Marilyn Monroe

"The most fascinating part of The Genius and the Goddess is an appendix, a list of Marilyn’s illnesses and hospitalizations. She tried to kill herself so many more times than Sylvia Plath -- eight, by this count, not just with pills but with gas. She got her nose and her chin redone. She had her tonsils and her appendix and her gallbladder and her wisdom teeth removed. She had thirteen (documented) abortions and a number of miscarriages. She lived in her famous body, and really couldn’t get rid of it except by dying in it. Ultimately, however many Elton John funeral dirges to Norma Jeane play on the world’s radio stations, there was no Other Marilyn. Just the one."