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In November 1960, Frank Sinatra gave Marilyn Monroe a dog. His name was Mafia Honey, or Maf for short. He had an instinct for celebrity. For politics. For psychoanalysis. For literature. For interior decoration. For Liver Treat together with a side order of National Biscuits. Born in the household of Vanessa Bell, delivered to the United States by Natalie Wood’s mother, given as a Christmas present to Marilyn the winter afterwards she separated from Arthur Miller, Maf proposes a keen insight into the world of Hollywood’s greatest star. Not to mention a hilarious peek into the brain of an opinionated, well-read, politically scrappy, advanced canine hero. Maf was together with Marilyn for the last two years of her life, first in New York, where she mixed together with everyone who was anyone—the art dealer Leo Castelli, Lee Strasberg and the Actor’s Studio crowd, Upper West Side émigrés—then back to Los Angeles. She took him to meet President Kennedy and to Hollywood restaurants, department stores, and interviews. To Mexico, for her divorce. Together with style, brilliance, and panache, Andrew O’Hagan has drawn an altogether original portrait of the woman behind the icon, and the dog behind the woman. |
Customer Reviews |
 A bit of a dog's dinner 2010-08-31 |
| By Ripple (uk) |
On the plus side, The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog and of his Friend Marilyn Monroe has several things going for it. Firstly, the title which grabs your interest. Some of the writing is quite wonderful too - O'Hagan has a lovely way with words. The concept itself, while not perhaps truly original (an anthropomorphic take on animals and in particular here, the canine narrator) is interesting and this particular pooch is mixing in circles in which there is endless fascination (not only about Marilyn, but also Sinatra, Natalie Wood, Sammy Davis, Kennedy et al). Maf you see is a dog, gifted to Marilyn by `Ol Blue Eyes and it is through his eyes that we see the last period of Marilyn's life. And true there are both some interesting observations (though not particularly about Monroe) and a modicum of humor (although it was not as funny as I had expected).
The problem for me is that all these ingredients don't hang together terribly well and it's a bit of, well, a dog's dinner. In fact, I'd go so far to say that parts of it are really quite dull - and that's surprising given all the other factors. Maf is prone to philosophy - again, I don't have a particular issue with that, but it doesn't really have any effect on the narrative other than to bog it down. It's not particularly funny, nor insightful. In fact it leads to more questions as it's unclear where Maf gained this insight.
And sure, he keeps getting taken out with Marilyn on her trips to parties, sets, therapists etc, but there is little narrative coherence about these events and they seem to just plod along - and it's next to impossible to track the time frames of the book. I had high expectations of this book (which can be a problem) but I was sadly disappointed. It's clearly well researched (canines in history, philosophy, the life of Monroe etc) and perhaps this is its problem - it's too heavily researched and the end result is too stodgy. But most of all, I found it simply dull and this was only partly alleviated by O'Hagan's writing style. Maf understands humans, but we don't understand dogs' communication when they bark. Neither it seems do we when they write a novel. A paw effort from a promising writer. |
 "Settle down now, there's a good boy" 2010-08-31 |
| By Steve Benner (Lancaster, UK) |
"The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog and of his friend Marilyn Monroe" by Andrew O'Hagan is a book that will probably sell mostly for its title. Consequently, I suspect, many of those who buy it (and regardless of whether they have sampled its opening pages) will be sorely disappointed with it. The book is based on a number of clever (although far from original) conceits, the principal of which is that dogs (as well as other animals) are sensitive to the thoughts and dreams of humans (most especially for dogs, of their owners) and thus, over time, accumulate a deep understanding of and love for human thinking, which imbues them with a profound propensity for endless philosophising. Sadly, all attempts to vocalise their endless musings are invariably perceived as nothing more than barks, yaps and other meaningless or annoying noises, making the trait more frustrating than useful.
In choosing as his protagonist not only a dog from real life but also one that was known to be the almost constant companion of a famous individual who is nowadays regarded as herself occupying something of a shadowy world of semi-make believe, frustrated in her attempts to find or make her true self known to others -- as well as now heavily shrouded in mystique, notoriety and offering a perfect candidate for voyeurism -- O'Hagan sets up an endless series of potential directions for his novel. And there, I think, is the rub in providing countless possible themes, in a setting laced with the poignancy, scandal and intrigue, most readers are likely to be disappointed with the direction that the author actually chooses to take. For in the end, the period and the setting are nothing more than backdrop in this book and while there are many passing snipes at the petty foibles of the rich and the famous and the powerful, ultimately the book is nothing more than a single, over-extended gag about the nature of dogs (and also, by extension, their owners).
Readers interested in the characters and events of the times portrayed in this book are likely to be frustrated at the endless parade of the minutiae of events and random conversations, seemingly at the expense of any coherent presentation of context or the bigger picture -- much indeed as a dog taken for a walk will happily spend its time sniffing around in the leaves without ever knowing (or caring) where it actually is or might have been. Conversely, those without any knowledge of the relationships between Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monrow, the Kennedy clan -- to say nothing of the endless panoply of Hollywood characters of the mid 1960s -- will find the endless digressions into the details of their gatherings confusing, distracting and boring in the extreme.
Andrew O'Hagan has a lovely way with words and many passages in this book are very beautiful indeed. At times is also very clever and witty, and the book is full of sharp observations about the nature of the world, of people and, most especially, of dogs. Sadly though, there are times -- altogether too many times -- when it is just plain tedious and often one can't help thinking: there's a good dog but come along now! |
| The one with the waggly tale 2010-07-17 |
| By Ryan Williams (Lichfield, Staffordshire.) |
It's impressive, the distance that Andrew O'Hagan has travelled since his 1999 debut novel Our Fathers. From the start, he showed you he had the themes and a formidable intelligence. He also showed you how to wreck a promising novel through sheer over-writing, but he bounced back quickly. O'Hagan said that he is always itching to work on a long essay, and it's a form he graces.(If you haven't read his first book The Missing, or the essays collected in The Atlantic Ocean, waste no time in pursuing them.) The itch worked wonders on his second (and best) novel Personality, which found its niche in the area between reportage and fiction. The style - plainer, droller - benefitted too.
This, his latest novel, continues in this vein. The talk (and there is much more of it here than in O'Hagan's previous novels) glides much more smoothly than before. At times it feels like a Disney flick scripted by Damon Runyon. The story isn't the most original in the world, but, in fairness, the novel duly doffs its cap to Kafka and Chekhov, among others. If you forget the rather hideous cover - like something a self-publisher would blight a bookshelf with - the novel's entertaining and witty enough. I'd like to see more comedy from O'Hagan. |
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