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Life with My Sister Madonna is an autobiography by American author and entertainer Christopher Ciccone and biographer Wendy Leigh. The book is a memoir about Ciccone's sister, American singer Madonna, and was released on July 14, 2008 by Simon Spotlight Entertainment. A tell-all book, it details Ciccone's life spent with Madonna, and unknown aspects of the singer's life. The relationship between Ciccone and Madonna had deteriorated over the years, following the singer's refusal to employ him as her tour director. Writing the book was a catharsis for him and he contacted Leigh. Together they developed the project secretly and offered to Simon Spotlight Entertainment for publication.

Madonna, who was not aware of the release was aggravated and wanted to stop the publication but failed to do so. Simon Spotlight Entertainment sold the book blindly to the retailers, with the expectation that it would create a media uproar for the contents and the nature of the memoir. Life with My Sister Madonna received negative reviews from book critics. Reviewers panned the content and felt it was ironic that Ciccone would use Madonna's name to cash-in while at the same time slandering her. They also found that the revelations in the book appeared to be nothing noteworthy. Commercially the book debuted at number two on The New York Times Best Seller list, and went on to sell 35,000 copies.

Synopsis

The biography starts with the opening night of Madonna's The Girlie Show World Tour (1993) at London. From there it goes on to describe Ciccone and Madonna's childhood together, playing at their father's orchards, the death of their mother. Ciccone reflects on working with Madonna, starting from the music video for her 1984 single, "Lucky Star", to the Girlie Show. Ciccone narrates the early part of his life with Madonna: his first joint, his first drug usage, his first visit to a gay bar. He also recalls Madonna's performance in school donning a provocative costume that displeased their father. Then he debunks Madonna's story regarding her first trip to Manhattan with $35 in her pocket and a pair of ballet shoes.

The memoir is divided into different chapters of Madonna's life with the titles like 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 (her second husband) and English grande dame. The book ends with an epilogue listing the singer's accomplishments and Ciccone's current life, as well as an afterword, where he detailed how Madonna supposedly wanted to stop the publishing of the book and previously unreleased family photographs.

Background and publication

Christopher Ciccone is the middle brother of the Ciccone family, and the fourth child of Silvio Anthony "Tony" Ciccone and Madonna Louise (née Fortin), just below Madonna. He began his career and worked as the singer's assistant, concert tour and art director, including the 1991 Madonna: Truth or Dare documentary. In June 2008, Simon & Schuster revealed that Christopher Ciccone had written a memoir on her, titled Life with My Sister Madonna. The publisher described the book as based "on his life and 47 years of growing up with and working with his sister". Ciccone wrote the book with author Wendy Leigh, who had previously written biographies on John F. Kennedy Jr., Prince Edward, Liza Minelli and ghostwritten Zsa Zsa Gabor's autobiography.

"I could have written that book, the book about how horrifying she is or can be, but I didn't write that book. I was just looking for a little recognition for the work I've done for 20 years with her, that it wasn't one person."

Prior to the release of the book, the relationship between Madonna and Ciccone had deteriorated from 2001 onwards, when Madonna refused to employ him as her tour director for the Drowned World Tour. "From the moment I found out that I wasn't doing Drowned World, to her and Guy's wedding, everything became a bit of a blur, a dark, fairly negative period of time for me," he felt. According to Ciccone, he took therapy but faced difficulty in living life separately from his sister. He believed that being under the shadow of Madonna had never allowed him to achieve an identity of his own. In an interview with Chrissy Iley from Irish Independent, Ciccone explained that many a times Madonna had tried manipulating him into working for free and forced her to perform odd jobs that he did not want to. However, the relationship completely ended when Madonna accused him of theft from her in an email, "of swindling her after 20 years of being the only person that hadn't". Believing that the book was not just a catharsis for him, the author wrote it feeling that it would also empower him. Ciccone described writing the book as "a giant fucking orgasm. Therapy I already had; this was pure sex".

