[.ca] Cursum Perficio: Marilyn Monroe's Brentwood Hacienda: ... (ISBN 0595749801)

a lovely book.:
I bought the book after stumbling across the author's web-site and finding myself riveted by every page of the site. I am regretting not having splurged and bought the hardcover edition as I'm sure the colour pictures are wonderful. As it stands, the paperback version could use some better editing but the story is warm and always respectful. I really recommend it to anyone who is fascinated by the charm of Marilyn, but is sick of the sensationalism.

Sensitive & Enlightening:
This is an excellent follow-up to the author's first paperback edition. I enjoyed this handsome, hardcover version and its wealth of new photos and illustrations. The artist's depictions looked like actual photos. This edition fleshed out more details of Marilyn's last weeks without dwelling on murder-theories. Well-researched with new information, this book avoids re-hashing what has already been written. It is a page-turner and must-have for any Marilyn fan. Now I feel as though I really know Marilyn, and I've read nearly every biography written on her in the last fifteen years. Using Marilyn's last days in the house as a context for a biography is a novel approach to understanding this icon. Vitacco-Robles wove together Marilyn's past as it related to the events during her last year. Marilyn's last year always fascinated me, and I was really interested in learning more about her months in the home in Brentwood. The book is the end-all for anyone who ever secretly wished to visit the home and see inside. It is now hidden by a huge gate to deter fans like me! The last chapter focused on Frank Lloyd Wright designing a home for Marilyn & Arthur Miller. I was not aware of this. Marilyn wanted a large nursery for the children she never had and a study for the husbanc whom she later divorced. I was amazed that the home was eventually built in Hawaii as a golfing resort. Vitacco-Robles is a therapist who works with abused children. He knows his subject well and is sensitive to Marilyn's emotional troubles created by her horrendous childhood. As a male biographer, I think Vitacco-Robles does Marilyn justice with his sensitive writing and fresh perspective. Yes, it's the latest in a long line of biographies about this remarkable woman, but one of the best!

Marilyn's last home:
Excellent book with details about the last house that Marilyn lived in and house where she died. Loved learning about her home and how she lived during the last months of her life. Very well written and very informative. A must for every Marilyn fan.

A must for Norma Jeane lovers:
I bought this book, and I really like and enjoyed it. The author is also such a nice man, he offered to sign my copy for me if I sent it to him. The production quality of the photos in the previous paperback edition were not great (not Gary's fault, he's as upset as anyone) but I managed to download great color ones from the net so that's a non-issue. The new edition has fixed all that and added more. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Marilyn. If you love Marilyn, you have to have this book.

A MUST- HAVE FOR ANY MARILYN ENTHUSIAST!!:
When I first received my copy of Cursum Perficio: Marilyn's Brentwood Hacienda, I wasn't sure what to expect. Much to my surprise, I was enthralled and fascinated by the details of Marilyn's final months, so eloquently chronicled by Gary Vitacco-Robles. Void of any media hype and speculation about the cause of her death, Vitacco-Robles explores how Marilyn searched and found the perfect place to call home...a respite from the choatic life she led in the media spotlight. You will journey with her as she went on shopping sprees for furnishings and ornaments in a quest to make the only home she ever owned a reflection of herself. The book contains a vast collection of actual photographs, as well as impressive photo-recreations of the home's interior as it looked in 1962 and now. I applaud Vitacco-Robles for a superb testamant to the woman so many longed to know. This book reveals a whole other side of Marilyn that has never been revealed. A MUST HAVE for any Marilyn enthusiast!