Customer Reviews

Madonna: An Intimate Biography

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

OK, so being a huge Madonna fan, I was very excited to receive this book as a birthday gift. However, I have to take issue with the author - a VERY SIGNIFICANT amount of information has been lifted (sometimes word for word) from Matthew Rettenmund's exhaustive and indispensable ENCYCLOPEDIA MADONNICA (every Madonna fan should own THIS book).

I kept thinking as I was reading Taraborrelli's book - 'where did I read this before', and sure enough, Rettenmund was the source. Also, the author replicates conversations Madonna has had with 'sources' or that have been 'overheard' by 'sources' who recall these exact conversations from years past. I don't know about you, but I can barely remember the EXACT words I spoke to my boyfriend yesterday!!

The author's opinions on Madonna's music are amateurish and trite - not worth reading. He speculates on what might Madonna have thought in certain situations - WHATEVER!!! This book is badly written and corny, and does not do its subject justice. Hopefully, Andrew Morton's biography, due out later this year will have a little more credibility. Save your money for that one - I have read a couple of Morton's biographies, and the guy really knows his stuff - and can write coherent chapters!!!

Disappointing effort, to say the least.

While admitting that I am not much of a Madonna fan, I still enjoyed this book. Yes, it is written in a gossipy manner. No, she did not participate in the writing of it. But as anyone knows, a celebrity-sanctioned biography is also bound to be a "sanitized" one. Madonna is as bitchy as they come and this book makes no bones about it.

Slavish devotees may quibble over the facts in this book. But I feel it's a well-written, solid biography of a woman who continues to hold the attention of the public she once wanted so fiercely.

This book has much to recommend it. It moves in a smooth progression from her youth to her relatively newfound maturity with barely a misstep. The author (who cannot be accused of not knowing his subject, having interviewed her on several occasions), clearly promotes the dynamic diva's agenda from day one: to be fabulous and famous. There's the expected exploration of Madonna's unresolved mother/abandonment issues, her promiscuity, her assertions that she is not the best singer or the best dancer. Clearly, life is one big publicity stunt to the girl who freely asserted, "I want attention." There are many interviews with people who knew her during her rise to fame, and nearly all agree: Madonna's sole ambition was to attain stardom and then glory in it. Talent was optional (as was consideration for anyone but herself).

That being said, there is a definite maturity that begins to define her. One quote that illustrates this: "I learned that in order to attract the right kind of man, you have to be the right kind of woman." Out are the self-indulgent shenanigans of the "Sex" book and the video for "Justify My Love." In is "Evita," Carlos Leon (a man one is tempted to dismiss as merely the "sperm donor," but who emerges from this book a true class act), husband Guy Ritchie, and her two children.

OK, so she's got the marriage and motherhood thing going. Now if she could only lose the quasi-British accent and the gyrating onstage at forty-something...

Am I the only person on earth who doesn't know every little thing about Madonna? Judging from the cynical customer reviews here, I must be. I found this book to be well-researched and very well done. The writer is compassionate, and tells both sides of every story -- not just Madonna's side. In the Sean Penn battering episode, for example, he interviewed Sean and Sean denied it ever happened. Sean says he did not tie her up. That's why Taraborrelli wrote that there are "two sides" to every episode of domestic abuse. This was a great book. I would recommend it to anyone interested in a good read, and one that really explores the life of a woman who everyone seems to know ... but not until reading this book did I really feel I knew her. Read this book!

Begining this book as a devout fan, I thought that it was going to put down my idol. However, it paints my idol as something that is often overlooked- it depicts her as a human being. And a very nice, caring, sweet human, at that. I do have to say that it seemed to leave some things missing, but seemed somewhat complete without writing about her day-to day life. I liked her even more after reading this book!

Having been a fan of Madonna for almost 20 years (my God, has it really been that long?!) there was no question in my mind as to whether or not I was going to buy this book when I first saw it on the shelf in the bookstore. I couldn't wait to read it! Now that I've devoured the book in just a few short hours, I have to say it was worth buying, mainly as another addition to my extensive collection of all things Madonna!I was not overly impressed by much of the information gleaned from this book. There were many passages that were already very familiar to me, coming almost directly from other older interviews and magazine articles that have been quoted many times before. The author himself claims that the last time he interviewed Madonna was in 1987, so... you kind of have to take what he says about her with a grain of salt. There were also passages that I somehow doubted the truth of, passages that seemed embellished or even made up. How was this author privy to intimate or personal conversations or incidents between Madonna and only one other person? If they were true, I would have to wonder what kind of people Madonna is friends with or employs that so many of them would go out of their way to relate personal information about her to some guy writing an unauthorized book about her! Many of his sources are people like Camille(did somebody say sour grapes???)Barbone or some of her dancers from her BLond Ambition Tour. But, whatever! I have no actual way of judging the veracity of any of his "sources," either named or anonymous. That said, I would have to say that Madonna is portrayed in this book as having quite a lot of notches in her famed Boy-Toy belt, as the book goes into great detail of her supposed conquests with men. One is led to believe that Madonna has an almost insatiable appetite for sex! Many passages also portray her as being rude, childish, and even cruel to most of the people around her. How does a person who treats everyone in such a shabby manner, as the book implies, have such a successful and long-standing career? A bit of a mystery to me... Perhaps many of the sources for these parts of the book are simply disgruntled ex-employees, jilted "friends," or money-hungry hangers-on who didn't mind making a few things up for the extra cash? One never knows... There WERE parts of the book that DO portray Madonna in a more human light, more of a likeable person. It was these parts that I found to be the most interesting, as opposed to the more tabloid-like tattling in other parts of the book. You probably will not find anything too earthshattering in the way of revelations about Madonna as you read this book. Most of it appears to be re-hashed from old interviews, as I said before. (How very convenient that it was published in the U.S. just as Madonna was embarking upon her first world tour since the Girlie Show! Nothing like good timing when you want to ride the coattails of someone else's fame, eh??) It does lead me to the realization that no "tell-all" or "intimate biography" can truly capture the essence of who a person really is. A person is so much more than who they are made to appear as on paper, and sometimes to try to do so is to trivialize that person. If you buy the book, read it only for fun and be sure to take most of what you read with a grain of salt. Light-weight reading for those hot summer days when you would rather be floating on a raft in the water than working!

