"A Luminous Quality That Can Be Almost Blinding"

"You can hardly blame Monroe for being overwhelmed by her own image. In her lifetime, she was far and away the most photographed woman in the world, which is another way of saying that she was the most desired. Marilyn Monroe became a movie star in the years following World War II and died just before the social movements of the 1960s permanently altered the face of the nation. Her career was almost exactly contemporaneous with the '50s, that decade of unparalleled American prosperity and power."

Moira Donegan at Bookforum reviews Marilyn Monroe 100: The Official Centenary Book.