Life with My Sister Madonna
by Christopher Ciccone, Wendy Leigh
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Book Summary Information
Author: Christopher Ciccone, Wendy LeighEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-03-03
ISBN: 1416587632
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Gallery Books
Book Reviews of Life with My Sister Madonna
Book Review: Insight into a Mega-Star from Middle Class Michigan
Summary: 4 Stars
Who really wants to perform, solo, in front of a crowd larger than a mid-sized city? Who would surrender their privacy to the point of risking their personal safety or subject their family to the demands of this life? Almost by definition, the modern star system is a meritocracy for narcissists. You have to expect total self involvement from a star the size of Madonna and you have to figure this will take its toll on everyone around her.
Christopher can design houses, furniture, make up, and stage sets, skills definitely needed by Madonna. He was needy and young enough to mold. She was a penny pincher. Chris was the perfect prey.
There are many people in exploitive relationships at work or at home, but few have both and not many have the overpowering dynamic of wealth and fame. Don Felder Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001) describes a somewhat similar abusive attachment. Chris has the added baggage of the family tie which he constantly feels, and she feels when it's convenient.
Chris is not perfect. Passive aggressive behavior surfaces most notably in Demi Moore's furniture delivery. Other instances are somewhat deserved such as the wedding toast and the wording of some emails. But Chris has never had a life of his own, so how should he react?
While Chris is obviously very talented, he is a poor businessman. He gets what should be lucrative jobs (restaurant design, Bill Clinton's furniture, he writes for popular magazines) so he shouldn't be broke.
Madonna's indifference to her family is striking. She uses them as props from time to time, and sucked the youth and artistic sensibility of her brother. Elvis took good care of Mom and Vernon and even Marvin Gaye was a good provider for his ungrateful Dad. Madonna has none of this and her income is outsized compared to theirs. It is like John Lennon's near denial of his son Julian and Yoko Ono's later treatment of him and other relatives.
Her relationship with Guy, now over, may have been somewhat by default. There are not many men her age who would want to be eclipsed by their wives, so she had have one 10 years younger. Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--and the Journey of a Generation describes how for each, talent got in the way of a relationship. One strategy, hiding or mitigating the career would never work for Madonna, but it appears she altered her relations with the gay community (a definite fan base) as well as her brother to please him.
Unlike most posters here, I never was a fan, but did respect what she did. Female entertainers were supposed to respect society's limits and Madonna unapologetically pushed them. In her early work she signaled a welcome to a gay audience that had not just been neglected, but relegated to the shadows and this memoir shows how that happened and you understand how that has disappeared. She built her career in the era of backlash against confident and assertive women. This book sheds some light on how she did it.
Summary of Life with My Sister Madonna
Christopher Ciccone's extraordinary memoir is based on his forty-seven years of growing up with, working with and understanding the most famous woman of our time who has intrigued, scandalized and entertained millions for half a century. Through most of the iconic star's kaleidoscopic career, Christopher played an important role in her life: as her back-up dancer, her personal assistant, her dresser, her decorator, her art director, her tour director. If you think you knew everything there is to know about Madonna, your are wrong. Only Christopher can tell the full-scale, riveting untold story behind Madonna's carefully constructed mythology, and the real woman behind the glittering facade. From their shared Michigan childhood, which Madonna transcended, then whisked Christopher to Manhattan with her in the early eighties, where he slept on her roach-infested floor and danced with her in clubs all over town - Christopher was with her every step of the way, experiencing her first-hand in all her incarnations. The spoiled daddy's girl, the punk drummer, the raunchy Boy Toy, Material Girl, Mrs. Sean Penn, Warren Beatty's glamorous Hollywood paramour, loving mother, Mrs. Guy Ritchie, English grande dame - Christopher witnessed and understood all of them, as his own life was inexorably entwined with that of his chameleon sister. He tangled with a cast of characters from artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, to Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Moss, Demi Moore and, of course, Guy Ritchie, whose advent in Madonna's life splintered the loving relationship Christopher once had with her. The mirror image of his legendary sister, with his acid Ciccone tongue, Christopher pulls no punches as he tells his astonishing story.Pop Books
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