A Dream Called Marilyn by Mercedes King; Wistful Introspective Historical Fiction Of Marilyn Monroe and the Golden Age of Hollywood

A Dream Called Marilyn by 

Mercedes King; Wistful Introspective Historical Fiction Of Marilyn Monroe and the Golden Age of Hollywood 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Mercedes King’s A Dream Called Marilyn is the third book in two years, after Isaac Thorne’s Hell Spring and Lee Matthew Goldberg’s Immoral Origins that I read that features Marilyn Monroe. But it is the only one which stars Monroe herself and not a demon or con artist/assassin that looks like her. Here, she is a complex vulnerable and troubled woman and the highlight of this book.

Monroe comes to the attention of Dr. Charles Campbell, psychiatrist to the stars. Monroe has just been fired from what would be her final film, Something's Got to Give and is considered an addict and deeply paranoid. The more Charles talks to her, the more drawn he is to the real woman underneath the glamorous facade. But her sessions begin to reveal some darker secrets about a certain President of the United States, one John F. Kennedy. Charles finds himself the target of some sinister people who want Monroe to keep those secrets to the grave.

By far the most intriguing aspect of the book is Marilyn herself. She embodies the persona of someone who is surrounded by people, is the center of attention, and is still very much alone. She gives off the image of a beautiful bubbly kittenish unattainable goddess-figure but she is more complex and nuanced than her surface shows. The world doesn’t see a woman packed with fragility and insecurities egged on by the pressure of looking glamorous and making appearances. It doesn’t see a once lonely little girl abandoned by her mentally ill mother, deprived of love and security, and looking for them in every bad relationship that comes around. 

The world doesn’t see a hopeless romantic who is so enamored with the fantasies that she sells onscreen that she genuinely believes that Kennedy will divorce Jackie and marry her so they will live happily ever after. Charles sees all of that and so does the Reader. She is depicted as a lonely troubled misunderstood soul who needs someone to love her for herself and not the image that she conveys. She stands out in her therapy sessions with Charles to the point of stealing every moment that she is in the book.

She almost takes the spotlight from Charles but he proves to be an intriguing character in his own right. He has plenty of issues that suggest that he could use a few therapy sessions himself. He has a Hero Savior Complex that often pairs him with troubled women: Marilyn and his wife, who has her own mental health issues and a careless attitude towards their children. His fantasies about Marilyn increase the more that he gets to know her and definitely violate the doctor-patient relationship.

As Marilyn needs to be cared for, Charles has a need to do the caring despite his marriage, job, and the difficulties that come with being with a public figure. Their relationship puts Charles in some dangerous territory and increases his and Marilyn’s dependence on each other. It is not a healthy relationship and is made even worse by the scrutiny and danger.

If there is one complaint with the characterization it is that it is at the expense of the plot, at least the type of plot that King puts them in. There is a strong implication that Marilyn’s troublemaking persona is manufactured by a studio wary of publicity and she really is the target of potential assassins. That is an interesting angle but King wrote Marilyn with so many personal issues that it becomes hard to believe that her problems stem solely from outside forces and not within herself.

Perhaps King could have written Marilyn as more self assured and stronger, the type of person that would make one think, “Maybe, someone is after her.” Of course sometimes you can be paranoid but actually have someone after you at the same time. Certainly the stress that Marilyn is under would trouble even the hardest of hearts. But in this case, Marilyn seems like someone who may be worried about being poisoned but could just as easily reach for the bottle herself.

The strongest overall tone in this book is wistful and introspective. There is a realization that this represents the end of an era and it does. Charles is looking back on his life as an older man who has seen the Vietnam War, the Millennium, terrorist attacks, economic insecurity, and the inevitable decay of the American Dream. His time with Marilyn marks the last of his golden years and those of the country, a world where Presidential scandals are hidden and assassination is not a by word. Marilyn represents a time gone by as well, the end of the studio system where movie stars were unattainable and where films reflected our dreams more than our reality. Of course this is nostalgia and nostalgia wasn’t freely handed out to everyone. For people like Charles and Marilyn, this was a happy time. For many other people, it wasn’t. 

However, Charles and Marilyn are involved within the field that produces manufactured dreams so people can live idyllic fantastic lives every time they enter a cinema, the field that often contributes to if not outright creates the nostalgia. It is the lie that they sell and they have to, no matter how much it costs them personally. The reality is hidden but the fantasy and the nostalgia remains.