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Life with My Sister Madonna | 
 enlarge | Creator: Christopher Ciccone
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  153 reviews
Sales Rank: 223131
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Abridged
Number Of Items: 5
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.8 x 5.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0743580044
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.42166092
EAN: 9780743580045
ASIN: 0743580044
Publication Date: July 14, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Madonna up close, by the brother who knows her better than anyone. Christopher Ciccone's extraordinary memoir is based on his forty-seven years of growing up with, working with, and understanding the most famous woman of our time, who has intrigued, scandalized, and entertained millions for half a century. Through most of the iconic star's kaleidoscopic career, Christopher played an important role in her life: as her backup dancer, her personal assistant, her dresser, her decorator, her art director, her tour director. If you think you know everything there is to know about Madonna, you are wrong. Only Christopher can tell the full scale, riveting untold story behind Madonna's carefully constructed mythology, and the real woman behind the glittering facade. From their shared Michigan childhood, which Madonna transcended, then whisked Christopher to Manhattan with her in the early eighties, where he slepton her roach-infested floor and danced with her in clubs all over town -- Christopher was with her every step of the way, experiencing her first hand in all her incarnations. The spoiled daddy's girl, the punk drummer, the raunchy Boy Toy, Material Girl, Mrs. Sean Penn, Warren Beatty's glamorous Hollywood paramour, loving mother, Mrs. Guy Ritchie, English grande dame -- Christopher witnessed and understood all of them, as his own life was inexorably entwined with that of his chameleon sister. He tangled with a cast of characters from artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, to Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Moss, Demi Moore, and, of course, Guy Ritchie, whose advent in Madonna's life splintered the loving relationship Christopher once had with her. The mirror image of his legendary sister, with his acid Ciccone tongue, Christopher pulls no punches as he tells his astonishing story. Life with My Sister Madonna is the juicy, can't-put-it-down story you've always wanted to hear, as told by Madonna's younger brother.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 148 more reviews...
 Very Personal Info August 28, 2008
Loved this book. I cryed towards the end. I was left wanting to read more. Aside from their being famous, just to hear a brothers very real and down to earth views and feelings toward his sister were so touching to me.
 Poor, Poor Christopher August 27, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
It is obvious that Madonna's brother wrote this book out of pure jealousy for his sister's success. Is Madonna the most artful and talented person on the planet? Not by a longshot. Is she a great character? Yes. Is she great at selling herself, her image? Yes. Is she worth the money she's making? Totally.
But poor poor Christopher. He had to live his life under his sister's shadow. The whole book reads like this sad attempt at tarnishing his sister's image because she no longer wants him to be a true part of his life. And who can blame her? The author is whiny, self-absorbed and thinks he is much more important than he truly is.
The point of the book is to tell us that he's had a great deal to do with Madonna's success. Ok, so he listened to her from times to times. He was her dresser and dancer for a while. He even did the art direction on some of her tours. Does that equal making Madonna's career? Not by a long shot. He never produced her music, never wrote any of her songs, never actually truly adviced her about her career choices (although he does tell her she's great even when she isn't on every page, a good suckup). And yet, he resents the fact that Madonna has all this money and only provided him with the type of pay that would be given to all of her other employees. Poor, poor Christopher.
At one point in the book, Madonna does not want to use her brother's services at decorating her house because she thinks he is a drug addict. The author denies this yet keeps on telling us about all the parties he attended, all the drugs he's done with famous people, all the alcohol he's had during his party years? Hhmm... doesn't that make a person an addict? Who can blame Madonna for not trusting her brother. (A one point, he even steals from her while decorating a house and when Madonna finds out and gets mad at him, he casts her out as a drama queen. Where's the logic in that?)
Christopher calls himself creative yet never does much to help his career. Oh, wait. He does befriend many celebrities (Demi Moore, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Moss, many fashion designers and models) in the hopes that they will boost their career. But when they realise he is a leech, they discard him and he feels like they are trying to destroy his so-called talent. So what does he do? Tell gossip about each and every one of them of course!
Ok, maybe he's a decent designer. But he tries painting once and he calls himself a painter. He writes one screenplay and calls himself a screenwriter. He takes photographs and has one show in a gallery and calls himself an art photographer. Honestly, who cares? He cannot stay focused on one thing for more than five minutes and when Madonna doesn't trust him to do a job to the end, he is insulted. In the end, he is more mean-spirited and one-sided than his sister ever was to him.
The whole book (badly written and as repetitive as it is) feels like a poor attempt to destroy his sister's career because he is no longer under her wing and no longer has the glorious life he once had. I don't think Madonna's perfect. I'm not even that big a fan of hers. But after reading this book, I can truly see why she would cast out her obsessive, self-absorbed and whiny brother out of her life.
