My Week With Marilyn by Colin Clark: A Review

Essentially, the book is actually made up of two books with the first part titled The Prince, The Showgirl and Me and the second part as My Week With Marilyn.

I found the first book interesting and rather arresting in the details provided by Colin Clark. It must be remembered that he is someone whose parents are close to Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier (whose love story, I believe, is a whole new book altogether) and is thus surrounded by a lot of privileges that unknown beginners are rarely provided with.

Also, personally, I love Vivien Leigh so maybe my review is rather biased in that sense as well.

But it was interesting to see the going-ons of the cinema world back in the 1950s as well as the problems that arose from Marilyn's legendary problematic behaviour. Arthur Miller was featured a lot in Colin Clark's recollection and was painted the portrait of a rather arrogant and harsh man. Perhaps that was exactly who he was, but we'll never know. Marilyn's characterisation echoes that of a girl who cam from such an unstructured childhood that her adult life is spent grasping for control from father figures who are probably more inclined to squeeze every dollar out of her rather than genuinely care for her.

As much as the diary was enjoyable, I was rather put off by the second book. It did provide us a glimpse of a week that Colin Clark supposedly spent getting to know Marilyn Monroe on an intimate level (not THAT intimate) but I guess the narration in the book made me feel like I was reading a fan fic rather than an actual retelling? I guess what annoyed me was the fact that dialogues, that were paragraphs long, were used and there is no way a person could remember that much conversation to safely quote it.

But in all, it was an enjoyable read and one that allowed you to swim in a world filled with Old Hollywood glamour and charm.