I love you, Marilyn Monroe. I love you. I want to be you.
Anna vividly remembers the moment Marilyn Monroe sang "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy in Madison Square Garden. Hundreds of miles away in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the thirty-two-year-old is struck by the iconic blonde's beauty. Anna, who has just buried her mother, and has suffered through her father's death three months before, is confronting the fact that she is all alone in the world. Marilyn is never alone.
In this novel of the changing culture of the 1960s,
J. G. Rothberg chronicles one woman's journey through the world of pop art, celebrity, and political icons.
Anna sells the family home and moves briefly to Hollywood, California, and soon after to New York City where she hopes to reconnect with a childhood acquaintance. She may remember Andy Warhol as just an old classmate, but he's become a legend in the art world. As Anna tries to get closer to her famous friend, she's pursued by both his aide, Nick Boxer, and an art critic, Ethan Saks
Nick, Ethan, and Anna become inseparable, and Anna tries to cover over the agony of her past by transforming into a Marilyn Monroe doppelganger. She soon discovers that being Marilyn won't protect her from heartbreak and other dangers.
The story ends in a surprise, emotional bang as Anna lay in a coma, and JFK is murdered. "Memoirs of a Woman With Two Lovers" sums up the conflicting emotions of the time, bringing together its idealism and its darker side. Written against a backdrop of Kennedy loves, won and lost with Monroe, Free Love, and Andy Warhol, for readers who yearn for a glimpse into the Pop culture, and loves of the time.
The novel intertwines fiction, historical figures, and the Zeitgeist for a perceptive look at American history. "Memoirs of a Woman With Two Lovers" directs its story at adult readers of all ages; the historical novel delivers all this, with a good dose of eroticism thrown in for good measure.
About the Author:
J. G. Rothberg is the founder, editor, and publisher of the legendary rock and roll periodical Circus Magazine.
Rothberg is the author of The Esau Swindle, Love Song for Montana Greene, Memoirs of a Woman with Two Lovers, and the forthcoming Billy B.Good, the Escape from Elsinore Castle . For more information, visit his website, www.geraldrothberg.com.
