Books: “The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe.”

The travails of Marilyn, narrated by her precocious pet Maf (short for Mafia Honey), here double as a survey of cultural life in the early sixties. Maf, one of “the aristocrats of the canine world,” comes to Marilyn by way of Vanessa Bell, Natalie Wood, and Frank Sinatra . . . (Subscription required.)