Show — —— - - 1 E2 BOOKS The Salt Lake Tribune — ' Sunday January 26 1992 Steinem wins the battle within herself Analyzing Marilyn Feminist Gloria Steinem wrote this book twice The first time she labored for months researching and interviewing Finally she showed her manuscript to a friend who is a therapist "I don't know how to tell you this — but I think you have a problem You forgot to put yourself in" the friend said And it was back to the beginning for three more years of writing in which Steinem did indeed put herself in And it's fortunate that she did for the most compelling parts of this book are those where we meet the inner Steinern Certainly the makings of a problem were there In her : 1983 collection of essays °atmgems Acts and Everyday Rebel- I self-estee- wide-rangin- Self-Estee- m By Gloria Steinem: i g lions Steinem described her : : : : : - 1 i mother as "an invalid who lay in bed with eyes closed and lips mov ing in occasional response to voices only she could hear a woman to whom I brought an endless stream of toast and coffee bolo gna sandwiches and dime pies in a child's version of what meals should be" It was too much for Steinem's father who moved out when she was 10 leaving the child to cope alone with her emotionally disturbed mother Later as a spokeswoman for feminism Steinem spent two decades on the road running from engagement to engagement often neglecting her own needs "Like a soldier who is wounded but won't lie down for fear of dying I just kept marching" she writes And the marching became a way to suppress her inner sadness She has since she says learned to take better care of herself even to redecorating her brownstone apartment because it is as she told Vanity Fair "a symbol of the self-estee- m And so she has She carefully covers the ways in which our culture has taught all of us (for she makes a real effort to include men in this book) to devalue ourselves Particularly she talks about the extent to which learning is still based on the values and contributions of white males And she discusses how we can begin to unlearn what we have been taught and value ourselves more It is here that she offers valuable insights but also occasionally goes on too long Interest flags during page after page about how craniology the practice of assessing intelligence by brain size was used to justify racism and sexism Despite this Revolution from Within has much to offer particularly for people who have not yet explored the area of Steinem ends with a word of kindness for her past self as she envisions her: "She sits in a news self" 1 Brown: 922 95 her inner meeting with her future self whom she pictures striding confidently forward in a long flowing cape In the appendix Steinem gives a brief guide to meditation along with suggested readings And she leaves a few blank pages where readers can write of childhood pain and in a chapter on romance vs love the qualities they desire in an ideal lover Steinem spends a lot of the love chapter talking about why she fell in love with — and then rejected — a rich personable man (publishing magnate Mort Zuckerman although she doesn't name him) Zuckerman she says couldn't have been more different from her in his philosophy But she kept making excuses and thinking he'd change "In other words" she writes "I made all the classic errors of romance including one I'd never made before: loving someone for what I needed instead of for what he was" But there is more than inner work here Steinem said she wanted to write a book that combined the outer and inner aspects of m : : Lent Perhaps because she wrote the book twice it is a smorgasbord in which she ranges widely There is a heavy emphasis on acknowledging and healing our inner child the wounded part of us whose needs were not met in childhood Steinem 57 takes us along with her when a therapist guides her in a visualization exercise to meet her inner child (who doesn't self-estee- yet trust her enough to talk to Steinem) Later we learn about - s '''''' 'f t 1 - 1 Cultural icons die hard In fact according to reports on Elvis in the supermarket tabloids they don't die at all Consider Marilyn Monroe who imagined that life was a bummer In death the star has been subjected to countless s tedious commercial doctoral dissertations and manifestos in support of feminism or Playboy Pop culture celebrates Monroe in Elton John's "Candle in the Wind" and Madonna's retro look Writers as disparate as - - - self-estee- m - as icon and wonzan Revolution