Customer Reviews

The Woman I Am

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In the time-honored tradition of celebrity memoir, Helen Reddy's The Woman I Am is utterly scannable without worrying itself with soul searching or excessive detail. I nonetheless studied it like it was the Torah. Reddy's story, however, is more interesting than the one presented in this tome: a young, divorced Australian single mother with a pretty voice & dreams of stardom comes to America, becomes first Australian to win a Grammy Award & host an American television show, writes THE anthem of the feminist movement (which is still being sampled & covered -- including an amusing revision as a jingle for a chain of fast food restaurant, I Am Man), privately battles Addison's disease (still not sure what that is), parts company with record label after the hits stop happening, loses an unspecified fortune when her addict husband/manager embezzles her earnings (some $30 million, if you believe Julia Phillips account in You'll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again), manages to find the will to divorce him AND pay off the debts he'd saddled her with (hear her ROAR!), retires from the showbiz racket and becomes a hynotherapist living off an AFTRA pension. What a ride.

What's the tell-tale sign of a cheap autobiography? No index! So it's not surprising that there is a dearth of detail. Her husbands, for example, are never even referred to by name -- Number One, Number Two, Number Three. (Taking feminism a little far, don't you think?) Reddy goes on ad nauseum (charts and everything!) about her interest in geneology and New Age mysticism, but it is her body of recorded work -- a multiplatinum greatest hits package, for heavens sake! -- for which she will be most remembered, yet she treats it almost in passing, perhaps because her meteoric rise coincided with the deaths of both her parents. Still, I found myself wanting to know what were her recording sessions like? How did it FEEL to be #1. Did she have anxiety about the winning streak coming to an end? (There are a number of hits -- big ones, too -- that don't even get a mention, such as Harriet Schock's Ain't No Way To Treat A Lady). She alludes to jealous, verbally abusive husband Number Two but is short on specifics, except to allege that after their split, people wouldn't hire her for fear he would show up with a shotgun. (So he was violent as well?) How much responsibility for the downward spiral of her career does Reddy herself cop to simply by virtue of being passively acquiescent to her handlers? And after two marriages to abusive men, what was her state of mind when she married her third? (Fat chance of finding out here!) Husband Number Three comes and goes with no description whatsoever. (How did they meet? Where did they marry? What led to divorce?) Poof, he appears, then poof, he's gone. (I think he was a musician in her band in the early 90's -- seem to remember something to that effect the one & only time I ever saw one of her concerts, which was excellent, by the way.) It dawned on me when reading about her early life as a culture shocked single mother first trying to find her footing in America, or later on as a stalwart who outsmarts an unscrupulous concert promoter attempting to stiff her out of her fee, that Reddy has written the basis for a one-woman show.

SERVING SUGGESTION: Any one of the number of Reddy's greatest hits packages.

I am so grateful to this generous performer who gave the world so much first rate
crafty sophisticated beautiful music that she made her own - there is no debate that they (She?) broke the mold that she was cast from. Helen earned the first Grammy given to an Australian, that I didn't know until today.As well she had a dozen songs reach the top forty in an era not so long ago when radio dominated the media , and it made you feel good to listen to "pop" music.
High class with no airs, the author did us all a service when she wrote this reflective heartfelt recollection of her experience as an artist in the 20th century, a working mother who held high standards, worked prodigiously , and left the world a legacy- and truly doesnt have an ego to protect, She reveals herself to be vulnerable and insightful all the way. I noticed that like many artists, she doesn't have much to say about the emotional or intellectual stuff of the songs- which is ineffable, personal, and can be felt and understood only by listening to the music itself.
There is much in this book to be appreciated, layers of history, vignettes of another time, in another place.One feels the members of her family peaking through- almost sitting beside this reader.Helen's love of the richness of geneology and history is so kindly revealed, as is her enthusiasm, kindness, compassion, and what I consider leading edge thought. Right on sister!

I read this book in 2 days. I was fasinated! I have waited for 30 years to read about Helen. I have loved her music for 30 years. I was glad to know that she seems to be a loving and warm woman. The best thing she said that she was glad that her children turned out to be good and kind people. They must have learned it somewhere!

As for that unkind review a few up, he obviously didn't read the end of the book. The part where she says , "You are what you think about." and "KINDNESS BEGETS KINDNESS:.

I enjoyed reading this book. In fact, I couldn't put it down. Helen Reddy does a fine job of telling readers the significant events of her childhood and early-adult life in Australia, leading to her risky move as a single-parent to New York. Unfortunately, from that point on, instead of recanting the details of the years she was a big-time recording artist, she doesn't go into very much detail, i.e. How was she chosen to host the MIDNIGHT SPECIAL? What was it like on the set? How did she choose which songs to record?

