Book Review: The Marilyn Scandal by Sandra Shevey

The Marilyn Scandal was originally released by Sandra Shevey (https://sandrasheveybooks.wordpress.com/) in 1987 after the success of her seminal 'Down With Myth America' for the New York Times in May 1970.

‘The Marilyn Scandal’ was then re-released as an E-Book in 2012.

Marilyn Monroe is known for being a sex symbol and bombshell during a time when films were heavily censored. Marilyn Monroe has continued to be an icon but has also been portrayed as a diva who was very difficult to work with and unreliable. In her book ‘The Marilyn Scandal’ Sandra Shevey is open about how Marilyn did make things difficult for herself but also shows how Marilyn's struggles with mental health were exacerbated by those who should have helped and how she was exploited.

As previously mentioned, Marilyn is revered as a sex symbol but one tends to forget that she worked extremely hard to get to where she did and this book shows Marilyn's work ethic and the fight Marilyn had to get to where she did.

Marilyn spent years training her performance skills. In fact, she never really stopped learning and studied amongst other things: mime technique and Method acting all of which can be seen in her films.

One part that especially surprised me was the section about Kennedy and Marilyn's affair. Of course, it has always been rumoured that they were together. However, this book goes into some detail about the intensity and end of their relationship “Kennedy's break with Monroe was uncharacteristically and un-necessarily brutal since the affair had lasted eight years”. Sandra also analyses the suspicious events surrounding Marilyn’s death “What she wanted was an explanation and that, presumably, is what occasioned Bobby Kennedy's visit to her flat on 4 August” which I found very interesting.

This book is extensively detailed and Sandra has used her many years of Journalism experience to great effect, speaking to huge numbers of people who knew Marilyn personally or had worked with her. This combined with further research into Marilyn's earlier life makes for a detailed and thought-provoking read which on occasions really made me stop and think about the film industry and the glitzy front it puts up.

I have read several books about Marilyn Monroe and enjoyed them but this book certainly gives some more insight into Marilyn as a whole and explores how she became the revered icon that we know today. What is more, it feels particularly relevant to conversations that are currently taking place about how Hollywood operates. Sandra wrote this book after looking into victimisation and sexual harassment in the film industry which is something that is only really coming to light now and in recent years. This book should be part of that conversation.

If you would like to order a copy of this book then please go to https://sandrasheveybooks.wordpress.com/ or contact Sandra at sandra_shevey@yahoo.com

Formerly published on my old blog site 'Maretta Vergette' August 7th 2020 with 20 views.