Cher: the memoir signed

I remember the start of my Cher obsession like it was yesterday instead of over thirty years ago (ok, Granny, tell us more!). I would sneak my mom’s cassette case and pluck this cassette out –


Sometimes I would choose the Cocktail soundtrack to listen to “Kokomo” eleven million times, but it was usually this one. But I digress.

As I flipped that little cassette over and over and over, I belted my little heart out to things I wouldn’t understand for years and years. I was obsessed. I knew that some day when a small town dude with a big city attitude came struttin’ into town, I could take it because if this heart was gonna break, it was going to take a lot to break it.

Cher is an icon.


You know this. I know this. The scraggly stray mewing at your backdoor knows this.

So I was fully expecting in my face, balls to the wall diva.
And while she is a self-proclaimed diva, what we get here instead is vulnerability and transparency and insight.

It’s hard to explain complicated people, and everyone in my life seemed to be so complicated and fragile, always acting out—me included.

Now this is a memoir.

You know those “memoirs” where hardly anything is divulged, so you’re politely like, “Well, it’s their story to tell or not tell” but are secretly really disappointed because where the hell is all the good stuff?

Yeah, this is the opposite of that.

This book is only Part 1 (cue crazy fangirl screaming that there will be more memoir to read), so we are led up to around the late 1970s. There is a lot about Cher’s childhood, her relationship with Sonny, her children, her rise to fame and then a decline and then another rise (and so on and so on), and her post-Sonny relationships.

This woman has stories. There are some memoirs out there where they say what happened but not how they felt. There are others where they give scant details to what really happened but tell how they were feeling. Cher gives us both.

There are very specific details on music and fashion and decor and conversations and people. And she is a pro-name dropper! None of that “so and so who shall not be named” nonsense happening here. There are also photos - TONS of photos. I flipped to them dozens of times while reading because often the people she referred to were in the photos. And because I couldn't stop looking at her gorgeousness.

Cher is a no bs type of woman, and her voice is clear as a bell here. This doesn't sound like someone writing how they want to sound rather than just being genuine. It sounds exactly how she speaks, and I didn’t even listen to the audio version (although I did purchase it just to listen to this again in that format). She manages to sound sensitive, reflective, tough, and funny -

I was a huge Dylan fan and loved his writing, as did Sonny, although he never thought much of his voice, which was a bit rich coming from him.

- without ever seeming inauthentic or insincere.

Never in a million years would I have thought I’d find Cher relatable, but by the end of this I was convinced we were twins (insert my sister rolling her eyes here). Both of us are Taurus, both are lovers of classic movies and classic movie stars, both of us had marriages to charismatic (and less appealing qualities) men unravel. When she said these things, I felt it –

I was able to live with him because I compartmentalized my feelings and was used to censoring what I said and did around him. Since we’d been together since I was so young, I knew the rules and how I should behave not to cause any problems.

Sonny had given me expensive jewelry, but it always felt like a way to show other people the money he had, not something heartfelt for me.

. . . finally I went to Sonny and told him, “Son, I’m unhappy. I don’t know why, but I’m so sad.” He took a beat, then exploded. He yelled, “You’re so ungrateful. Do you want me to divorce you?” I was stunned. The first thing in my mind was I’m never going to tell you how I feel again.

But back to us being twins. While we both had a defining moment in our childhoods of watching The Wizard of Oz, I do not, unfortunately, have an amazing voice and millions of dollars. ☹ So semi-twins!

This is an amazing memoir. I’ll be hassling everyone to read it. I’d recommend it to fans and non-fans (what is wrong with you?!) alike. I CANNOT WAIT FOR PART 2!

5 Stars

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If I could turn back time, I would have known about this book before now.

Wait. Not releasing until November?
What am I supposed to do? Sit around and wait for you?

Well, I can do that.



I'm already obsessed.