The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe

Andrew O'Hagan

In a virtuoso act of ventriloquism, Maf the dog, Marilyn Monroe’s best friend and confidant, is the surprisingly erudite narrator in this unusual insight into psychotherapy and the political and literary in-fighting of Hollywood. Peppered with sharp summations of famous people and an insight which is whimsical, humorous but also profound, the author skilfully immerses you in the life of one of the world’s most famous and troubled women.

Extract

So I was Mafia Honey – Maf for short. The days just drifted into one another on the East Side. For the first time since leaving England, I felt I might be on solid ground, in safe company every day with the same maid and the same housekeeper. It seems I was destined always to enjoy the briefest of stays wherever I landed, but in many ways I will always consider the apartment at 444 to have been my home. Marilyn was a strange and unhappy creature, but at the same time she had more natural comedy to her than anybody I would ever know. More comedy and more art. Not for her the stern refusal of life’s absurdities: Marilyn had a sensitivity to jokes and moral drama that would have delighted the chiefs of psychoanalytic Vienna. It didn’t take long for her to become my best friend.

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