Poor, poor Christopher. You were never much of anything when your sister is everything.
Excellent read for a big Madonna Fan!!! August 27, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Nothing scathing revealed, just the fact that she is cheap! There are lots of small details about her that only a huge fan, like me, would care about. The book isnt very articulate and it is poorly edited. I couldnt put the book down though!
 Madonna: She Is What She Is! / Christopher: It Was What It Was!! August 26, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
A lot of the other reviewers have pretty much hit the nail on the head about this book being Christopher Ciccone's
"WOE IS ME!!--I LOVE MY SISTER, BUT I HATE HER!!" journal.
The only thing original I can say is that MADONNA,
love her or hate her, is what she is and that's that!
The very traits of ambition, drive, focus, fearlessness, will, talent, saavy, guts, etc.
are what made her rise from suburban Detroit to the bright lights
/ big city of NYC in the late
70's and early 80's, on to the world stage and the
iconic megastar she became and still is today!
Of course, with all those star-making traits come selfishness, manipulativeness,
control-issues, etc. because everybody has a darkside as well.
Show me a person who is all goodness
and light all the time and I'll show you either a phony or
somebody good at repressing their darker nature and who will
one day explode!
On the otherhand, you have Christopher, her younger brother,
who by his own words, has been a person who has always been subdued,
kind of muddled, middle-of-the-road, and played it safe for most
of his life. It takes a Madonna-type to wake up and bring out a person
like that because left to their own devices, they would never have the guts to live their lives outside the box!
That's what she's been doing to the status quo for the
last 25 years!--Duuhhh!!
Chris's paradox is that the very things he admires and is deeply attracted to in his older superstar sister
are the very things that he hates in her and yet
helplessly can't tear himself from.
I have seen some of Mr. Ciccone's artwork and he is good,
but Michelangelo ain't got nothing to worry about! (LOL!!)
He probably is a better set designer, artistic director
and interior decorator than a full-on artist!
But the reality is, is that he would have never gotten the
noteriety he has if it were not for his sister!
Instead of him sending $50,000 checks to his ex-lover,
who he broke up with because the ex couldn't deal with the
demands of Madonna's frantic life on Christopher,
who was always a willing participant and would drop everything
as soon as he was summoned to follow her, he should've been
saving all of the many hundreds of thousands of dollars that
have passed through his hands over the years for that inevitable
rainy season when it would all come to an end!
He does, after all, know her and her behavior patterns and
how she can disconnect from someone, blood or no blood,
at the drop of a hat!
And no way would I have spent $65,000 of my own money
for paintings for Madonna with no promise of reimbursement,
given her past history of mercurialness and bitchiness with him!
Truth is, he let himself get played time and time again
because, bottomline, he wanted to be in the spotlight
and to warm himself in the sunshine of Madonna's starpower!
Long story short...we all have a role to play in life,
and that role is based on who we are inside, what we
are willing to accept from ourselves and others,
our own ability to adapt, change and see opportunity and
know what to do when we see it.
Madonna is who she is, and Christopher is who he is...
there's no good, bad, ugly or indifference to it...
it's just the way their lives have played out so far!
It's not too late for Christopher Ciccone to finally get out
from under his sister's shadow and forge his own path to happiness!
He just needs to let go of the anger, the blame game,
and to own his own part in his unhappiness and misery.
He needs to leave those drugs, partying, phony hollywood types, etc.
in the dust and focus on himself. People like Madonna respect those
who stand their ground and will tell them to F--Off sometimes!
Had Christopher not caved in to her so many times,
even when she was a witch with a capital B,
she might have respected him more!
Sean Penn and Guy Ritchie knew when to tell her to go get stuffed!
That's why she couldn't get enough of them!
So to Christopher, I say GROW UP and GROW A PAIR!!
Sibling Rivalry, Ciccone Style August 26, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I think that Christopher Ciccone is a talented man with a lot to offer. I appreciate his account of sibling rivalry/intersibling conflict. Few people seem to understand the devastating affect siblings can have on each other; most accounts of familial conflict focus on the parent-child relationship, not the sister-to-brother, brother-to-brother, sister-to-sister dynamics.
I do have reservations about Christopher's story, however. He seems to downplay his "recreational drug" usage. I don't know where the fine line is drawn between recreational use and addiction. As a person who has had two destructive psychotic episodes (the first due to medical malpractice and the second due to cold-turkey withdrawal from a strong medication with known health risks), I would never willingly alter my consciousness in such a Russian Roulette manner. Yet I understand that drug usage is more complicated than heavy-handed, unhelpful judgment, and I have compassion for those who struggle with addictions. On the other hand, I don't think it's fair for Madonna to dismiss Christopher's grievances against her as stemming from his drug usage or denials of addiction.
