It’s a good thing I had a cold this week or I might never have gotten through this book, which is nearly 750 pages long. The first 500 were a joy of Oates’ tumbling prose and pushing into Marilyn Monroe’s psyche. Around page 500 it started feeling a bit cyclical and repetitive, but was worth reading in the end.

For Oates beginners, I highly recommend The Falls, which is both shorter and more approachable. I read it nearly in one sitting on an insomniac night on my honeymoon in Port Angeles, Wash.

I think I’m going to start rating the books I read on a one-to-five-star scale (it matches my library software, grin). Blonde gets ****.