Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Celebrity biographer King dutifully details Madonna's mythic origins and rise to colossal status in the music industry. Both King and Christopher Anderson ( Ma donna: Unauthorized , S. & S., 1991) seem to have drawn from a common pool of information. King's book lacks the enthusiastic voyeurism found in TV's Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous , and there are few original insights in spite of boring quotes from academics. What's missing is real curiosity and conjecture about Madonna's persona and work. King offers little discussion of the role pre-existing cinematic icons and photographic imagery (Marilyn Monroe, Horst's photos, etc.) play in her changing projections of self. The parade of boyfriends and public ambitions is here, but Madonna's own comments at the end of the book do the most to convey her vigorous ambiguities. For libraries with large pop culture collections. (Photos not seen.)-- Susan Wexler, formerly with ``Library Journal'' (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Steamy life of Madonna, who comes off both worse and better than you might expect. King (Everybody Loves Oprah!, 1987, etc.) seemingly has felt no need to go beyond scissors-and-paste in this thinnish bio, since Madonna herself in various interviews furnishes him with enough hot quotes to fuel his pages. Nor is he expert on her music. Still, we are faced here with a gifted human being whose relentlessly graphic honesty breaks conventions like so many arm bones. Raised in a strict Catholic family in Michigan, Madonna has said, ``I grew up with two images of women: The Virgin and the Whore.'' She studied dance, was told by her gay ballet teacher that she had a ``face like an ancient Roman statue,'' which gave her a fix on her beauty. Dropping her college career at Ann Arbor to accept a job with the Alvin Ailey dance troupe in New York, she then landed a soft-porn film job and did some nude modeling (photos that later surfaced in Playboy and Penthouse). Her ``Burning Up'' (sexually) video boosted her onto MTV (``Unlike the others, I'll do anything/I'm not the same, I have no shame,'' go the lyrics). Meanwhile, she apparently stepped over the bodies of those who helped her. Her biggest break came as a kooky lead in Desperately Seeking Susan, followed by a failed marriage to Sean Penn. Her role as Breathless Mahoney in Dick Tracy brought her $14 million in album sales, more than her part-time lover Warren Beatty made as Tracy. Her Truth or Dare film finds her rawly frank about sex, as does her Rolling Stone interview with Carrie Fisher: ``I don't like blow jobs. [I like] getting head.'' The story of a monstrous talent who will say anything--if it's true--and gains our sympathy for it. (Sixteen pages of b&w photographs--not seen.)