From Within: A Book of s ' i ' i I - I: N ' t - -- -4 - - -- -- —- : t or Steinem analyze her life and ea- A fictional Monroe of one another turns up in Robert Mayer's I JFK and Lois Gould's most recent novel Medusa's Gift Anyone it seems can pick - - f o-f- r 4- 4 -- - through the remains to reconstruct a Marilyn Monroe to fit any prejudice In death as in life she's powerless to fend off cethe vultures the self obliterates lebrity In light of all this one approaches Sam Toperoff's Queen ofDesire warily Yet the novel is an accomplished work of fiction a convincing and moving portrait of a tortured talented woman It's respectful but not worshipful dramatic but not cloying subtly charting Monroe's progression from orphan to aspiring nightclub singer to starlet to international sex symbol Toperoff — the author of numerous works of fiction and most recently the life of Sugar Ray Leonard — has captured his subject in 13 vivid tableaux-lik- e chapters Each begins with a magazine interview (termed "Lights") followed by a setting of the scene ("Camera") and then the scene itself ("Action") Monroe's "rise" as imagined by Toperoff is a tawdry hoisting upward on male lust As a child she is neglected by her mentally ill mother and molested by her mother's boyfriend As a starlet she is exploited by her agent and inspected like a steer by a plastic surgeon The established star fights back battling to define herself and to be defined as something more than the "queen of desire" Yet since the persona is so familiar and in part so comforting she too succumbs to its siren call "Marilyn loves exploring that playful line between licit and licentious" Toperoff writes Even in the early years the author endows Norma Jean with a measure of unsuspected strength as she helps a friend through the ordeal of an illegal abortion or persists in pursuing a singing career despite her husband's objections More to the point this Monroe is always a bundle of contra - - o' ‘ - ( - - ul - t 's ! ''" 14 I I I I always-painf- t t 4 gt Tribune file photo Gloria Steinem visited Salt Lake City in 1975 at the height of the feminist movement for a University of Utah confereace But then "I think: She's doing paper boardroom with the sort of powerful men who undermine her the best she can" And in this ten confidence the most trying to per- - derness toward herself she finds suade them to support a law that renewed women badly need — and fails We all have many selves she She rushes toward me outside a concludes but "Where is always lecture hall talking laughing full one true inner voice" of optimism I used to feel it" tient with her Why — Sandy Hill wiser more productive? Happi- en" Charlotte Observer self-estee- m impsI'rust lattice Row-T- o Anthooy Robbins :4 French for Cats Henry Beard and John Boswell Final Exit Derek : This Week Scarfed Alexandra Ripley 2 Hideaway Dean R Koontz 1 & Needful Things Stephen King 4 No Greater Love Danielle Steel Weeks On List Last Week 511 4 8 1 8 3 3 2 2 Dianea Beauty and the Bead Last Week Weeks On List 1 18 — 1 3 15 2 10 4 5 - Follett 6 8 17 7 Blindsight Robin Cook V The Sam cif All Fears Tom Clancy 9 The Firm John Grisham 10 Lila Robert M Pirsig 5 9 — 23 46 5 11 Oh The Places You'll Do Dr Seuss 12 Line of Fire WEB Griffin 13 The Doomsday Consolsicy Sidney Sheldon 14 Griffin It Sabine Nick Bantock 15 Private Eyes Jonathan Kellerman Katharine Hepburn 14 2 — 1 6 Plausible Denial Mark 7 20 7 Molly Ivins Can't Say That Can She? Molly Lane wins S IJhOh Robert Fulghum 9 Iron John Robert Sly 10 The World Is My Home James Miehener 12 Parliament of Whores O'Rourke 13 Under Fire Oliver L North with William Novak 14 Toujours Provence Peter Mayle 1 Last Week Weeks On List 1 15 2 8 6 10 PI 15'JEdgaruooverCurt -- 1 444 3 '''qt-- ‘ °"- t- 1‘ ( cy st ' 0 '''''''''t ritev 3 - ' 1 Y k47‘ : N-- ' 1 r --4 I ri I 1 01 sw144 ia " -- — —4- - g T : ' : 1 I 32 8 12 - 18 8 12 beauty" Newsday i iteilt ‘ r le'''''' Nyorl - ' AA41114 r If i'''' rito i II i' iar--- -- -: I114‘i ' k iL obil 4 :i - Z — ': Ni lir 4ie - wit - i r- l 1 ilk -- - I! k : i i 4-- - - : r Al IT - '' A o IV - ‘11 i l- 11 : itt i: 31st family $ IS Family passes available for Capitol Theatre 7:00pm at50the West 200 South t t 1 1 1011 t1 1 ‘ 4V 1 ah1LETWEST1t IA Tickets 1 --- --- I A 1 1 !2-- 1 The Electronic Dance Transformer show for the whole - 41 NF v V ro ir ‘ L January -- - 2 && Fc't-- 1 r 1 I 1 li :j : )7 f 4 - 1 1: r i r ft" ag$ 2) - 4 - i - i !w 1: e ' 4 14' - I I :Iii- 4- - --4 1s -- 4t - 4 to'' "- c tow-- 47:- 1 i r Ns :" : i 17 - ( )) 20:' L 4 411 -- - z - 4 --f- :lc' i i'"1 ' ' - c T t I0'f ! ' - r-- iier z z - ) 7 t k -- 21111111 :: i '": 7! 