The book really wasn't much of a shocker, other than the confirmation that Madonna is not yet enlightened, no matter what she may claim. If she says something that actually makes sense (IMHO, she says a lot of things that don't make sense!), then she won't apply this wisdom by treating people with the dignity and respect that is inherent in every human being. After reading this book, I just have to point out the hypocrisy between pretending to be enlightened and then treating people like crap. Yet I give her full credit for charity work in Africa, bringing a forsaken country to worldwide attention. Christopher speculates whether her commitment is in part due to her need to keep up with the Jolies. If she is going to play the Mother Teresa part, she will eclipse all other celebrity humanitarians. Well, maybe, but so what? She's still positively impacting the lives of impoverished Malawians, and I applaud her for it. Perhaps the road to heaven is paved with dubiuous intentions. I'll be honest, I started volunteering in part due to my admiration of Princess Diana's active compassion and wanted to emulate this flawed heroine. I can hardly keep up with the Spencers, but you get the idea that people are influenced by each other and imitate each other.
I don't get Madonna. After reading this book, she still remains the same enigma she was before I opened this 342-page book, replete with family photographs. Losing your mother at such a young age must have been horrible; she and Christopher both have my compassion for their loss. Though my mom and I get into tiffs somewhat regularly, she is still one of my best friends. I couldn't imagine life without her. Christopher makes it clear that Joan, their stepmother, never mistreated them and went out of her way to take care of them. Madonna apparently resents having someone try to take the place of her mother and played up the Cinderella Syndrome.
Even though Madonna has nothing but my compassion for her early loss, that loss does not give her carte blanche to do whatever she wants to whomever she wants. Just because she was hurt at an early age doesn't mean that she can rationalize treating others badly, if that is what she is doing on an unconscious level. I don't know. As I said, I don't get her. According to this book, she certainly has treated her brother as though he's dispensable, there for her ready convenience when he's of use to her.
Also, what a miserly mindset! My brother and I have quite a history between us, but he'd want for nothing if I had millions. He wouldn't have to decorate my house in order for me to dole him out a bit of money if he was between a rock and a hard place. Nor would my sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, parents, cousins, aunts, or uncles. That's what you do for family. I'm saying this theoretically, as I don't have millions, but if I ever do, I hope that I will follow through with this sentiment because I just think sharing with your family is the right thing to do. And I'd actually enjoy providing for them, as I love giving presents at Christmas that my family members actually want. It's a pleasure to see someone's face light up when you give him or her something you know s/he will enjoy. (For example, I recently sent my uncle (through marriage), who just lost his mother, a DVD of a French movie called Tous les Matins du Monde (All the Mornings of the World). We had seen this movie together years ago when I was an undergraduate. It features the lives of two composers of the viola da gamba, and my uncle briefly took lessons on this cousin-to-the-cello. To hear his heartfelt thanks on my voicemail repaid for the gift many times over.) Stephen Covey talks about the scarcity mentality versus the abundance mentality in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I don't know whether Madonna is suffering from the scarcity mentality in some aspects of her life.
Ever since informally converting to Unitarian Universalism, I've enjoyed attending services. To the best of my knowledge, the U.U.'s don't make million-dollar demands on their adherents' pocketbooks. Christopher Reeve, a celebrity U.U. and personal inspiration, appreciated that this congregation never pressured him for money. Admittedly, I'm an outsider looking in, but I don't get why Madonna has given the Kabbalah Synagogue millions of dollars. It's her money and she can spend it how she will, but she shouldn't have to pay outrageous sums of money to learn about the Kabbalah. But I don't know the whole situation, so I should just reserve judgment on this extravagant expenditure of the otherwise tight-fisted Madonna.
I wish both siblings well. I hope that they will sincerly reconcile in the near future, without blame and defensiveness. My own brother and I are well on are way to reconciliation and are getting along better than ever. We're not 100% yet, but we're so much better than we used to be. If he and I can work through our garbage and issues (and believe me, our issues are the stuff of Faulkner and Pat Conroy fiction), I think that many other dysfunctional intersibling relationships can heal as well.
I'm glad that I borrowed this book from the library, as I'm not likely to reread it. I think that Christopher is a talented man, but his theme of jumping into new artistic ventures without any formal training may have worked in other areas of his life, but I think he needs more experience and guidance with his writing. He has real potential, but in my opinion, this memoir could have been improved if he had taken writing courses at the college level and bounced off ideas/collaborated with established writers before publishing Life with My Sister Madonna.
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