So, I finished this last night. It took two and a half whole days to get through it!
First off, I don't know what's true, I don't care what's true. There's really nothing all that incriminating about her in the book, except that she can be something of a bitch and much of her public persona is an act. No surprises there.
Secondly, Christopher clearly has his axe to grind. Again, no surprises there. I have no doubt that a lot of it really is true, and I'm sure Madonna has her side, too.
The biggest problem is the way it's written - entirely in the present tense. Madonna and I are at the VMA. Madonna and I are hanging out with Warren Beatty, etc. It gets really confusing when he's talking about something in 1985, then goes back to their childhood, then comes back, all the while in the blasted present tense. Who told him that was a good idea?
At any rate, when it was over, I felt like I'd gotten a glimpse of Madonna I never found in another book about her, but at the same time I just found it really really sad. If half of what he wrote is true, then he probably IS justified in writing the book, but it still made for sort of a depressing read.
Near the end, as the two are bickering back and forth via fax (the bickering that leads to their current - and as far as I know unresolved - estrangement) he writes to her that he gave up his life to work for her, which pretty much does seem the case, no matter how you slice it. While he's enjoyed the perks of being her brother, he's also kind of been destroyed by it. Sigh.
Updated On: 8/22/08 at 10:01 AM