by Roger Kahn
The 1954 marriage of Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe was an astonishing event in the fact and fantasy history of American celebrityhood. For the country's most revered athlete to marry its most adored actress still seems too rich an event. When it ended badly, it was an adult version of learning there is no Santa Claus. (The marriage of Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier was the only thing to come close in wish-fulfillment terms, but Kelly, for all her beauty and talent, never had Monroe's peculiar charisma. Rainier Grimaldi never hit in 56 straight games.) How the public personalities of these two people affected their relationship, which continued even when they divorced after nine months of marriage, and how their relationship was regarded by the public seem worthy of discussion. This book, however, hardly touches on these subjects. Kahn, author of The Boys of Summer and nine other books, is ordinarily a diligent reporter, but there isn't anything to report in this case. DiMaggio still refuses to discuss Monroe; what little Monroe had to say about him has long since been part of the record. That leaves Kahn to pad shamelessly. There are such annoying repetitions as twice citing Groucho Marx's admiration for Monroe's derriere. There are long accounts of DiMaggio's baseball career, a routine summation of Monroe's life and irrelevant facts about world history. (In noting that 1936 was a watershed for the Yankees, Kahn adds it was also a big year for Adolf Hitler.) In Marilyn, Norman Mailer took an analytical approach Kahn never attempts, writing that it was "impossible to understand DiMaggio, if it is not seen that the highest prize in a world of men is the most beautiful woman available on your arm and living there in her heart loyal to you." What this marriage was about—in its public life anyway—was images and symbols and illusions. For Kahn to essentially ignore that is to defeat his own purposes. (Morrow, $16.95)
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