La Toya: Growing Up in the Jackson Family
by La Toya Jackson, Patricia Romanowski
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Book Summary Information
Author: La Toya Jackson, Patricia RomanowskiEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1991-09-10
ISBN: 0525933433
Number of pages: 261
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Book Reviews of La Toya: Growing Up in the Jackson Family
Book Review: Step Into Her World
Summary: 5 Stars
When La Toya Jackson first released her tell-all autobiography book in 1991, it did not exactly shock the world, as her playboy venture did a couple of years earlier, but it certainly caught a lot of media attention and received much criticism from her own family.
The purpose of this book, according to La Toya, was to reveal the truth. Just how much of this "truth" is real, I'm not quite sure. But for the most part, La Toya seems to be rather genuinely sincere, aside from maybe a few possible exaggerations here and there. Nonetheless, her tone is very humble and straightforward. Many of her stories are fascinating; some of them are sad, others are funny, entertaining, but always interesting. She recounts candidly about her childhood, her relationship to her parents and her siblings, The Jackson Five phenomena, Michael Jackson's tremendous musical success, her own music career, her search of freedom and independence, and her strange "marriage" to Jack Gordon, who she openly admits to have never loved. In fact, her reasons for marrying him had nothing to do with romance at all; her reasons will most likely surprise you.
Yet some of her stories seem a bit too outrageous to be true, or so I thought. For example, La Toya recounts a time when she was held captive inside the home of a famous record producer by the name of Phil Spector. La Toya describes this frightening experience in great detail, portraying Phil Spector as a lunatic, a man with a very serious personality disorder. Spector, according to La Toya, behaved very strangely with his sporadic mood swings and attempts to scare her to death by playing mind games. He even teased La Toya with some eerie suggestions of murdering her! (You'll have to read the book to get the full details: I don't want to spoil this for anybody.) That, at first, I found a bit difficult to believe. So I did some research on this Phil Spector guy, and it turns out that several years after this incident, in 2003, he was arrested as a murder suspect! La Toya's book, by the way, was published in 1991. Therefore, La Toya was not bluffing about this legendary producer, especially since others have also made comments about his odd personality. So does this mean that La Toya's claims that her own family tried to kidnap her at one point may also be true? (This is another fascinating story that you'll find in this book... a must read.)
Overall, I thought this book is exceptionally well written. La Toya is a very open-minded person and I found her quite intriguing. I really enjoyed reading this book. Five Stars!
Summary of La Toya: Growing Up in the Jackson Family
Michael Jackson's older sister reveals her memories of life in the Jackson household, recounting a tale of violence, drug abuse, exploitation, and infidelity and discussing her brother's transformation into a megastar. Reprint.Music Books
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