- Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Entertainment; Revised edition (Reissue) edition (8 May 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007115032
- ISBN-13: 978-0007115037
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,109,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
A revelatory account of America’s most famous chat-show host, which charts her meteoric rise to international stardom and explores the painful and well-publicized crises of her personal life.
Oprah Winfrey is America’s wealthiest and most famous black woman, but her present-day success is at odds with her humble beginnings.
Born illegitimate and virtually abandoned as a child, Oprah grew up in a tiny ghetto apartment, where, having een sexually abused, she embarked on wild and promiscuous teenage years. Yet, burning with ambition and determination, she landed her first job with a radio station while she was still in high school, won several beauty contests and, by the age of nineteen, was hired by a television station.
This book details Oprah’s contemplation of suicide, her teenage miscarriages, the trauma of her public battle with dieting and the anguish of her indecision over marriage, as well as the success of her talk show and its social implications.
Now fully updated to include Oprah’s ups and downs over the past five years – including the huge success of her bookclub, which can create a bestseller in one show, and her foray into cyberspace with the founding of the women’s website Oxygen.
Prize-winning journalist George Mair has interviewed Oprah’s friends, family, colleauges and critics to present this extraordinary account of her struggles and success.
From the Back Cover
Oprah Winfrey is America’s wealthiest and most famous black woman, but her present-day success is at odds with her humble beginnings.
Born illegitimate and virtually abandoned as a child, Oprah grew up in a tiny ghetto apartment, where, having een sexually abused, she embarked on wild and promiscuous teenage years. Yet, burning with ambition and determination, she landed her first job with a radio station while she was still in high school, won several beauty contests and, by the age of nineteen, was hired by a television station.
This book details Oprah’s contemplation of suicide, her teenage miscarriages, the trauma of her public battle with dieting and the anguish of her indecision over marriage, as well as the success of her talk show and its social implications.
Now fully updated to include Oprah’s ups and downs over the past five years – including the huge success of her bookclub, which can create a bestseller in one show, and her foray into cyberspace with the founding of the women’s website Oxygen.
Prize-winning journalist George Mair has interviewed Oprah’s friends, family, colleauges and critics to present this extraordinary account of her struggles and success.
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing,
By A Customer
This review is from: Oprah Winfrey: The Real Story (Paperback)
Being a huge Oprah Winfrey fan I was more than a little dissapointed to read this book. Mair explores Oprah's life from her early days to the present but despite providing the basic facts of her life and climb to fame, the book gets bogged down with tv facts and jargon. There isn't enough about the remarkable woman who rose from a difficult childhood to the wealthiest black woman in America.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews) 7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An American Success Story...and a cure for depression!!,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Oprah Winfrey: the Real Story (Paperback)
I listened to the audiotape with great interest, right about the time I was writing the chapter on Depression in my own book. This clearly shows how even under the most adverse and seemingly hopeless circumstances, personal belief and confidence count for everything and can accomplish anything!! Should be a stirring wake up for those who suffer depression and feel they can't pull themselves out. In "The Care and Feeding of Your Brain" I talk about the various treatments for depression. Once the cycle is started, medical treatment is required. However among my own patients, it is usually something like an example showing "how it is possible" to get them to believe that the feelings of worthlessness are destructive lies from the inside. Once a person has this "proof of example" they acquire the inner strength to the corner with new found belief in themselves and their capabilities. Oprah has battled many adverse circumstances, and even after acheiving what society would term "phenomenal success". She comes through each disaster like a phoenix-bird up from the ashes. Say what you want about her various reputations for being tough and mean...people its a tough world, and it takes a confident and driving woman to concretize her personal dreams! This book has a simple plot: this one amazing woman faces enough bad luck from her truly humble beginnings for any "self-pitier" to write volumes on "my excuse for failure: how the world screwed me". She then consistently and gracefully flies through each challenge carrying seemingly inexhaustible inner strength and the focus of a laser-beam. She ignores all obvious outward indicators of hopelessness,impending doom, and instead of quitting each time when most of us would, she follows her own instincts. Like her or not, her life is an amazing story of what any American is capable of by shedding the shroud of excuses and tales of woe.....All the best to Ms. Winfrey and to Mr. Mair...though she may not be totally pleased with his candid depiction, and even if the stories are not completely accurate, this tome paints a very admirable picture of our greatest contemporary American success story...Kenneth Giuffre MD, author "The Care and Feeding of Your Brain"
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I'm not a fan of unauthorized biographies.,
By Omni - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Oprah Winfrey: The Real Story (Hardcover)
This is a good book from two points:One, it explains indepth teh business strategy behind Harpo Studios and those who helped Oprah not only attain her vision but expand it. Two, the earliest chapters have good information that she has publicly revealed herself about her beginnings in both life and business. Other than that, I think it's sleazy to write these kinds of books without someone's at the least tacit cooperation. Though this doesn't approach some of the sniping of say a Tamborelli book, there are still visble comments that one could attribute to a jealous/envious/salacious writer.... 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Oprah is GREAT!....but I'm not so sure this book is,
By Jennifer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Oprah Winfrey: the Real Story (Paperback)
I just finished reading this Oprah book, and I have to be honest. I love Oprah to death and I admire her greatly, but I think this book was poorly written and organized. There were many events in Oprah's life, but in reading this biography, I was confused often as to the exact particulars of many incidents. An incredible book could be written about Oprah's life, but I don't think this book does a very good job at it. I guess I will just have to wait for the day Oprah comes out with her own autobiography!
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