Delayed Gossip

"Joe and Marilyn - Legends in Love" by C. David Heymann   Emily Bestler Books   438 pages   $27

This book seems to be a fair representation of their lives, relying more on actual quotes rather than the author's speculations ... "She must have been crushed."  You will note that no source is cited in that remark.  Speculation has no place in a biography. 

Joe and Marilyn's marriage only lasted nine months.  She dumped him -- taciturn, jealous and cheap - for playwright Arthur Miller.  It has been suggested that this marriage was to impress others that Marilyn, too, was an intellectual.    This marriage lasted for three years until Marilyn, having grown tired of a husband who locked himself in his study every day, all day, to write, embarked on a wild affair with Yves Montand. 

And then Montand's wife Simone Signorer returned from a business trip to Paris.  Busted! 

Heymann was clever in his choice of "legends" to portray because though divorced, Marilyn and Joe continued to see one another until she died.  Heymann gets to cover all of her paramours for just that reason - Joe was always close at hand to pull her chestnuts out of the fire. 

Much of the book is a more factual look at the events which was not possible during the throes of the event actually occurring.  Delayed (Joe would be 100 and Marilyn 88 today) but still delicious gossip.