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| | Publisher: Pan Books
Salesrank: 2567854
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| Used Price: $10.48 |
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| Media: Paperback |
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Madonna: An Intimate Biography Reviews:
Madonna - We Hardly Knew You 
2006-04-05 - What a price the material girl paid!
This is a must for any Madonna fan collection. Many former tween wanna-bes of the 1980's are now in their late 20's and early 30's ... and owe a lot of their own ambition to Madonna Veronica Louise Ciccone, native of Bay City Michigan, who at 17 ran off to New York with $50 not knowing a soul. She is a mixture of strength of mind and vulnerability of heart. She is an icon whose humanity has been assessed over and over again by tabloids. She has had a fire in the belly since she was a Bay City teenager which found sustenance after she took on the world. Now a British Lady with a house in the country, Madonna has come a long long way from the Motown roots in Michigan to New York City in the 80's to London and her 2005 release of Confessions on a Dance Floor.
At 17, a New York cab driver dropped her off at the center of everything - Times Square - and circa 2006 before her next World Tour .... Madonna's image is everywhere in H&M ad near the very spot her teenage self was dropped off at. She is still on her throne while her contemporaries from the 1980's are sometimes, nowhere to be found. Madonna is the ultimate testament of: YOU GO GIRL!
very interesting 
2003-12-30 - This book is very thick, but its an easy read all the way. I know this book can't all be true, but it sure feels like it. Very well done.
A Fun Read
2003-09-28 - 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.
PERFECT!!
2003-09-07 - I wasn't even a Madonna fan until I read this book. Taraborrelli does an INCREDIBLE job and has converted me to Madonna 'fanhood'. Revealing, exciting and most of all addictive, I read An Intimate Biography cover to cover in two days.
Excellent book choice for any Madonna fan, or like me,pepole not even interested. You'll be pleasently suprised what the combination of Madonna and Taraborrelli have to offer. You won't be disappointed!
A good biography 
2003-08-24 - 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.