4 11(110D41Ii -- - - r- - T 'T - 9i P) — --- i lli I A -- -- i 1 Nil i tiefk '''''4r - d 4 it i 1k '44-' 4 -- diP (t 1 ( ---- s: Dan Cryer Art That Moves The 7 R-- '11"--- :: Symphony Box Office Sponsored by the Utah Symphony 13 1 N - pick up some valuable tips on stacking furniture The Peking Acrobats visit Salt Lake City on January 28 in or visit the Utah Symphony Hal! or tickets call ilt - PtgltiG '''''''':-- -- r unmatched flexibility and precision guarantee an evening nothing short of amazing And if that's not enough you can probably tr-- "i i' Their finesse with furniture notwithstanding The Peking Acrobats are one of the worlds most unique and exciting acrobatic troupe boasts some of China's most gifted troupes The tumblers jugglers contortionists cyclists and gymnasts Their T 6 : -- -- r e 533-NOT- E : 10 ---k- ros0t ail i z--- 4 AT HOME : 22 60 1 h 1 4074- if ' 1 1 -- a -4 o MISS THIS PERFORMANCE AND DON'T TRY THIS DON 9 -' t:'- zt :--1 ''' dia ' r474'110 1If) li ' - iti fo7 t X if il‘" eio ' ' 9 - - 40-4-- 11 5 Time-bend- "'''N ' ' veo ( 3i ts -' t ‘ i x 12 if'"'-'6""'"'"'"'- - :t f f ‘''‘''‘ L" - - ' ettlt -- 2 What I Do on my Day Off? t - 7 Ever Wonder fr-1- A4' 1- 8 - ANIDESEIRMilla 41t43t leltk4kit - 4 Gentry - : 19 Smith This Week L Den of Thkves James B Stewart 2 Memories Ralph Emery with Tom Carter 3 Backlash Susan Faludi 4 Mc Storks of My Life ir- 4 3 5 The Jordan Rules Sam 95 n Meat Over Water Ken B 1 Arnhem the Giant Within : Fiction and Miscellaneous This Week ' 1 More Wea kb Without : Risk Charles J Givens :2 The Best Treatnarrak Iss dory Rosenfeld 18 Humphry ul n non-fictio- t Best sellers New York Times Service The listings below are based on computer-processesales figures from 2000 bookstom in every region of the United States An after a books current rank indicates that its sales weighted to reflect the industry nationally are barely distinguishable from those of the book above "Johnny Hyde (her agent before she became a household word lifted the burden of decisions from her and she was certainly grateful to him for that" But she's also put off by his assumption without consulting her that she will undergo facial cosmetic surgery In one of Toperoff's best scenes we see Monroe contemplating a volume of Rilke's poetry just before the shooting of that famous sexy photo during the makItch" in ing of "The Seven-Yea- r which the blast of air from the subway below blows her skirt far above her waist Venus goddess of love aspires to be Mi- nerva goddess of wisdom Above all Monroe is a prisoner At a New York Yankees Old Timers' game Joe DiMaggio with his possessive rage tries to keep her on a leash At Lee Strasberg's Actors' Studio she can't see beyond the stereotypes to the evidence at hand that she really can act In the presence of Frank Lloyd Wright she focuses only on "the genius" not the pompous old man unable to listen to what his clients Monroe and Arthur Miller actually want Only with Indonesia's President Sukarno who has publicly confessed to fantasies of seducing her does she recognize the feol for what he is Each of these historical fiures and more — including John Huston Montgomery Clift and columnist Jimmy Cannon — is deftly sketched John F Kennedy however makes no appearance though we watch Monroe singing a boozy "Happy Birthday" to him at Madison Square Garden That sequence is part of Toperoff's portrayal of her plunge toward suicide Like Jean Harlow whose hairdresser Monroe inherits "All she ever wanted even after she made it big was to belong to herself again" And that remained beyond her grasp Each of these chapters subtly evokes Monroe at a distinct moment of revelation Collectively they produce a shivery heartbreakingly memorable portrait Sam Toperoff has ably dramatized the Marilyn Monroe of Arthur Miller's memoir "She was a whirling light all paradox and enticing one momystery street-tougment then lifted by a lyrical and poetical sensitivity that few retain past early adolesence What she wanted most was not to judge but to win recognition from a sentimentally cruel profession and from men blinded to her humanity by her perfect Norman Mailer and Gloria - Toperoft HarperCollins $20 diction& rip-off- - ' Queen cf Desire By Sam I mg - --- i 1 ' ------- - ---- -— ---- - j 4) 'NS 1 ririe:woodbury r 11- 0owy S 155-ART- ---- 1--1I - ‘ 4 : - : W? 1 |