Madonna is one of the most successful artists in the history of pop music. A key to her success was her single-minded determination to become a star no matter what it took. Along the way she used a lot of people and bruised a lot of egos. Not surprisingly, many of those whom she stepped on were very willing to talk to Taraborrelli, a modern day Kitty Kelly whose biographies/victims include Diana Ross (the delightfully nasty Call Her Miss Ross) and Michael Jackson (The Magic And The Madness). This makes for quite a fun read.

Taraborelli does a good job of detailing Madonna's turbulent childhood (the loss of her mother, her strained relationship with her father, even the loss of her virginity!?!) but the book really takes off when Madonna goes to New York in 1978 in search of stardom. We are introduced to Camille Barbone, a talent agent who is the unsung heroine in the Madonna story. Camille invests every cent she has into Madonna's career only to be dumped by the Material Girl when she finally secures a recording deal with Warner Brothers. Early on, we also see Madonna go through a series of male musical collaborators who double as lovers, ensuring their professional devotion to her until she moves on to bigger and better things (among them Jellybean "Holiday" Benitez).

As Madonna's career takes off, the men she chooses to date are inevitably celebs themselves. The book is most entertaining in dealing with her many relationships, including hothead first husband Sean Penn, wishy washy JFK Jr. (who dumps Madonna on Mommy's orders), old fart Warren Beatty (as much a user as Madonna), and superfreak Dennis Rodman, who kissed and told about his relationship with Madonna in his own tell-all book (a big no-no in Madonna's world).

Where the book falls short (and is kept from meriting five stars) is in its frequently contradictory assessments of Madonna's music. After raving about the contents of Madonna's third album TRUE BLUE (and its five major hits), for instance, he sums it up by saying it "wasn't a great album. A less intriguing artist might not have survived it." Even though Taraborrelli wrote for music magazines early in his career, he is not a strong analyzer of pop music.

This book ends in mid-2001, at a time in Madonna's life when her personal and professional life were seemingly at her peak (the birth of her son Rocco and marriage to Guy Ritchie, the release of her two strongest albums RAY OF LIGHT and MUSIC had all occured within the previous two years). As her wedding unfolds on the final pages, we are introduced to a kinder, gentler Madonna who has reconciled with her father and seems to finally appreciate the little things in life. For Madonna fans, it was a great time to end the book (since then, her professional life at least has not been so successful, with the universal panning of her film Swept Away - which Ritchie directed - and the subpar AMERICAN LIFE album). For all of the entertainment this amazing woman has provided, she deserves a happy ending.

This book by J.Randy Taraborelli is a quite interesting biography of Madonna, providing information on her personality in various levels. We read about her relationships with her parents, her friends, love partners and collaborators, about her views on many issues, her growth as a person and an artist.
If you want to know about her, then this book is definetely worth your time.
Madonna is certainly an important personality of modern culture, and this book is fast and enjoyable and cleverly the author does show Madonna's negative aspects, and does not try to create her psychological profile.
The book is simply based on facts and accounts of Madonna's acquaintances.
I just gave it 3 stars because I found it was interesting, but it simply isn't a favorite of mine.

We've heard the rumors. We've listened to the music. We've seen the videos, the concerts, the book, the movies, the tv appearances and the fashion sense. Yet despite this, we've never really seen a complete history of Madonna. The book, somehow, is well-timed. A fairy-tale ending.

Imagine the book coming out during Sex, or Erotica. It must have been a disaster story. But by timing it, and writing it, up to the second baby of the Immaculate One, the author expounds on the story of a young, lost girl, who grew up, had a dream, followed it, made some mistakes, and grew up even more. By the end of the book, Madonna seems to be the conquering hero, as she sucessfully passed through "the dark age", the scandals, and the many husbands, and lovers, to become the Madonna of the Earth.

The author sucessfully juxtaposes rumor, Madonna's side, her opponent's side, her PR manager's side, and every possible angle, to at least present enough detail, to keep you clamoring for more.

The only thing I wanted to know that this book didn't tell me was where RAIN peaked on the Billboard charts. If you know where it did, then after reading this book you will know all you need to know about Madonna up to 2001. This book's got everything about her, absolutely everything. What's more? It reads smoothly and well, even those who don't consider themselves readers of books will be able to read this with ease, and why wouldn't they? Except for Taraborrelli's odd observations about the True Blue album (he said a less-interesting artist wouldn't have survived it...mmmm NO!), this is a great book about the Material Girl, and quite a tribute to her life and work as well. This is the only Madonna biography you NEED to own.

ONE THING THOUGH!: He gives away the ending to BODY OF EVIDENCE. If you haven't seen the movie, see it before reading this book, unless you skip the early nineties section (at your own risk) or absolutely do not want to see the movie. I hadn't seen the movie yet, and I was very disappointed to suddenly read what happened at the end, because it was in my plans to buy the DVD. I have, and I know I would've enjoyed it much more.

Too many times in this book there are quotes between two people-who the hell hears all these conversations? Also to many "Maybe Madonna..." or "Possibly she was...". If you don't know, don't write it. Also Too many descriptions of what she was wearing. I doubt anyone cares to remember what someone wore to breakfast in 1985, but it is here.