cover image Mondo Marilyn: A Collection of Stories and Poems about Marilyn

Mondo Marilyn: A Collection of Stories and Poems about Marilyn

Richard Peabody. St. Martin's Press, $13.95 (193pp) ISBN 978-0-312-11853-2

The editors who gave us the entertaining Mondo Elvis and Mondo Barbie anthologies have set their sites on another pop icon: Marilyn Monroe, the superstar who captivated millions with her blend of overt sexuality and wholesome, girl-next-door appeal. Working with her well-documented public persona and the sketchy details of her private one, the eclectic group of writers and poets assembled here explore Marilyn's desires and fears--and the effect she had on so many. What-ifs abound: Doris Grumbach's excerpt from The Missing Person features a woman ``pulled from the red-running stream of death and nothingness into some saving place.'' Most notable, however, are the works that give the eternally vulnerable Marilyn new power: In Judy Grahn's ``I Have Come to Claim,'' a woman vows to requite Marilyn's death for all womankind; in Clive Barker's piece from The Son of Celluloid, Marilyn is a smiling seductress who takes her own gruesome revenge on men. This artfully executed collection seeks to provide the reader with a sometimes funny, but more often sad portrait of a woman who, it seems, continues to be exploited in death as much as she was in life. (Feb.)