Life with My Sister Madonna
by Christopher Ciccone, Wendy Leigh
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Book Reviews of Life with My Sister Madonna
Book Review: Madonna & Christoper
Summary: 3 Stars
Madonna & Christoper, December 22, 2009
I enjoyed learning about the childhood of Madonna and Christopher Ciccone. Christopher, along with his co-author, is able to write colorful and detail stories, particularly about their childhood. Madonna was five years old when her mother died. Madonna's father married Joan, who according to Christopher tried to raise the kids properly. Madonna's parents instilled a foundation in childhood that encouraged hard work, discipline and honesty. This contributes to Madonna and Christopher's success.
Madonna and Christopher's relationship is like a roller coaster and they are moths drawn to each other's flame. Since Madonna has a bigger flame Christopher gets third degree burns. They give each other warnings and limits, but they ignore their boundaries with each other. In one instance, Madonna's tells Christopher, who is works for her at different times as an interior decorator, producer, and dresser for her, that he needs to be available to her 24 hours a day. In the next paragraph, he sends his assistant to Madonna instead of coming himself.
Christopher feels humiliated being Madonna's dresser and since he is the producer he wants her to hire someone else to dress her. However, Madonna does not want to hire someone else, so Christopher does two jobs at the same time for Madonna.
When they were children, they encouraged each other and brought the best out in each other, as they grow and mature, they started to bring out the worst in each other. They both are talented and intelligent, but they became jealous and petty towards each other.
Christopher develops a drug problem while Madonna's fame makes her unwilling to comprise. Their relationship falls apart out of jealously and spitefulness; instead of helping each other, they become competitors and suspicious with each other.
The book became repetitious and did not give a basic overview of the Kabbalah, although he writes about it in the book. If they were able to use the Kabbalah with each other, they would have been able to forgive each other. The teachings of the Kabbalah can help to balance emotions with intellect, and to balance judgment with mercy. The Kabbalah could have helped them resolve their differences by encouraging different states of consciousness and by building on wisdom and understanding.
I enjoyed the book, but unfortunately, this book may have ended their relationship for good.
In spite of the trauma caused by the death of their mother, Madonna and Christopher are able to overcome their grief though hard work, and because of the support of their parents, who encouraged success. I wish them lots of success in their future endeavors, and am certain that their mother would be proud of them.
Book Review: Should be titled "A Discourse for Why I Needed Therapy"
Summary: 2 Stars
I just finished the book. The biggest impression I walked away with from this book is that Christopher Ciccone has serious mental problems. He is completely oblivious about his role in how Madonna treated him. When you are as weak and spineless as this guy, it's like you are asking the world to kick you in the behind everyday. He constantly tells Madonna things she wants to hear, that he doesn't believe, and then calls Ingrid Casares a sycophant. What's the point of saying all those nice things if you are going to stab the person in the back years later with a book? Also he has no identity, not because she is his sister, the other relatives manage just fine. He has no identity b/c he worships her in a sick and unhealthy way. His every excuse for his weak and spineless behavior is that he was her brother and he wanted to be there for her.
My favorite was how Madonna kept insisting he had drug problems and he insisted he didn't. Meanwhile before the whole drug question comes in, he has enough money to pay his ex-lover 100k in some weird palimony arrangement but later on he doesn't have a pot to piss in and this is coincidentally when Madonna thinks he has a drug problem. Of course he had drug problems. Then at the end after being bitter and vengeful, betraying his sister's trust in the worst way with a tell-all book and blaming her b/c he's too much of a wimp to speak up for himself for 25 years, in the epilogue he tries to convince us he loves her and would never hurt her and is over the bad stuff. Yeah right keep telling yourself that Chrissy.
Meanwhile it was a page-turner but I feel I didn't discover anything new....Madonna is ambitious and does things for shock value and for appearance sake. She is a perfectionist and at times has a temper. Her fame is difficult on her and those around her...okay next!
If you want to read about some serious passive-aggressive behavior and some boring details how about how talented CC think he is, then this book is for you and you should go out and buy it and support this parasite. He needs the money for the on-going therapy for the trauma of dressing his sister and wiping away her sweat off b/c a gun was put to his head which made him do this. He tries so hard to get empathy that even with the book written by him to make his case, he still looks like the worst kind of pathetic, weak, untrustworthy person.
