Publication Date: March 5, 2024
Award-winning author Denny S. Bryce and USA Today bestselling author Eliza Knight collaborate on a brilliant novel that uncovers the boundary-breaking, genuine friendship between Ella Fitzgerald, the Queen of Jazz, and iconic movie star Marilyn Monroe.
One woman was recognized as the premiere singer of her era with perfect pitch and tireless ambition.
One woman was the most glamorous star in Hollywood, a sex symbol who took the world by storm.
And their friendship was fast and firm…
1952: Ella Fitzgerald is a renowned jazz singer whose only roadblock to longevity is society’s attitude toward women and race. Marilyn Monroe’s star is rising despite ongoing battles with movie studio bigwigs and boyfriends. When she needs help with her singing, she wants only the best—and the best is the brilliant Ella Fitzgerald. But Ella isn’t a singing teacher and declines—then the two women meet, and to everyone’s surprise but their own, they become fast friends.
On the surface, what could they have in common? Yet each was underestimated by the men in their lives—husbands, managers, hangers-on. And both were determined to gain. Each fought for professional independence and personal agency in a time when women were expected to surrender control to those same men.
This novel reveals and celebrates their surprising bond over a decade and serves as a poignant reminder of how true friendship can cross differences to bolster and sustain us through haunting heartbreak and wild success.
Though deemed biographical fiction, Can’t We Be Friends by Denny S. Bryce and Eliza Knight is written with numerous historical facts and intimate anecdotes, that it comes across as a bold history of two extraordinary women and their remarkable friendship at a time of racial segregation and pervasive racism.
1952: Ella Fitzgerald, the renowned jazz singer, is contacted by blonde bombshell Marilyn Monroe, asking her to help teach her to sing better for her upcoming film, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Having not been trained in any way, shape, or form, Ella puts Marilyn off but thus begins their pen pal relationship—through Ella’s cousin, Georgianna—but eventually, Ella responds directly.
The book chronicles Ella and Marilyn through the years in alternating chapters, conveying their successes and failures in music, film, life, and love—and there was quite a bit to chronicle.
While Marilyn’s love life and many failures are well known, the authors do not exploit her but instead portray her as a sympathetic character to be understood and empathized with and, in many ways, admired for her spunk and determination. It was heartbreaking to see the number of people who had exploited and manipulated her for their own ends. Much of which she couldn’t control.
Ella, too, had heartbreaking disappointments in love, and again, the authors illustrate her story with sensitivity and dignity, when they could have made it sensational. Ella wasn’t any less manipulated and exploited; it was just for different reasons—primarily race—but for both, how they were treated boiled down to being women in a man’s world.
The racism of the 1950s and 1960s was graphically depicted, and my admiration for Ms. Fitzgerard grew exponentially after reading what she and other artists endured. I can understand why she enjoyed touring Europe, as racism was far less, and she was treated as a whole person while there.
As all friendships do, Ella and Marilyn weathered ebbs and flows as well, from Marilyn’s excessive drinking, drug abuse, and other self-destructive behaviors to Ella’s sometimes standoffishness and work-a-holic tendencies. However, the genuine love for one another is evident throughout.
Intimate and sensitive, this powerful, if unlikely, friendship between Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe is portrayed beautifully in Can’t We Be Friends. This is truly a can’t-put-down read you won’t want to miss!
Eliza Knight is an award-winning and USA Today and international bestselling author of historical women’s fiction. Her love of history began as a young girl when she traipsed the halls of Versailles. As an avid history buff, she’s written dozens of novels including The Mayfair Bookshop, Starring Adele Astaire, Ribbons of Scarlet, A Day of Fire, and Can’t We Be Friends, which have been translated into multiple languages. She is the creator of the popular historical blog, History Undressed, and host of the History, Books and Wine podcast. Knight lives in Maryland and Florida with her husband, three daughters, two dogs, and a turtle.
Denny S. Bryce is an award-winning and bestselling author of historical fiction, including Wild Women and the Blues. She is also an adjunct professor in the MFA program at Drexel University, a book critic for NPR, and a member of the Historical Novel Society, Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and Tall Poppy Writers. Currently, she resides in Savannah, Georgia.
