Cher's voice is instantly recognisable - that signature heartbreaker, contralto, capable of conveying defiance, vulnerability, and world-weary wisdom within a single lyric. An actress and songstress blessed with a super voice. In "Cher: The Memoir Part One," that same soaring voice leaps off the page, unfiltered, unapologetic, and utterly compelling. This isn't a ghostwritten celebrity puff piece; it's Cher herself, wielding a pen like a scalpel, dissecting her fated journey from awkward outsider to Hollywood Hall of Famer with startling down-to-earthness.
Reviewed by Raihan Kabir Prince
The memoir's greatest strength lies in its raw and real portrayal of Cher's future-chasing struggles, showing that there is no off switch for talent. Cher, born Cherilyn Sarkisian, vividly recounts the profound loneliness and instability of her childhood in California, especially the retro ones from the fifties - a timeline marked by her beautiful homesteading mother, Georgia Holt and largely absent father. We see the beginning of her fierce independence and work ethic, forged not through privilege, but the ruling realities of everyday life. It feels like there's a connection, as if her struggles are presented more as a lived experience than as a narrative requirement, making it easy to truly immerse yourself in her journey.
Part One gives a zoomed in view of her early stardom: the roller coaster rise and the firetrap of fame, often painful, opening partnership with Sonny Bono, who emerges as the change agent - the shrewd businessman and sidekick songwriter who recognised her as a starlet of today, but a star of tomorrow, when others saw only eccentricity. She extra credits him for shepherding her career and recounts their celebration of arts and ideas and theirshared hustle in the grueling early days of multi-hour recording and touring spread across countless states and cities. Yet, she doesn't shy away from the patriarchal control he exerted, both professionally and personally. The memoir details the emotional manipulation that characterized much of their hate-filled marriage. It's a powerful, often a strict slice of reality, and dissection of a celebrity relationship that was simultaneously the means of her success and an iron trap she desperately needed to escape.
The book is a big old dose of emotional baggage crammed with heart-centric stories of how she met the legendary Elvis Presley, her high fashion experiments that horrified network executives and sharp observations about the music industry, including the high-rolling Hollywood in the 70s& 80s.
"Cher: The Memoir Part One" is a triumph of self-narration. It speaks right to the heart and transcends the typical celebrity biography by offering unflinching emotional pining. Cher lays bare her vulnerabilities, her missteps, her failings, her innate sense of creativity, and her unwavering will. She writes with her signature sense of humor, crystalline honesty, and slightly bruised idealism that has lifted audiences sonically for six decades. While the story ends as her solo career begins to draw whoops and whistles and her marriage to Sonny fractures irreparably,it leaves no doubt that her strong-willed nature and freewheelingspirit were the true source of her power, going far beyond the bright lights and bold costumes. This isn't just the story of how Cher became an unlikely superstar; it's the story of how Cherilyn Sarkisian fought, scraped, loved, lost, and ultimately began to win and make every heartbeat count-that's the poetry of her life. It's a dazzling, deeply human opening act, leaving us eagerly awaiting the next volume of this extraordinary life, told definitively in her own unforgettable voice.
