Cher: The Memoir, Part One

I've been a Cher fan since birth so of course I loved her book!

It's always hard to rate someone's life story, so the rating I've given pertains mostly to the writing itself. It was immediately obvious that the book is, like almost all celebrity memoirs, ghostwritten. There is nothing inherently offputting about the fact itself, but a lot of the time, the writing felt ungenuine, detached from the emotional depth that Cher experienced in some of the most pivotal moments of her early career.

Additionally, I felt there were parts with maybe a bit too much self congratulatory narration, and some of the classic 'not like other girls'-esque thoughts. Maybe the memoir genre is always like this, I don't read enough of them to know. Writing a whole book about oneself is probably always going to cast the writer in the role of the egotist. And Cher did achieve a lot.

The story itself is inspiring, and the magnitude of the achievement comes across despite the writing. In particular, I really love the image of Cher at the awards show, wearing the midriff revealing outfit with a fur coat, Sonny looking at her in rapt admiration. That speaks volumes of her nonconformist persona much better than a lot of the writing does.

Two-thirds of a great memoir. I couldn't put the book down during the chapters that cover Cher's dreadful childhood and her inexplicable relationship with Sonny Bono (he lied, cheated, and stole from her for decades, somehow convincing her that she was lucky to have him). The last few chapters suffer from too much name dropping and too many descriptions of her unique Bob Mackie-designed dresses, although she does spill some delicious tea about former lovers Greg Allman, David Geffen, and Gene Simmons. Ends abruptly in 1980 when Francis Ford Coppola encourages her to pursue her acting dreams. Throughout it all, Cher's voice is matter of fact, devoid of self-pity or sentimentality, except when she's talking about her kids.

We're still decades away from “do you belieeeeve in life after love?” so the second part of this diva's memoir should be equally compelling.