Book Review: Not so pretty portrayal of a great American icon
Summary: 4 Stars
I am a huge Madonna fan since the early 80s when I was a child and I have followed her career intensely and still buy her music. I have never considered Madonna to be extremely friendly and likeable-in fact, she has spent most of her career being a show off and keeping us on our toes, but that's why we love her, right? Some would call her brother Christopher jealous, vindictive and pathetic for writing this book and trying to make some money on his own, but others would say, they don't blame him for writing it. I dont think anything in this book really shocked me.. she is bossy, egotistical, demanding, powerful and goes after what she wants, regardless. It did bother me a bit as to the emotional abuse she aimed at her brother and she seemed to get pleasure out of it. Christopher worshipped Madonna in the beginning, and wanted to be a part of her life for so long, and he was for a while. He designed a couple of her tours, dressed her, decorated her NYC apt, decorated some of her homes, but the turbulence and stress working for an un-appreciative woman just got to be too much for him. It was fun to read about her early days when she recorded her first album, "Madonna" and her starting out in NYC, being booed by the audience, breaking down somewhere in Africa, and being picked up by a couple of workers who had no idea who she was. And of course, he soon realizes his sister is becoming one of the most famous women in the world. He gives his feelings about Sean Penn and Guy Ritchie, both of Madonna's ex-husbands. He went on to say what he thinks are the reasons she is so involved with Malawi and the diarreah of the mouth she's known to have.He also wrote of the 5 day snob fest her wedding to Guy Ritchie in Scotland was, and how Nazi Madonna made her sister Paula buy her own ticket to it, even though she flew her maid and other servants over. She seemed a little too enraptured in Guy Ritchie to really care about his gay bashing, and her maternal instict was also questioned alot in this book. Madonna, who has never been around children other than her own, is now an author of children's books too,, Christopher pokes some fun at this. Maybe I'm a little disappointed that Madonna seems to be even a bigger Bit** than I thought, or maybe she's just misunderstood and that Christopher exagerrated alot of this. Regardless, I'm obsessed!!Book Review: This book leads to disillusionment with fame, fortune, and Madonna.
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me just say I am a Madonna fan, but lately she has done and said things that have truly disenchanted me. Hard Candy was very disappointing. Some of her actions and comments in the past year alone have turned me off even further. I couldn't quite figure out why I was starting to feel this way about someone I adore. I ended up buying the audio version of this book to get a better idea of Madonna the person.
This book does not disappoint, in fact, it's probably one of the best books ever written about Madonna. As some would like to believe, Christopher does not throw his sister under a bus, but does take her down a couple notches. He reveals how self-centered, egotistical, and controlling she can be. Christopher does not play the victim, but does let it be known that he gets sucked in by the fame and fortune.
Nevertheless, their relationship fell apart because she treated him like a servant, did not pay him what he was worth, and surrounded herself with sycophants, and she had Guy Ritchie who Ciccone made clear he disliked intensely. I think the reason why Madonna is beginning to crack, is because she has created a fantasy world, and everyone around her is afraid to tell her otherwise. She has separated herself from family; which in the end is never a good idea.
What is most disturbing about Madonna's behavior, that Christopher reveals, is that nothing is sacred when it comes to advancing her career and image. She has notoriously used people. She staged the visitation to her mother's grave during the Truth or Dare documentary. There is also strong insinuation that she half-heartedly adopted those children and is playing humanitarian to exploit and compete with Angelina Jolie. Nevertheless, with all her faults, she is still an admirable person who can be loving and caring, and does deserve all that she has earned. Christopher's book is a very well rounded view on Madonna the person.
Book Review: Another narcissistic personality disorder horror story
Summary: 3 Stars
I have a sibling with NPD so I can relate to the searingly hurtful and mind-boggling betrayal expressed in Christopher's story. Madonna is a very cruel woman and her spirituality is as fake as the English accent she faked while married to Guy Ritchie. Her lack of empathy for her own brother is awful. I went to see Truth or Dare with a boyfriend back in the early nineties and after it was over, he remarked how cold and mean she was to her brother Marty. That's what I thought too. In the book, when she pushes Christopher into rehab and is acting like she knows more than the therapist, I wished Christopher would tell her she is the one who needs therapy! She was trying to make him seem like the one with the problem so she could skate. Narcissiists require scapegoats. And people with personality disorders don't change behavior because the very disorder is all about their being perfect and maintaining their childish defense mechanisms. I hope Christopher makes a lot of money, finds peace and confidence within himself and stays away from her. Narcissists are poison. They seduce and control others, use them, drain them, blame them, drive them crazy and then systematically devalue and ultimately discard them.
Seems to me, Christopher is the authentic artist and spiritual person. She's a fake. Very wooden actress. I like some of her music, though. But knowing how she exposed and inflicted upon her own sensitive, helpful and caring brother so much psychological pain without caring about the impact on him makes me never want to hear her voice again. She's harsh, exploitive and lacks nobility of spirit. Christopher seems like an emotionally generous, good human being.