She was an average American girl who became a legend with an impact never seen before. He was adored by millions and his life enchanted generations of fans and fellow artists. The life of Norma Jeane Baker, better known by her stage name Marilyn Monroe, has been researched and elaborated for decades, but until now it has never been told in such a breathtaking and original way as in Szöszi.
Joyce Carol Oates, who is considered one of the most prominent figures of contemporary American literature and is well known in Hungary, reinterprets the innermost lyrical and spiritual life of Norma Jeane Baker (the child, the woman and the celebrity with a difficult fate) in her largest work to date, so that it is amazing, rich and shocking tell it in your voice. The most intimate portrait of Norma Jane presents us with a fragile young woman blessed with a unique talent, who constantly reinvents herself in order to stay afloat despite overwhelming odds and become a symbol of stardom itself. Step by step, he introduces us to his own story and tells us how a typically American artist living amid continuous conflicts and creating feverishly lost his way.
Relying on biographical and historical sources, the author evokes the innermost world of the female soul and holds a merciless mirror before the myth, while writing as he has never done before: in an ecstatic state, surrendering himself to the subject, as if the soul of his extraordinary hero had moved into him. This captivating, psychologically sensitive, disturbingly witty work takes us through Norma Jeane's lonely childhood, her derailed adolescence and the process of the birth of "Marilyn Monroe".
Norma Jeane's barely audible, distorted and misunderstood voice, Marilyn Monroe's rich legacy also holds a mirror to the dark world of Hollywood. While speaking with admiration and appreciation for the elusive art of acting and filmmaking, Joyce Carol Oates paints a chilling picture of the industry that feeds and eats the "faces" of America.
Szöszi, which approaches the celebrity culture bewitched by its own myths in an original way, is a compelling novel about the elusive charm of a woman, the timeless legacy of a star, and the torments that plague the 20th century. accompanied the birth of the most memorable icon of the 20th century.