Book Review: ‘When We Were Brilliant: A Novel’ By Lynn Cullen

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The book is in stores on Tuesday, Jan. 20th from Berkley. Click on the link to buy a copy. https://amzn.to/4qfDcvy

This is the Historical fiction story of world-renowned photographer, Eve Arnold, and her friendship with Marilyn Monroe, whom she met while photographing her, and began a close friendship over many years until her suicide. In 1952, Marilyn Monroe, aka Norma Jean Baker, follows Eve into a bathroom, and wants her to photograph Marilyn, the persona she created as an actress, and bigger than life bombshell. She has seen Eve’s work and thinks she’s the only one who can capture her the way she is meant to be photographed. At first, she doesn’t want to, but then she does, and both of their lives and careers take off, in similar yet different paths. We follow them over a number of years, with the book told from the perspective of Eve, and it is quite a novel. The thing I love about these kinds of novels is that I learn about people and things I never knew about. I had never heard about Eve Arnold before, and I have googled and looked up her life and pictures. This is a novel not to be missed!