Misfit
"Seamlessly blending fact and fiction, Braver penetrates the vivacious veneer of Monroe's on-screen persona to reveal a woman so adept at embodying a role, that 'it swallows her whole.' Through his gradual unfolding of Monroe's painful upbringing and her desire to be taken seriously in a world that values the superficial, Braver makes Monroe's tragic end freshly poignant." —Publishers Weekly"To some extent, it's about the details, obviously the result of painstaking research, but crafted as only a great fiction writer can pull off through a seamless application of imagination to fact."—San Francisco Chronicle"We all know the ending to the story, but you can't help but want to hear Braver tell it all over again once you get drawn into his prose." —Rhode Island Monthly"Misfitis an incredible act of imagination. Adam Braver writes with wit and precision and real empathy, telling us something new and vital about one of our most over-scrutinized figures, while restoring some of the humanity that the glare of celebrity has stripped away." —Scott O'Connor, author ofUntouchable"Adam Braver is not the first to interpret the true legend of Norma Jeane Baker, but it may be that he has gone the deepest.  Beautiful, aching, fearsome—Misfitis a hall of mirrors that we all know, even those of us lucky enough not to have arrived there as Marilyn Monroe."—Zachary Lazar, author ofSway"Once again, Adam Braver turns his prodigious imagination and keen eye on an iconic figure and breathes life into her. His Marilyn will break your heart."— Ann Hood, author ofThe Red Thread"Misfitis amazing. Yes, we’re all familiar with the very publicly overexposed story of Marilyn Monroe’s life and death.  And no, I’m not going to say that this follows in the path of anyone, or that Marilyn was herself a symbol, or that the book, itself, speaks to some general, important metaphor about America.  Instead, it’s a book about the ability, the power of the author to penetrate the cell membrane, to pierce the heart of his recognizable yet perplexingly vague subject, and in so doing, to implicate the reader.  It’s about how someone can be explored externally, while also internally examined: a book about identity, privacy, and intimacy that both exposes and conceals the subject.  As, it seems to me, Marilyn acted while retaining an unknowable essence, so that she was hugely projected upon yet inhabited no life comprehensible to her.—Ann Beattie, author ofMrs. Nixon: A Novelist Imagines a Life"Adam Braver has a wonderfully rich imagination and his grasp of historical characters and settings is both deep and natural. I would gladly read anything he writes."— Dan Chaon, author ofAwait Your Reply“Misfitis a thrilling book, a beautiful book and, most of all, a believable story at last about a woman so well known and not at all." –SFGate.com