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John Gilmore’s Marilyn: Introduction The key to understanding Gilmore’s Marilyn Monroe is, first, he makes no claims of having been her lover or husband – or of sharing a so-called romance over the almost eight year acquaintanceship. Secondly, his book is a candid memoir of a tragically abbreviated friendship, and last, John approaches his subject in an unprecedented and original format hardly thought of in the vast biographical record of Marilyn Monroe. The end result is a powerful and intimate glimpse into the troubled and multi-faceted woman behind the gloss and lacquered iconography of Hollywood legend. Gilmore’s memories of Monroe, much like his reminiscences of James Dean, have the edgy grit and riveting authenticity of the truest form of memoir, only, with Monroe, there was no sexual dimension to the friendship; this unique bond between Gilmore and Monroe moves the story and their relationship to a higher level, to a spiritual connection as Gilmore himself wrote in 2007. Marilyn Monroe, the human being, the woman, is conjured in vivid and heartbreaking vignettes that pull and tug the reader into this powerful portrait that reveals more of the real Norma Jeane Baker than other standard biographies of three times the length. This is Marilyn in all her poignant and desperate humanity, her tears, laughter and the fevered searching and soul-baring pieces of conversation which had remained locked away in Gilmore’s heart and soul until now. Not since the twin publications of Gilmore’s powerful myth-shattering celebrity memoirs LAID BARE: A Memoir of Wrecked Lives and the Hollywood Death Trip and LIVE FAST, DIE YOUNG: Remembering the Short Life of James Dean, has there appeared a tome worthy of the same praise now deserved by INSIDE MARILYN MONROE. It may not be every Monroe fans idea of a full-length traditional biography, but then nothing John Gilmore has ever written could be described as taking the traditional, standard approach. Perhaps it is only by avoiding tradition and the established, well-worn path that one can ultimately arrive at the very heart of the matter, the in-your-face, gut-wrenching truth of the human condition. Personally, I did not think John Gilmore could possibly have another such memoir to share with the world. What he wrote so eloquently, but with a razor’s edge, about his friend James Dean, for example, was almost too close and too vivid to handle. I had been a die-hard Dean fan for some thirteen years by the time LIVE FAST, DIE YOUNG was published. After reading that lightening bolt of a book I became an even bigger fan of Dean and a new one of Gilmore. Now, John has surpassed both LIVE FAST, DIE YOUNG and LAID BARE with this precious slice of the life and soul of Marilyn Monroe. ~ Paul Waters Interview
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