… and for seven decades she has been showing us why. Cher holds the attention of the world with her voice, her acting, her style, her wit and her unstoppable spirit. Now, for the first time, she tells her story in her own voice - as honest as it is hilarious, as powerful as it is perceptive.
Cher’s childhood was anything but normal. As her mother Georgia - blessed with movie-star looks and a knockout voice – moved them around the country over and again in the hope of finding fame, her school life wasn’t straightforward. But she always knew she was going to be somebody when she grew up.
Cher’s powerful instinct to keep moving eventually landed her in the arms of Sonny Bono. The duo became famous beyond their wildest dreams, from humble beginnings singing backup in Phil Spector’s studio through to pop stardom as Sonny and Cher, and then on to the television show that made them household names. But as time passed, fame changed the dynamic of their relationship and Cher evolved from a wide-eyed teenager into a woman. She started fighting for herself, breaking away from Sonny’s control - and realising that things were not as they seemed.
Taking risks, making headlines, falling in love, Cher struggled and stumbled while trying to become her own woman. "The Memoir, Part One" brings us to the brink of her next chapter, as she begins to chart her own path, finally claiming her rightful place in the world and becoming CHER.
While I'm not a huge fan of Cher's, I like reading bios/memoirs and thought her story would probably be an interesting one ... and it was.
The book starts long before Cher was born with her maternal grandparents' story, Lynda and Roy, two young poor kids who got together, split up and kept getting back together. Lynda was 13 when Georgia (then Jackie Jean), Cher's mother, was born and not mature enough to be a mother, and Roy was 20 with alcohol and violence issues. Tossed from home to home, Georgia didn't have a stable childhood and that affected her life choices and men.
When Cher met Sonny when she was 16, she found some stability in having an older and mature best friend, that eventually became more. He saw talent in her and she was a ticket to fame and fortune for him. Without her realizing it, he became controlling until, according to her, she wasn't allowed to do anything with anyone but him. She eventually untangled herself from him and despite how badly he had treated her over the years, she still counted on him when she needed someone ... I wouldn't have been as kind of generous.
I didn't like Georgia and found her selfish. When you have a messed up upbringing, I would hope that you do all you can to ensure your children have a more stable one and she didn't do that. She was married and divorced seven times before she was 50 ... even twice to Cher's father who had deserted them when Cher was a baby and then 20 years later when he came back into their lives after Cher became famous. So it's not a surprise that Cher's childhood wasn't stable either.
I liked the writing style (I'm assuming there was a ghost writer). It's written at a high level with just enough detail for me. It was interesting reading about the people she met and the experiences she had. The book ends just as she's thinking seriously about become an actress ... so after her relationships with David Geffen, Gregg Allman and Gene Simmons (I'd forgotten they'd been an item). I liked that there were lots of photographs at the end. As a head's up, there is swearing.
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