Goddess Hardcover – November 6, 2001

This book was indeed quite a challenge to finish and would have been greatly improved by a more rigorous editing job. The writer's transitions between ideas were practically non-existent -- a frequent tactic of the author's was to describe an anecdote and then "analyze" it, but the analysis often left me totally baffled, since the writer did not take the time to explain why she came to her conclusions -- as if describing the anecdote was enough to make its (apparently one-and-only) "meaning" obvious. And I deeply distrust any biography that describes what the subject was thinking when she was alone, especially when the subject did not cooperate with or directly contribute to the writing of the book. And Ms. Victor got several of her facts wrong, which does not lend credence to her speculations -- "You Must Love Me," for example, was written for Madonna in Evita, and so it sounds silly for the writer to say Madonna made it her own, since she was the only one who has performed it so far. The writer also defines "los descamisados" as "the shiftless ones," when it actually means "the shirtless ones," although that could have been a typo -- again, something that careful editing would have caught. Evita, in fact, is referred to on almost every page and the writer's comparisons of Madonna to Eva Peron run the gamut from tedious to unintentionally hilarious.I also bought Andrew Morton's book, and it will be interesting to read the two biographies back-to-back.

Just a wonderful item, better than described and fast secure shipping. A++++

I grew up listening to Madonna. She set the stage for many new pop stars. Had no idea about her personal life struggles. Look forward to reading this one.

Thoiugh not the first, best or most intriguing of the groundbreaking female pop stars, Madonna has some sort of hold over the American attention, possibly because she changed her image so often. But don't expect an easy read in Barbara Victor's "Goddess" -- this one is less than divine.The book opens with Madonna preparing for her role in the musical "Evita," based on the life of Eva Peron. This turned out to be the turning point of Madonna's life: It was in the period when she became pregnant, cleaned up her act somewhat, and made her first (and so far, only) acclaimed movie.Then it bobs back to the arrive of the immigrant Ciccone family in the United States, the early days of Madonna's parents, and the tragedies that her family never recovered from. From there, it tracks her as she became a struggling dancer, whose sexual dancepop became a massive hit. After a disastrous short marriage, many boyfriends (and girlfriends), a porn book, and an unfortunate movie career, she finally settled down with director Guy Richie to become the not-so-quintessential British wife and mother.Madonna is a bit of a love-her-or-hate-her person, especially since she has none of the warmth, stability or humour of similar pop stars like Deborah Harry. So it's not surprising that Victor's biography will probably inspire ire or delight in anyone who reads it... assuming they can get through it at all.There's a strange split in Victor's opinions on Madonna. She compares Madonna to the ancient virgin goddesses (huh?), and excuses much of her behavior. Then she ruthlessly shows Madonna's shallowness, sexual obsessiveness and arrogance. How? By the most damning evidence: her own words. Victor uses interview quotes, video footage, and even a behind-the-scenes special where she openly mocks and humiliates a childhood friend.There is some interesting information, such as analysis of Madonna's songs and music videos, although Victor (like Madonna herself) focuses way too much on the loss of her mother. And were Victor able to cobble together all this information into a straightforward biography, she might be a pretty good writer.Unfortunately, Victor is actually a pretty bad writer. There's a lot of meaty information here, but no linear series of events. It's very distracting to jerk the readers from Madonna's toddlerhood to her adult career, sometimes in the same page. But that's what Victor does. Even worse, this choppy biography is laced with endless psychoanalyzation, and a tendency to demonize or beatify people as Madonna sees them, not as they actually are.Split adoration/disdain and a choppy narrative make "Goddess" a chore rather than a guilty pleasure, as a "scandalous" biography ought to be. Whatever you think of Madonna, this "Goddess" is unholy.

Recent devolopments have made the Barbara Victor biography more relevant in its comparison of Madonna's present day wealth and success to her many struggles and controversies of the past. The divorce from Guy Ritchie and the adoption of a boy from Africa to name a few. Madonna seems to have a conflicting dual personality where she wants the respectable clean image of success without keeping the rebel bad girl image that made her so rich. She wants droves of fans to line up for her security screened concerts, but doesn't want the public to remember the stalker serving time in jail for trying to break into her house. She wants people to know she adopted a child from Africa and writes children's stories now, but sort of wants to erase her torn underwear costume and the hit music of Papa Don't Preach and Like a Virgin. Victor journeys backward from Madonna's filming of Evita to events that shaped her life in this bio, ommitting some scandals mentioned here, but including insightful episodes from her childhood and early years not often mentioned in the latest gossip on ET.

This biography is easily the worst of the major efforts on Madonna. It's unbelievably episodic and non-linear, making it hard to follow, plus it seems to have a dumb error on every page. The author's note at the beginning says EROTICA came out in 1989 and LIKE A PRAYER in 1990, she later says Madonna dated Louie Louie in 1993 and she's terrible with math, nothing that just five years after arriving in NYC in 1978, she was a major star in 1984... It really made me suspect all of her new info and reportage that she was that sloppy. On another note, her contempt for Madonna oozes from every word. She really twists everything to make Madonna sound reprehensible. Unpleasant.