Saturday, November 13, 2010

The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe by Andrew O'Hagan


This is a biography type thing of Marilyn Monroe told from the viewpoint of a dog, a very pompous maltese that somehow manages to identify Renoir paintings and Louis XV chairs at a mere few months of age.  Now, I was expecting something more along the lines of Spencer Quinn's "Dog On It," a funny book from the viewpoint of a dog that is very "dog like."  I was expecting humor.  Instead I get a narrative using words I don't know, much less expect my dogs to know.  It was not very dog like at all.  Come on, seriously, dogs sniff their butts, chase after dropped potatoe chips, catch the scent of b*tches in the wind.  They do not sit around spouting poetry, using words like paucity and supercilious, and I seriously doubt they have strong feelings about the civil rights movement or Kennedy.

Marilyn and Mafia Honey:



Mafia also goes on and on about details and background info about characters that only grace the book for a few pages.  I did enjoy the intimate look at Marilyn behind the scenes, how she laid Mafia on a fur coat her ex husband had given her, how she had abandonment issues regarding her father, and how she felt guilty that she had recieved so much help from men in her career.  My enjoyment pretty much ended there though.

News: This book is being made into a movie and I think it will make a much better movie than book.  It is supposed to star Angelina Jolie as Marilyn and George Clooney as Frank Sinatra.  I'm looking forward to it.

I recieved this from the publisher via Shelf Awareness.




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