Wendy Leigh explained that the project started when Ciccone had approached her in 2007 for writing a memoir. He shown her a cache of letters from Madonna, where the singer detailed about her marriage to Ritchie, and evident problems they were facing. Feeling that it showed the singer in a "humane" light, Leigh decided to write the memoir. Ciccone would secretly arrive at Leigh's home in Key Biscayne, Florida, donning disguises (with the name Mr. Blake) lest anyone found about the project. An auction was held among numerous publication houses, and Simon Spotlight Entertainment finally accepted to release the book. The initial title was, The Queen and I, but the editors thought that it sounded "snarky" and changed to Life with My Sister Madonna. The singer did not find out about the book being published until Ciccone had asked their father for family pictures. She immediately emailed Ciccone to call her which he refused. Back-and-forth conversations happened between both parties which escalated to Madonna's legal representatives trying to stop the book being published. Simon Spotlight Entertainment sold the book blindly to the retailers, with the expectation that it would create a media uproar for the contents and the nature of the memoir.

Critical response

Life with My Sister Madonna received mostly negative reviews from book critics. Barbara Ellen from The Observer called it a "missed opportunity" at writing a "misery memoir" by naming it "Sissie Dearest". She believed that Ciccone could have gone all the way in writing about details that no one knew, instead chose to reflect unsuccessfully on his relationship with Madonna. Ellen ended the review saying that the book is in actuality "an overlong, unintentionally hilarious essay on one brother's obsessive envy and resentment of his flawed but talented famous sister". John Grace from The Guardian parodied Ciccone and Leigh's writing style that as he had "no sense of self and even less insight, that's totally beyond me. So I've settled for bitching about that mediocre diva whom I adore really". Writing for The Daily Telegraph, John Preston noted that the failure of the book was portraying Ciccone's inability to move past his obsession with Madonna and resulted in the writing being insincere. Preston added: "Is it all true? It sounds plausible enough—all apart from one thunderous piece of self-delusion. 'Any bitterness I had once felt for my sister has long since evaporated,' writes in conclusion. I don't think so. Percolated maybe, fermented certainly, but evaporated – never." A similar review was given by Lee Randall from The Scotsman who also added that "while this book is nothing if not self-serving, Ciccone does stop and examine his own ignoble behaviour and motives."

Alex Altman from Time noted that the memoir was focused less on Madonna but rather on Ciccone's life described by himself as the singer's "doormat". Altman found that ultimately the publication was relegated to offering "a peek at a man still grappling with his sister's dizzying fame". Giles Hattersley from The Times commended Ciccone's desire to release a tell-all memoir, but criticized that he failed to do so ultimately since majority of the release pandered to the author's own bitterness at never having been able to best Madonna. Nathan Rabin from The A.V. Club found the book to follow the general theme of tell-all releases by someone bitter with Ciccone laying "out the case against his sister in a prosecutorial fashion", while involving their dead mother at any chance he got. Rabin panned the book saying that Ciccone implied their mother to be "horrified at Madonna's debauchery, but would feel proud her gay son wrote a book that prominently features him snorting cocaine with various super-celebrities". Susanah Cahalan from New York Post was mixed in her review, pointing out the highlights of the book as when Ciccone described the enmity he felt for Madonna's husband Guy Ritchie, by painting him as a homophobe. She noted that by the end, the writing became more melancholic.

An article in New York opined that Ciccone would probably gain from selling the book by reiterating the same content that is known about the singer. The writer was disappointed that the book did not present any unknown fact about Madonna. Nicholas Fonseca from Entertainment Weekly gave the book a rating of C+, and felt that although the book had some "surreally humorous life-in-a-bubble moments", it was counterbalanced by the authors' attempt to "psychoanalyze" Madonna, "a ludicrous exercise given that she is already the most overexposed woman of her generation". Molly Friedman believed that Life with My Sister Madonna only helped to enhance Madonna's reputation as a "bad girl", which was missing from the singer's repertoire for a long time. Friedman found that the so-called revelations promised by Ciccone in the book, appeared to be quite tame compared to the contemporary celebrity culture observed.

