In this extraordinary cycle of poems, we hear and are spell-bound by the voice of Marilyn Monroe. Her vulnerability and toughness, her narcissism and immaturity, and above all the mystery of Monroe's innocence are perfectly conveyed. Bowering sees both that her character's suffering is genuine and that it is self-indulgent. She gives us the luminescence of Monroe, embodies her in the rhythm of voice and in the visual images of self and world through which Monroe lived. She gives us Monroe's darkness, and also her faith in perfect love, her belief that there is no sin, no death, that nothing bad can happen. - Constance Rooke