I applaud her decision not to mention her ex-husbands by name--why give them undeserved press? However, "Husband Number Two" and his drug abuse must have played a significant role in shaping her career. I wanted more specifics of the abuses, her perceived weaknesses in enabling his continued abuse, etc.

The book takes a strange detour about 2/3 of the way through, when Helen talks about her successes tracing her family roots, and then really goes "Jackie Stallone" with her experiences with hypnotherapy. Interesting stuff, but probably better served as a separate written work.

In conclusion, the book is an engaging and worthy read that has my mind dancing with ideas triggered by her experiences with reincarnation, deja vu, and hypnotherapy.

I have always loved Helen's music - more for the B side of her 45's then the A side. What I mean to say is that Helen's voice and musical talent often shined on those little tracks that didn't get airplay or didn't get on the charts. Her unique voice lended itself much better to her offbeat jazzy and bluesy material (such as "Ladychain") then the more saccarine "No way to Treat a Lady".

Much like her song selections, Helen holds back a little too much in this book. It's the little tidbits of info that shined in the book. I really liked details that she often glosses over. I felt that in Helen's career she was too cautious - too cautious to "get down"(which she totally has the talent to do), and too cautious to get to far off the Adult Contemporary style which I never felt really fit her more indepenedent and unique style. Likewise, here book is the same. She keeps to things that would sale. Still a good book anyway.

Being a Helen Reddy fan since the age of seven, it was with great interest to read her Memoir at age forty. I was somewhat disappointed though as she spends a great deal talking about her family and tracing back to her roots and meeting with family members who knew family members she did not get to know. This revealed one thing about me. I was no longer a Helen Reddy fan, just a fan of her music. She does kind of slide through her career and how husband number two took advantage of her and embezzled most of her money behind her back. Overall, It's not a bad back. It just was not what I expected, but I feel I know the lady better now.

I've been a Helen Reddy fan for over 30 years and was excited to hear about an autobiography about her life. But like the some of her records, I was disappointed in the lack-luster spirit by which she chose to write. No detail, no specifics; nothing that spoke of a woman that keep me following her career for so many years. Come on Helen, after 30 years I was hoping for more. The People Magazine article in 1982 gave more details about your life than this book! While this book was a welcome addition to my admiration of a long career, for a true Reddy fan such as myself, I wanted more! This is no way to treat a fan!

By the way, Helen is exceptional in concert; fun, interactive, energenic, enthusiastic, and emotional. She's also this way in person and during interviews. Unfortunately, this book left me wanting to know why someone with such talent, such passion, would leave people asking what's the point.

I'm always Reddy for more Helen though!

Helen Reddy's bio is beautiful, honest and deeply spiritual. From a woman of great inner power and valor comes not only a wonderful singing voice, but a voice and mind that inspires in the pages of The Woman I Am. There is a great reward here for fans and those just hearing Helen roar for the first time.

Congrats Miss Reddy!

Darrin Owens

I overall liked the book. I was glad to read her side of things. I found it over all very interesting. I in general like to read Autobiographies. I guess the fan side of me was a little disappointed that there wasn't more details in some areas, but if you got the jist of Helen's kind of philosophy of life you can understand why she decided to leave some details out. Even though she disclosed that there had been some abuse in her relationships a person who has compassion doesn't always feel compelled to slam that person, if that person has moved on with their lives and that also ties into the healing process. And also addiction is a illness. I found it admirable that she didn't mention every little detail about her ex-husbands and was a little sad that she wasn't able to have a man in her life that was there for her long term. But most important I guess was finding out that she is happy with herself and her family and her second career. I do kinda agree with some who mentioned that she might want to consider writing a book soley about the hypnotherapy , because those who are interested in that I think would get alot of good insight she seems to know her stuff. Thanks Helen for a interesting book!

i was knocked for a loop by reddy's memoir!

i was impressed by the taut use of language and how she always managed to keep a tone of warmth and conversation without giving in to floridness or hyperbole--excepting one chapter.

i was enjoyably enlightened by her exploration of her career. it became a dream fulfilled not only for her but for her parents as well. and i was inspired by her love for them, in spite of their own faults and weaknesses.

but i think i was most blown away by how her iconic status as a symbol of womanhood has not muddied her version or her perception of who she was or is. and how that experience, to her, is an experience that is defining, but not all-defining. when she stepped away from it to study metaphysics and be a grandmother, it seemed the most natural thing.

it also seemed natural to speak about her life and not drop a bunch of names along the way except for those that have impacted her the most. she has not kissed and told and she leaves some of that for the reader to surmise--and wisely so.

i could have lived without the chapters on the royals of britain, but other than that, this is a sterling example of a memoir by a public figure!