Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312303686
Edition: 1st
ISBN: 0312303688
Label: Thomas Dunne Books
Languages: Array
Manufacturer: Thomas Dunne Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2003-04-19
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Studio: Thomas Dunne Books

Customer Rating:
Summary: Couldn't set it down until I'd read every last page
Comment: I started this book as a "quickie," expecting not much more than glorified chick lit, but was I ever mistaken. Wendy Leigh has taken the lives of two extraordinary women, created the conceit of a correspondence between them, and used voluminous non-fiction resources to create one of my new favorite reads. Reading these "letters" made me want to seek out further biographies (I've read several biographies of Miss Monroe, but not many of Jacqueline Kennedy - I think I'll be finding Sarah Bradford's post-haste), and the way Wendy Leigh put the whole thing together, with Marilyn's friend having the letters and finding a publisher, and the publisher setting them out - masterful. Only one section didn't ring true (and was a bit overlong), but that's a tiny criticism. I started the book in the morning, and found myself setting aside all tasks because I didn't want to set it down until I found out what would happen next.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Provocative Epistolary Novel Taking Readers Inside the Hearts and Mind's of Two of History's Most Famous Women
Comment: I stumbled across Wendy Leigh's The Secret Letters of Marilyn Monroe and Jacqueline Kennedy at a flea market, and I'm so glad I did. While some reviewers feel she does a disservice to both women by fictionalizing their story, I found this epistolary novel both refreshing and informative, and it made me want to read more, especially about Jackie.

The setup is that Marilyn and Jackie become pen pals, and pour their hearts out to each other. The details they reveal, about family, love, pride, ambition, men, and sex are ones that each, in the book's world, anyway, wouldn't share with others under most circumstances.

Marilyn's vulnerability crossed with Jackie's at times steeliness is an interesting contrast, though it seems that Leigh's central premise is that the two women are much more similar than they are different. Not just in their taste in men, but in their sense that they are set apart from the rest of society, on their own. Perhaps most telling is when Marilyn says that if she could come back as anyone in the world, she'd wish to be Caroline Kennedy. There aren't too many direct references to her intimate time with JFK, save for at the end in a slightly over-the-top detailed account of giving him blowjobs, but one can clearly sense her longing for a father figure.

Sourced with footnotes that flesh out stories told in the letters, this is an excellent novel filled with history but, most of all, emotion. There are aspects to their lives that any woman can relate to, despite their mega-fame. When Marilyn finally confesses to Jackie that she has been secretly having an affair with her husband, the precarious relationship threatens to tumble. Interwoven throughout these letters is Jack Kennedy, and while perhaps the toughest hurdle to overcome reading this is that the two could become true friends and confidantes despite that adulterous elephant in the room, they seem to understand each other regarding both his appeal, his need for comfort from women, and what he lacks.

Marilyn's frantic, sometimes drug-addled letters, show her declining state of mind, and Jackie, while mostly keeping an even keel, occasionally shows her own vulnerability, sometimes only in glimpses from the also-fictional diary Leigh weaves throughout the story. Sure, we know how the book's going to end (and the other endings that take place beyond Marilyn's death), but the competition and trust between the two women gives plenty of food for thought. Leigh, through the conceit of the letters, is able to suggest all sorts of twisted ideas - that Jackie gave Marilyn the idea to sing to JFK seductively on his birthday, knowing this would alienate him.

This book made me want to know more about each woman, and to appreciate the qualities each possessed, how each went about making something of herself. Leigh deals sensitively and compassionately with some potentially explosive topics - the suggestion that Marilyn spent a week as a call girl. Whether she did or not, Leigh does not condemn her for it, and you'd be hard pressed to read Marilyn's words and condemn her either. Reading between the lines here, in the footnotes and what was not included in the letters, is almost as much fun as reading the letters themselves. Kudos to Leigh for giving her own twist to history, while not going all the way out into thin air. After reading this book, I plan to investigate more into the lives of each woman; Leigh's triumph is in bringing them to life in a way that perhaps even the most nuanced biographer cannot, simply by the nature of the genre.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Ludicrous but Entertaining!
Comment: I have never felt compelled to write a review for Amazon, but after reading this book, I felt I had to. I am by no means a Marilyn or Jackie fanatic, but I have read a few non-fiction books on them both. From the little knowledge I have on their personalities, I find it ridiculous that either of them would react or respond in the way portrayed by Ms. Leigh.

I realize that this is historical fiction, however, if you do decide to buy this book, remember that it is much more fiction than history. I find it amusing that the author tends to throw in historical events like Einstein passing, or the 50's quiz show scandal to somehow make the book seem authentic.

Also, from what little I know about Jackie, she was certainly aware of Jack's affair with Marilyn almost from the beginning. Jackie hated Marilyn and found her an annoyance. I hardly think she would have been so cordial to her husband's mistress.

However, as ludicrous as this book is, I have to admit it is a page turner and very entertaining. If you need an easy, somewhat dumbed down book to escape from reality for a while - this is the book for you!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: stupid idea for a book
Comment: why would anyone want to read a fictional book on MM and Jackie O??? especially when there are real, non-fiction books out there. they never wrote 1 letter to each other! i think ms. leigh is desperately trying to make $/cash in (both of these women are legends, so both of them is guaranteed extra $), so she decided to write this; stoop so low to make up a correspondonce between the two women. i'm not getting down on ms.leigh personally, i'm sure she's probably a good writer, great storyteller, and very intelligent. but the idea of this book seems pathetic. maybe it's me, but i just don't get it. i guess it's only for people who like fiction and made up stories to pass the time. i like the real stuff. i would never buy this book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Crafted Tale of a Hollywood Legend and an Enigmatic First Lady...
Comment: Jackie O and Marilyn Monroe are two of the most fascinating and legendary women in history. Marilyn remains to this day a silver screen goddess and Hollywood legend, even 45 years after her tragic death. Jacqueline Onassis, also known as Jackie Kennedy, was the iconically fashionable first lady, married to a beloved President who was eventually assassinated before her very eyes.

President Kennedy reportedly told British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan that if he didn't have nonmarital sex at least once a day he got a headache. His affairs were no mystery, and it was said that Jacqueline willingly turned a blind eye to them. Marilyn Monroe was one of J.F.K's most well-known mistresses. She fell in love with him, and in later years when her relationship with J.F.K ended, she also began a relationship with his brother, Bobby Kennedy.

This novel creates a fictional relationship between Marilyn Monroe and Jackie O. through the use of written correspondence letters. As a reader you are transported into these women's lives during the 1950's and 60's, a time of great turmoil for each of them. They exchange letters with each other and enter into a strange sort of friendship, though by all accounts they should be enemies. Each letter beautifully illustrates the personality and wit of the letter writer, and includes factual details obtained through extensive research of these two women, who were polar opposites, yet found themselves in love with the same man.

The story that unfolds is tinged with real-life events, such as Marilyn's infamous serenading of the President at his birthday gala. Although this is an imagined secret correspondence between Marilyn and Jackie, I almost wish it were real because these characters truly come alive before your eyes. Their thoughts and emotions are very real, and it makes you wonder if perhaps they *could* have had some sort of friendship.

I admire both of these women, and this book was a very special treat for me because I'm a very big Marilyn Monroe fan. Although this is a fictional account of events, I truly enjoyed it, and I highly recommend it to any chick lit lovers.

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