Life with My Sister Madonna
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend Madonna up close, by the brother who knows her better than anyone.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 backup dancer, her personal assistant, her dresser, her… Product details and pricing info |
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194 Customer Reviews Posted
- Excellent read for a big Madonna Fan!!!
- Nothing scathing revealed, just the fact that she is cheap! There are lots of small details about her that only a huge fan, like me, would care about. The book isnt very articulate and it is poorly edited. I couldnt put the book down though!
- 2008-08-27, 2 of 3 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Madonna: She Is What She Is! / Christopher: It Was What It Was!!
- A lot of the other reviewers have pretty much hit the nail on the head about this book being Christopher Ciccone's
"WOE IS ME!!--I LOVE MY SISTER, BUT I HATE HER!!" journal.
The only thing original I can say is that MADONNA,
love her or hate her, is what she is and that's that!
The very traits of ambition, drive, focus, fearlessness, will, talent, saavy, guts, etc.
are what made her rise from suburban Detroit to the bright lights
/ big city of NYC in the late
70's and early 80's, on to the world stage and the
iconic megastar she became and still is today!
Of course, with all those star-making traits come selfishness, manipulativeness,
control-issues, etc. because everybody has a darkside as well.
Show me a person who is all goodness
and light all the time and I'll show you either a phony or
somebody good at repressing their darker nature and who will
one day explode!
On the otherhand, you have Christopher, her younger brother,
who by his own words, has been a person who has always been subdued,
kind of muddled, middle-of-the-road, and played it safe for most
of his life. It takes a Madonna-type to wake up and bring out a person
like that because left to their own devices, they would never have the guts to live their lives outside the box!
That's what she's been doing to the status quo for the
last 25 years!--Duuhhh!!
Chris's paradox is that the very things he admires and
is deeply attracted to in his older superstar sister
are the very things that he hates in her and yet
helplessly can't tear himself from.
I have seen some of Mr. Ciccone's artwork and he is good,
but Michelangelo ain't got nothing to worry about! (LOL!!)
He probably is a better set designer, artistic director
and interior decorator than a full-on artist!
But the reality is, is that he would have never gotten the
noteriety he has if it were not for his sister!
Instead of him sending $50,000 checks to his ex-lover,
who he broke up with because the ex couldn't deal with the
demands of Madonna's frantic life on Christopher,
who was always a willing participant and would drop everything
as soon as he was summoned to follow her, he should've been
saving all of the many hundreds of thousands of dollars that
have passed through his hands over the years for that inevitable
rainy season when it would all come to an end!
He does, after all, know her and her behavior patterns and
how she can disconnect from someone, blood or no blood,
at the drop of a hat!
And no way would I have spent $65,000 of my own money
for paintings for Madonna with no promise of reimbursement,
given her past history of mercurialness and bitchiness with him!
Truth is, he let himself get played time and time again
because, bottomline, he wanted to be in the spotlight
and to warm himself in the sunshine of Madonna's starpower!
Long story short...we all have a role to play in life,
and that role is based on who we are inside, what we
are willing to accept from ourselves and others,
our own ability to adapt, change and see opportunity and
know what to do when we see it.
Madonna is who she is, and Christopher is who he is...
there's no good, bad, ugly or indifference to it...
it's just the way their lives have played out so far!
It's not too late for Christopher Ciccone to finally get out
from under his sister's shadow and forge his own path to happiness!
He just needs to let go of the anger, the blame game,
and to own his own part in his unhappiness and misery.
He needs to leave those drugs, partying, phony hollywood types, etc.
in the dust and focus on himself. People like Madonna respect those
who stand their ground and will tell them to F--Off sometimes!
Had Christopher not caved in to her so many times,
even when she was a witch with a capital B,
she might have respected him more!
Sean Penn and Guy Ritchie knew when to tell her to go get stuffed!
That's why she couldn't get enough of them!
So to Christopher, I say GROW UP and GROW A PAIR!! - 2008-08-26, 4 of 5 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Sibling Rivalry, Ciccone Style
- I think that Christopher Ciccone is a talented man with a lot to offer. I appreciate his account of sibling rivalry/intersibling conflict. Few people seem to understand the devastating affect siblings can have on each other; most accounts of familial conflict focus on the parent-child relationship, not the sister-to-brother, brother-to-brother, sister-to-sister dynamics.
I do have reservations about Christopher's story, however. He seems to downplay his "recreational drug" usage. I don't know where the fine line is drawn between recreational use and addiction. As a person who has had two destructive psychotic episodes (the first due to medical malpractice and the second due to cold-turkey withdrawal from a strong medication with known health risks), I would never willingly alter my consciousness in such a Russian Roulette manner. Yet I understand that drug usage is more complicated than heavy-handed, unhelpful judgment, and I have compassion for those who struggle with addictions. On the other hand, I don't think it's fair for Madonna to dismiss Christopher's grievances against her as stemming from his drug usage or denials of addiction.
The book really wasn't much of a shocker, other than the confirmation that Madonna is not yet enlightened, no matter what she may claim. If she says something that actually makes sense (IMHO, she says a lot of things that don't make sense!), then she won't apply this wisdom by treating people with respect and consideration. After reading this book, I just have to point out the hypocrisy between pretending to be enlightened and then treating people like crap. Yet I give her full credit for charity work in Africa, bringing a forsaken country to worldwide attention. Christopher speculates whether her commitment is in part due to her need to keep up with the Jolies. If she is going to play the Mother Teresa part, then she will eclipse all other celebrity humanitarians. Well, maybe, but so what? She's still positively impacting the lives of impoverished Malawians, and I applaud her for it. Perhaps the road to heaven is paved with dubious intentions. I'll be honest, I started volunteering in part due to my admiration of Princess Diana's active compassion and wanted to emulate this flawed heroine. I can hardly keep up with the Spencers, but you get the idea that people are influenced by each other and imitate each other.
