had a hard time leading a "normal" life. No privacy. I was hoping the book would give more insight into Marilyn's death, but Berniece and Mona are as much in the dark as anyone. Interesting is the denial of any relationship with President John F. Kennedy or brother Bobby. That seems to be a given in most books about Marilyn. However, if you read between the lines here, Marilyn doesn't deny a relationship, she just smiles when Berniece asks and says "they're just boys." There could be a lot Marilyn doesn't share with her sister!

But what comes shining through in this book is how loving and lovable Marilyn was, and how much she was loved by her sister. The idea of a mentally ill mother explains a lot of things, like Marilyn's obvious depression. The sisters not even knowing about each other until Marilyn was 12 and Berniece 19 is sad, but at least they had each other through the rest of Marilyn's life.

This is a lovely book, beautifully written, tragic as it must have been. It shows Marilyn as more of the earthy woman her family knew, which is a refreshing perspective from other Marilyn Monroe biographies!