Life with My Sister Madonna | 
| Authors: Christopher Ciccone, Wendy Leigh
Publisher: Simon Spotlight Entertainment
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $10.40
You Save: $15.60 (60%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  172 reviews
Sales Rank: 1093
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.4
ISBN: 1416587624
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.42166092
EAN: 9781416587620
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 167 more reviews...
 Eh! September 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Well, it's not horrible but I'm glad I got it from the library and didn't pay for it.
Mr Ciccone claims that one of the two precepts by which both he and his sister try to live their lives is keeping their word...this, no more than a few pages after Madonna cajoles him to move to New York and live with her (she reneges) and asks him to be one of her dancers (she hires someone else).
Both Mister Ciccone and Madonna seems to be permanently scarred by the early death of their mother.....y'know what? this happens. People die too soon. Move beyond it. It can be done. Not necessarily easily, but it can be done.
Mr Ciccone makes every excuse for his sisters' terrible behavior and the fact of the matter is...there is no excuse. Not all successful people in showbiz are monsters. Most of them are solid, sane working professionals. Madonna is not one of them.
Oh well, I wish them luck. They need it. At the end of the day, this is a sad book. These people enjoy the trappings of success but seem to have very little going for them in the line of their "inner life". That is actually the only thing that can keep you going when it all hits the fan.
Life with My Sister Madonna Book September 5, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
If I disliked her before reading the book (and I did), I detested her after reading. I would guess she makes life pretty miserable for everyone around her, including her children.
Not Exactly a Madonna Bio September 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was an ok light read. It is a memoir of Christopher Ciccone, not strictly a Madonna bio. Madonna is part of the story only because Chris spent a good part of his life working for her.
It reads kind of like a day diary. It chronicles his life and his feelings. It's not really that deep and doesn't spend a lot of time on when they were children.
Chris is constantly being manipulated by Madonna into a client-customer relationship where he is being taken advantage of both as to being underpaid and spoken to in a personal not very respectful way, seemingly just because he is her brother.
He spends the entire book complaining about his treatment by her yet continues to forgive her by saying how much he loves his sister and how she openned up doors for him through her offers of employment in her rise to superstardom.
The best part of his story is that at the end, he had a falling out with Madonna and finally was able to establish his own businesses using the skills he acquired doing tour/stage/design work for her.
Note: I read the Kindle version. The photos are at the book's end. There are no captions for some reason. Also, you don't get the Madonna photo shown on Amazon's page either.
Fun, but perhaps defeated the purpose? September 2, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I admit that this book captured and maintained my interest. However, I can't help but feel that he had other motives (money)for creating this book. I believe 70% of what he says, but would have loved to hear Madonna's side of his story. As for Christopher, I don't understand how someone with so much talent (interior design, furniture etc.) and with so many powerful connections, can be broke ALL THE TIME. I am tempted to believe Madonna's accusations that Christopher is a drug addict after all.
Nevertheless, this is the best book concerning Madonna (so far and in my opinion). Although I believe that most of what is written here, is already common knowledge. Madonna has always been as high maintenance, and difficult, as she is talented and extraordinary.
But I feel that as he attempted to find his own voice, and separate Christopher from Madonna, that in the end he only managed to prove his dependence on her - and stood once more in her shadow.
 It's like watching a circus elephant go on a rampage so that it can get shot to death... September 2, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
You know how some poor, tragic circus elephants slave away in the circus for thirty years and then finally have enough? And then break free, running amuk, stomping the trainer to death and trampling through the crowd before getting taken down by police with rifles? Well, Christopher the elephant finally could take no more of the circus called Madonna. A sad spectacle to watch him liberate himself, and do himself in...
He pretty much comes off as borderline delusional, as he puffs himself up wanting you to believe that so many accomplished people need him "advising" them and take him seriously. And then the (poorly written) book bores you when it strays from the subject of Madonna. I mean, she's the star, she's the reason we're flipping pages to begin with...
Who knows how accurate it is. It's easy to suspect that many of her faults are overplayed while his are severely downplayed. And it would have been nicer to have had more coverage of her music. He doesn't even mention the albums Music, American Life or Confessions on a Dancefloor.
The best part for me was the anecdote about Live Aid in 1985. Here was Madonna, fresh off the blinding superstardom created by Like A Virgin, in the midst of the "scandal" about nude photos and she's about to perform before 90,000 people in Philadelphia. He drives her from Manhattan to Philly, just the two of them, in his beat up range rover and then they hop back in it after her performance and speed off! I guess I was picturing a limousine or a helicopter and an entourage with caviar and bottles of Cristal. I was surprised and amused to see fairly ordinary lives being led at the center of things that just happen to be mounted on an epic scale. Interesting, to peer behind the facade...
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