The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe »

ANDREW O'HAGAN was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His previous novels have been awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the E. M. Forster Award. He has also published essays, reportage, and stories in the London Review of Books, the New York Review of Books, Granta, and The New Yorker.

In November 1960, Frank Sinatra gave Marilyn Monroe a dog. His name was Mafia Honey, or Maf for short. He had an instinct for celebrity. For politics. For psychoanalysis. For literature. For interior decoration. For Liver Treat with a side order of National Biscuits.

Maf was with Marilyn for the last two years of her life, first in New York, where she mixed with everyone who was anyone—the art dealer Leo Castelli, Lee Strasberg and the Actors Studio crowd, Upper West Side émigrés—then back to Los Angeles. She took him to meet President Kennedy and to Hollywood restaurants, department stores, and interviews. To Mexico, for her divorce.

With style, brilliance, and panache, Andrew O’Hagan has drawn a one-of-a-kind portrait of the woman behind the icon, and the dog behind the woman.

Publishers Weekly

O'Hagan (Be Near Me) conjures canine narrator Maf, short for "Mafia Honey," to introduce readers to a world where dogs' playful manners belie their capacity for philosophy--Maf is a Trotsky fan--cats speak in poetic form, and animals provide a gateway into their owners' thoughts and dreams. A circuitous path leads Maf into the arms of Frank Sinatra just as he's looking for a gift for Marilyn Monroe. With his new owner, the lucky pup has a period of perfect companionship in New York City, attending Sammy Davis Jr. shows, sitting in on analyst appointments, witnessing Sinatra tantrums, and attending literati gatherings where those whose artistic sensibilities run counter to his risk being bitten. Between Maf's ruminations on dog and human nature, his favorite famous dogs, and the best parks in the world, he bemoans Marilyn's decline. O'Hagan's witty novel is packed with allusions, and though Maf gives color and nuance to some historical A-listers, Marilyn, remains unfortunately elusive. This familiar slice of Americana gets a much-needed shaking up from an erudite pooch. (Dec.)