The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog

Marilyn Monroe and Maf by Eric Skipsey

These days, Marilyn Monroe is everywhere. "Marilyn's Secret Diaries" are on the cover of Vanity Fair. Maureen Dowd discusses her and the dumbing down of beauty (Marilyn strove for the opposite) in her New York Times column "Making Ignorance Chic". And Andrew O'Hagan has written an astoundingly well-reviewed novel about Marilyn Monroe told from the point of view of her dog Maf (short for Mafia, a gift from Frank Sinatra). I haven't read O'Hagan's book, The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe, but John Banville of The Guardian calls Maf a "shrewd observer of the modern age and of the American century, a veritable Tocqueville for our times." And The Globe and Mail's Zoë Garnett says, "I have never read a more original work than Scottish novelist Andrew O'Hagan's Maf the Dog." Wow.

I started looking around for photos of Marilyn and Maf and found this gorgeous collection by Eric Skipsey. I also discovered a YouTube video of Maryilyn acting with disobediant dog in her last, unfinished, film "Something's Got to Give." And, I found several shots of Lassie enthusiastically greeting her at bandleader Ray Anthony's 1952 party. And then I found my favorite, Eve Arnold's photos of Marilyn with two mystery dogs. In all the photos, Marilyn Monroe looks like she is more than a good sport. She looks like she is dog lover. Maybe it's an act. But the dogs seem gaga for her too, and that's hard to fake.