Madonna: A Rebel Life - is it worth reading?

[Lucas B. 827]

This book will be released here in Brazil next month and I just saw it is a huge biography (854 pages), and I want to know if it's worth reading it.

I'm now reading Madonna: Like an Icon and even tho I love to hear about the early days with Christopher Flynn etc etc it is quite boring to read all these things from Lucy O'Brien's perspective (shame on me, but Chris's vision and writing on Life with my sister Madonna was WAY more interesting).

What do you guys think? Is this book any worth?

[Brendanlovesu1 12,008]

Yes it's an incredible book, someone here shared the audiobook as well read by the author. You can check that out if audiobooks are your thing

[kesiak 3,036]

It's very good, I'd say the ultimate M biography so far. Especially first half of the book with Madonna's early years and beginnings. It's also the only biography of Madonna  that positions her career and its stages within sociocultural context of the times they occurred in. 

[Leona Helmsley 9,418]

yes yes and yes!!!!

its in my list!!!!

 

[Lucas B. 827]

28 minutes ago, kesiak said:

It's very good, I'd say the ultimate M biography so far. Especially first half of the book with Madonna's early years and beginnings. It's also the only biography of Madonna so far that positions her career and its stages within sociocultural context of the times they occurred in. 

Nice to hear that, for sure I’ma buy it when it becomes available 

[WokeUpInMedellin 1,556]

I got a copy for Christmas and it's been sitting on my nightstand ever since, staring at me ominously  It's so massive. But I will read it eventually.

[Anapausis 5,911]

Btw, making profit of such thread, would love to know all ur insights about Rettenmund's Encyclopaedia Madonnica...

[Lucas B. 827]

53 minutes ago, Nahash said:

Btw, making profit of such thread, would love to know all ur insights about Rettenmund's Encyclopaedia Madonnica...

My ex-bf has a copy of it, I looked through it a lot of times back in the days we were together and all I can say is that THIS is the holy grail for every M collector in terms of acknowledgement. It’s a beautiful piece of work, with so many interesting infos, and the best is that you don’t have to read it from beginning to end, you can simply open at page 200 example and read what’s of your interest.

I already decided to give it to myself as a bday gift hahahaha

[Donna 16,441]

7 hours ago, Lucas B. said:

This book will be released here in Brazil next month and I just saw it is a huge biography (854 pages), and I want to know if it's worth reading it.

I'm now reading Madonna: Like an Icon and even tho I love to hear about the early days with Christopher Flynn etc etc it is quite boring to read all these things from Lucy O'Brien's perspective (shame on me, but Chris's vision and writing on Life with my sister Madonna was WAY more interesting).

What do you guys think? Is this book any worth?

 

6 hours ago, kesiak said:

It's very good, I'd say the ultimate M biography so far. Especially first half of the book with Madonna's early years and beginnings. It's also the only biography of Madonna  that positions her career and its stages within sociocultural context of the times they occurred in. 

I think @kesiakgives a fair and factual representation of the book.  While I'm always leery of unofficial biographies, this one seems to have a lot of great sources to back up what is written. Of course, I still take a lot that is said with a grain of salt, but it's easy to think this book is closely accurate to what happened in Madonna's life and career, as if someone was there observing it first hand.

[Candy Perfume Boy 6,074]

I thought it became very formulaic by the end and I was willing it to finish. 
 

it was nice to read about the contemporary artistic and political context and value of Madonna’s cultural contribution, but the narrative style and structuring got boring by halfway. I only kept going because I’d started. 

[PlayPause 2,684]

Yes

[GregVsMatt 3,700]

It's a very long and mostly well written book - you'll have to make allowances for some inaccuracies but overall it's entertaining and I really appreciated the author providing context of what was happening in the world at the time which highlights M's amazing legacy while also giving an idea on why there was so much controversy at the time etc I listened to the audio book in the car over a few months 

[Blue Jean 15,254]

To be honest I don’t have a lot of interest in reading an unofficial biography these days. Hearing there are inaccuracies or that people struggled to get through it immediately puts me off.

[DiegoLCL 5,056]

17 hours ago, Candy Perfume Boy said:

I thought it became very formulaic by the end and I was willing it to finish. 
 

it was nice to read about the contemporary artistic and political context and value of Madonna’s cultural contribution, but the narrative style and structuring got boring by halfway. I only kept going because I’d started. 

Same here. 
I enjoyed the approach but the execution got tired fast. I felt some chapters had the author spending more time going about what was happening culturally than whatever that had to do with Madonna at that point in time. It could use some editing.

But yes, if you have the time, I'd say still one of the best books to get a sense of ~ Madonna, the cultural impact ~ and how Madonna acts as mirror pointed to society and how that reflects in her work. 

[Pedro Beltran 4,252]

I was about to buy it 🤣

Could someone direct me in the direction of the thread that had the audiobook shared…

Im so bad at finding that stuff here on the forum

[Starchild 3,077]

To correct an earlier poster, the audiobook is not narrated by the author.

I've been listening to it most nights as I drift off to sleep, and for the most part, there's little in there that I didn't already know.

https://www.audible.com.au/pd/Madonna-Audiobook/B0BXQ5FGQQ

[Alibaba 1,519]

I initially thought it was well-researched, but there was a great deal of information left out, and it became tedious beyond the Girlie Show. There was too much of a tendency to stick to a bird’s eye view of her career, with little actual deeper research. I understand that she wanted to make it a historical account of Madonna’s life, and while it is lengthy and I am sure it took a great deal of work, there’s something lacking in the end. In the second half of Madonna’s career there is practically no insight beyond a basic timeline of publicly seen performances and interviews. The author spends far too much time recounting the details of each tour (with occasional glaring errors), barely making any effort to contextualize beyond her own personal discovery of Madonna’s work and dryly conveying what she sees, which is of no interest to fans as we have all seen the shows. 
The early years are where the book succeeds…It’s a noble effort, but lacks any real depth or style, and the little attention paid to the latter part of Madonna’s career was almost insulting. 

[WokeUpInMedellin 1,556]

That's sad. The latter half of her career is stellar just as well. And very important to fans like me.