Life with My Sister Madonna [Paperback]

In true fairness Christopher's book is neither spectacular nor obscure. It says everything to all the wrong people and nothing to all the right people. Let's be honest and realistic about this book, it's been aimed at an "audience" in addition to being an instant bestseller due to the fact that the author can genuinely claim to have first hand knowledge of it's subject matter. This is true and proves to be entertaining - for a while - at least.

The book starts with Christopher and Madonna as equals - only 27 months apart (why he can't just say she's 2 years his elder is anyone's guess?) From this point onwards the author describes every incidental detail about his sister and her relationship with their family. No big surprises there. They have their ups and downs like any other family. Madonna seems to know how to survive whilst Christopher never seems to know what he wants from life, trailing any muse that happens to linger for more than a few moments. This is a theme that continues for the duration of the book, Madonna griping, fighting for and demanding what she deserves. In contrast we see Christopher hanging on to every move Madonna makes and from his teenage years onwards, jumping every time she says so. This is not a pretty sight and not particularly inductive of sympathy towards the author; he does however shatter a few myths and legends about Madonna, such as the story of her first arrival in New York - which was much less grim and lonely than Madonna would have us believe. He also enlightens us on the fact that most of the scenes in Madonna's rockumentary `Truth or Dare' were staged for the camera and nothing is sacred when it comes to boosting Madonna's image - including the death and memory of their mother.

Without realising it, Christopher tells a story of two siblings - one plagued with guilt and a insecurities and the other with a sense of reality. The two don't gel well, especially as Madonna matures while Christopher continues to live his L.A lifestyle by association, continues with childish pursuits and alienates himself from his sister by refusing to grow up and see himself as a mature man who happens to be homosexual instead of "Madonna's gay brother." A fact which he seems inexplicably unable to escape from, despite constant physiological support (paid for by his sister.)

It's true that he tells a lot of very personal stories about Madonna during her early years as an artist. He documents Madonna's maturing from adolescence through being an independent woman to being a caring mother, who despite her iron image has the odd flicker of feeling and represses this by being beneficial to many charities.

It's plain to see how Christopher resents his sister throughout the book. The best he can manage in his early 20's is selling jeans in a Yew York store, even then he wouldn't have been doing that without his sister pulling him towards the big city, if she hadn't pushed him, he'd probably be fitting tyres to this day in some obscure Detroit factory and repressing his homosexuality by beating up on more insightful and feeling guys than himself. He does seem to think that his being gay deserves some kind of award as he never shuts up about it, in fact he comes across as paranoid that everyone who isn't from L.A is homophobic. It seems Madonna gave him one opportunity after another and time after time, she pulls him out of his funk and gives him more opportunities. He meets all the right people, ends up in all the right places and still he doesn't seem to be able to stand on his own two feet. Finally after 20 years, Madonna seems tired and can take little more from him. Yet she still doesn't abandon him. Still gives him the opportunities that most people never get - or have to work really hard for. At the end of all this we get the feeling that it all comes down to money. He regularly does various drugs - she doesn't. She has lots of money - he doesn't.

By the end of the book, you feel that he's just making one pettier attempt to extract money from his sister's hard work instead of doing something himself to make a name for himself without her association - so that he doesn't have to go back to the cheaper and less exciting "Key bumps" of coke and can continue to do "lines" instead. To give him credit, he does tell stories of life close to Madonna which will appeal to the fans. But generally, he's not saying anything that we didn't already know or suspect.

Another good thing that can be said about this book is that it may well inspire a few Madonna fanatics to get a life instead of following and emulating hers. I give it 3 stars because it has some interesting stories about their relationship and it generally evens out the balance - despite the fact that it's littered with spelling mistakes, factual errors, and cultural misunderstandings. It does lead one to believe that, even as a casual reader, the author really hasn't a clue much of the time what he's writing about. This goes to prove that nobody knows Madonna quite like Madonna.

If you are expecting a no holds barred, close up and personal insight into the queen of pop, by one of her nearest and dearest then you are likely to be disappointed. This isn't a lengthy tome either. I read it in a few hours and although it is an easy read and by no means boring, it certainly didn't reveal anything to cause a reserved person to blush about, let alone Madonna. There is probably nothing in it you couldn't find out by a bit of surfing the net either - or reading Rupert Everett's "Red Carpets & Other Banana Skins", which I will be getting next (but wouldn't have thought of buying otherwise).

The most revealing details in Christopher Ciccone's volume have already been published in the Sunday paper.

However, I did like the book, as it was an insight into relationship between brother and sister and was also a bit of a nostalgic review of Madonna's career.

What Christopher talks about will ring true to anyone who has asked their own family members to help out or have helped family - whether that is financially or otherwise. My friend's mum does her ironing. My friend is unhappy with the quality of the ironing and her mum with the rate she is paid! Seems to be a similar scenario here but on a somewhat different scale.

Christopher Ciccone either only has a vague recollection of what has gone on between him and Madonna and Madonna and others, or he is glossing over the past in order to sell his book but careful so as to preserve his "relationship" with his sister.

This is a bit of a moan by Christopher on how he hasn't had such a great deal out of being brother (in fact one of 4) to a superstar, interlaced with evidence of how proud he is of his elder sibling.

You can't help but think that Christopher also glosses over some of his own flaws. Mention of flying from Miami to LA - you can't help but think where did he get the money from, when he says he is owed money and having to down size to get by.

As for who is the wronged - seems to me, as is often the case with family conflicts, that it is a bit six of one and half a dozen of another. Think of this as a slightly longer version of an "OK" magazine interview, with slightly less facts - though if you are looking for statistics on Madonna's record/ticket sales you will find them all here.

Christopher Ciccone is Madonna's younger brother and, as the only gay man in the large family of 8 children, naturally fell into the creation and masterminding of the woman who would become the most famous icon of our time.
Reading this bitter, and 'myth-busting' autobiography, I couldn't help noticing that despite the explicit aim of the book - to reveal all about Madonna - she still remains elusive and almost outside the frame at times.
Why else are so many people still so fascinated with her?
Ciccone gives us no insight into why she can disregard and fail to understand the needs of others so easily, neither does he explore why exactly it is she is so, in his words, 'profoundly different' from the rest of us.
The result is, unexpectedly, that Madonna may have emerged from this tell-all with little damage done. The myth-busting, for example her early days in New York which were far less waif-and-stray than she has always made out, has already been covered by biographers such as Andrew Morton, and her famous temperament - the iciness and the tantrums - is there everytime you open a newspaper or magazine. She would tell you herself, because she doesn't understand why not to.
I enjoyed the vignettes - the 'random incidents' that Madonna herself has alluded to when recounting those years and which Christopher seems to have been able to attract too. No amount of money or fame seems to inure the cast of celebrities to things not going according to plan, and that is interesting.
If the author emerges as subservient and lacking the wit to get out at the earliest opportunity then this has to be balanced against why he may have stayed: Madonna, as she has tried to project in her work towards millions, helped him form his identity, and if the skewed morality of what followed from that is at times funny and at times hard to understand, then it's clear how important this is to people.
You only have to look at Madonna's latest change of image, to see how enthralled people still are with hers.