Cher's lack of agency in her relationship with Sonny Bono came through in passive, reactive behavior, but as she grew older, she found her voice, rode a roller coaster of personal and professional adventures, overcame difficulties, and set her sights on an even bigger, more fulfilling life than ever. I'm alllll in for book two.
In the first installment of Cher's two-part memoir, she traces some of her ancestors' pivotal stories, putting heavy emphasis on her mother's unusual, difficult childhood and youth--before sharing the personal impact of her mother's many marriages and their family's resulting moves, vacillation between poverty and extreme wealth, and her mother's general inability to consider others' situations and difficulties because of her own tough past.
Early on, the memoir felt like more of a factual account of what occurred in her life than it felt like illuminating self-examination. I was curious to find out if Cher would provide more reflection around events as she grew older and more emotionally mature within her own story.
Her relationship with Sonny Bono (eleven years older) began when she was a teenager, and his control over her professional and personal life grew stronger and stronger without Cher's recognizing her limitations, her lack of knowledge about finances and business, and her squashed self-esteem about her performance ability.
As she recounts the ups and downs of her early relationships and rides the roller coaster of success and failure, Cher begins to want to express her own voice and to become assertive, and this is when she starts to show more vulnerability and growth--and when I felt drawn into her story.
This is part one of two, and toward the end of this installment she has made her way through the nurturing link with David Geffen, her complicated relationship with Gregg Allman, as well as her connection to her children, her career, and her creativity. She has her eye on diving into becoming a serious actress. And I am hooked.
I listened to Cher as an audiobook.
Cher reads the beginning of each chapter herself, before bowing out due to the strains of reading with dyslexia. Then Stephanie J. Block (who won a Tony for portraying Cher in the musical The Cher Show, and who has a somewhat similar voice), reads the rest. This is very minor, but Block's occasional emphasis on certain words and infrequent, but present, perplexing pauses threw me off at times.
Memoir love
For more Bossy reviews of memoirs I've loved--and there are a lot of titles on this site, my friends--please check out the books at this link.