Commercial reception and aftermath

With an initial print-run of 350,000 copies, the memoir went on to sell only 35,000 copies according to Nielsen BookScan. It debuted at number two on The New York Times Best Seller list dropping to number seven by its third week. In the United Kingdom it reached the top of the best-selling book charts. Following the release, Madonna's representative Liz Rosenberg told the Associated Press that the singer was upset that Ciccone released a book based on her life and chose not to read it. Rosenberg clarified Madonna's realization that their relationship was damaged irreparably. She believed that the release of the book ended any chance of the siblings having any close relationship ever. Ritchie also commented regarding accusations by Ciccone about him being a homophobe, saying: "I don't make anything of the book. The poor chap wrote it out of desperation. I don't think it'd be intelligent to comment on that. I can't give too much equity in what the chap's gonna write in that book. But you'd be hard pushed to be a homophobe and marry Madonna."

References

1. ^ Cahalan, Susanah (July 20, 2008). "Life With My Sister Madonna by Christopher Ciccone". New York Post. Retrieved July 23, 2018. Cite error: The named reference "true" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
2. ^ Boshoff, Allison (October 29, 2011). "Addiction, deceit and eight siblings divided by fame... What happened to Madonna and Anthony's other siblings". Daily Mail. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
3. "Madonna's brother to publish book on life with her". Reuters. June 12, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
4. Adejobi, Alicia (August 3, 2017). "Madonna's brother Christopher Ciccone defends tell-all: 'I could have written how horrifying she is'". International Business Times. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
5. ^ Sawyer, Miranda; Agar, Gordon (January 4, 2009). "The interview: Christopher Ciccone". The Guardian. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
6. ^ Iley, Chrissy (July 20, 2008). "Madonna's worst nightmare". Irish Independent. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
7. ^ Wayne, George (July 2008). "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?". Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
8. ^ Morgan, Spencer (July 22, 2008). "Oh Ciccone! Chance Collision With Madonna's Not-So-Buff Bro". The Observer. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
9. ^ Friedman, Roger (August 15, 2008). "Writer: Madonna, Guy Separated in '03". Fox News. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
10. Hines, Ree (June 24, 2008). "Madonna's brother enjoyed seeing her squirm". Today. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
11. Malone, Noreen (July 17, 2008). "Blind Reading: Why would booksellers buy a title without knowing anything about it?". Slate. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
12. Ellen, Barbara (July 7, 2008). "Sissie Dearest: a brother-sister spat". The Observer. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
13. Grace, John (July 22, 2008). "Life With My Sister Madonna by Christopher Ciccone". The Guardian. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
14. Preston, John (July 27, 2008). "Life with my sister Madonna: a venomous outburst of brotherly love". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
15. Randall, Lee (August 9, 2008). "Book review: Life with my sister Madonna". The Scotsman. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
16. ^ Altman, Alex (July 14, 2008). "Life with My Sister Madonna". Time. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
17. Hatterley, Giles (July 20, 2008). "Life With My Sister Madonna by Christopher Ciccone with Wendy Leigh". The Times. Retrieved July 23, 2018. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |subscription= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)
18. Rabin, Nathan (March 30, 2010). "Life With My Sister Madonna by Christopher Ciccone". The A.V. Club. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
19. "Tomorrow, Christopher Ciccone Will Make Millions Telling Us Things We Already Know". New York. July 14, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
20. Fonseca, Nicholas (July 18, 2008). "Life With My Sister Madonna". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
21. Friedman, Molly (July 8, 2008). "Christopher Ciccone's Tell-All Only Serves To Reestablish Madonna's Sorely Missed Bad Girl Rep". Gawker. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
22. "The New York Times Best Sellers: Hardcover Non-fiction". The New York Times. August 3, 2008. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
23. "The New York Times Best Sellers: Hardcover Non-fiction". The New York Times. August 17, 2008. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
24. "Madonna, Carla Bruni, Spike Lee". The New York Times. July 11, 2008. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
25. "Guy on Madge's bro". Cosmopolitan. August 26, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2018.

External links

Template:Misplaced Pages books

• Life with My Sister Madonna at ChristopherCiccone.com
• Life with My Sister Madonna at Simon & Schuster
• Excerpt: Life with My Sister Madonna at ABC News
• Warren, Sean and the great 'Daddy Chair' dilemma at Khaleej Times

• 2008 books
• American biographies
• American memoirs
• Biographies about actors
• Biographies about businesspeople
• Biographies about musicians
• Biographies about writers
• Books about Madonna (entertainer)
• Show business memoirs