I don't get Madonna. After reading this book, she still remains the same enigma she was before I opened this 342-page book, replete with family photographs. Losing your mother at such a young age must have been horrible; she and Christopher both have my compassion for their loss. Though my mom and I get into tiffs somewhat regularly, she is still one of my best friends. I couldn't imagine life without her. Christopher makes it clear that Joan, their stepmother, never mistreated them and went out of her way to take care of them. Madonna apparently resents having someone try to take the place of her mother and played up the Cinderella Syndrome.
Even though Madonna has nothing but my compassion for her early loss, that loss does not give her carte blanche to do whatever she wants to whomever she wants. Just because she was hurt at an early age doesn't mean that she can rationalize treating others badly, if that is what she is doing unconsciously. I don't know. As I said, I don't get her. According to this book, she certainly has treated her brother as though he's dispensable, there for her ready convenience when he's of use to her.
Also, what a miserly mindset! My brother and I have quite a history between us, but he'd want for nothing if I had millions. He wouldn't have to decorate my house in order for me to dole him out a bit of money if he was between a rock and a hard place. Nor would my sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, parents, cousins, aunts, or uncles. That's what you do for family. I'm saying this theoretically, as I don't have millions, but if I ever do, I hope that I will follow through with this sentiment because I just think sharing with your family is the right thing to do. And I'd actually enjoy providing for them, as I love giving presents at Christmas that my family members actually want. It's a pleasure to see someone's face light up when you give him or her something you know s/he will enjoy. (For example, I recently sent my uncle (through marriage), who just lost his mother, a DVD of a French movie called Tous les Matins du Monde (All the Mornings of the World). We had seen this movie together years ago when I was an undergraduate. It features the lives of two composers of the viola da gamba, and my uncle briefly took lessons on this cousin-to-the-cello. To hear his heartfelt thanks on my voicemail repaid for the gift many times over.) Stephen Covey talks about the scarcity mentality versus the abundance mentality in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I don't know whether Madonna is suffering from the scarcity mentality in several aspects of her life.
Ever since informally converting to Unitarian Universalism, I've enjoyed attending services. To the best of my knowledge, the U.U.'s don't make million-dollar demands on their adherents' pocketbooks. Christopher Reeve, a celebrity U.U. and personal inspiration, appreciated that this congregation never pressured him for money. Admittedly, I'm an outsider looking in, but I don't get why Madonna has given the Kabbalah Synagogue millions of dollars. It's her money and she can spend it how she will, but she shouldn't have to pay outrageous sums of money to learn about the Kabbalah. But I don't know the whole situation, so I should just reserve judgment on this extravagant expenditure of the otherwise tight-fisted Madonna.
I wish both siblings well. I hope that they will sincerly reconcile in the near future, without blame and defensiveness. My own brother and I are well on are way to reconciliation and are getting along better than ever. We're not 100% yet, but we're so much better than we used to be. If he and I can work through our garbage and issues (and believe me, our issues are the stuff of Faulkner and Pat Conroy fiction), I think that many other dysfunctional intersibling relationships can heal as well.
I'm glad that I borrowed this book from the library, as I'm not likely to reread it. I think that Christopher is a talented man, but his theme of jumping into new artistic ventures without any formal training may have worked in other areas of his life, but I think he needs more experience and guidance with his writing. He has real potential, but in my opinion, this memoir could have been improved upon if he had taken writing courses at the college level and bounced off ideas/collaborated with established writers before publishing Life with My Sister Madonna. - 2008-08-26, 7 of 9 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Extraordinary look into a brother-sister relationship
- This book exceeded all of my expectations. It's been a very long time since I've found a book that I liked this much. I could not put the book down. If you enjoy peering into the lives of others, this autobiography will give you a look at what it's like growing up with (and working for) a girl who becomes one of the worlds most famous women. The book chronicles Christopher Ciccone's very close and tumultuous personal and working relationship with his sister Madonna. For her entire career, Christopher was there with Madonna, watching and helping her become one of the best known entertainers of our time. Through this book he gives you the insight into both their lives like nobody else can. You will see the price a man has paid for his life with his sister Madonna.
- 2008-08-26, 4 of 6 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- POOR SAD CHRISTOPHER- GET A LIFE
- This book was such a disappointment. From the look of the book, I was expecting a tell all about Madonna, instead it's a woe is me book about what a victim Christopher is at the hands of sister. Over and over again I cringe when Christopher tells how Madonna refused to pay him a reasonable rate, raged at him, blackmailed him, forced him into her religion, all the while denying he has a drug problem, when at every turn he is snorting cocaine. I find him pitiful and so is the book. If it was so bad, he had other choices and could have worked elsewhere. It's awful, yes she was mean to him, a complete b*tch actually, and she refused to pay him what he was worth.. but Chris, have you been living under a rock? Turn on Dr. Phil.. "you teach people how to treat you", demand respect or get the hec out of dodge.. you didn't have to follow her around, decorate her houses and assist her as a "dresser" if you didn't want to, you had OTHER choices. While reading the book, I wanted to get up out of bed, go find him and shake him. I was so irritated with his whining, I wanted to throw the book at the wall. Don't bother!
- 2008-08-26, 4 of 6 people found this review helpful, Rated:
