Date: May 15, 2025
Author: Cher
Title: Cher: The Memoir Part One
As you may guess, this is Cher’s memoir of being a musical talent in the age of peace and free-ranging love. She describes in moving prose her poor upbringing, which led her down a path to meet all the right people that then opened the door for her to walk through and out the other side as a rich and famous icon.
Fun and sad fact p. 112, ‘I was shocked when I learned that during my childhood, it was illegal to be gay. In some states if you were branded a “moral or sexual pervert,” you could be sterilized or sent to jail.’ I too am shocked today! I had known that people in that time period used to be committed to the local sanitarium, but had no idea they could be sterilized as well.
I got about halfway through and felt the writing became monotonous. Dropping one famous name after another, out buying more clothes, singing another song, meeting more famous people buying a house buying more clothes more traveling singing another song meeting more famous people being told how amazing they were traveling buying more clothes more famous people another song and on and on and so forth. (Insert deep breath here)
I’ve never been impressed by name droppers and I’m a minimalist and only shop thrift stores if I can get away with it. Sorry Cher, I gave this a better than best college try because I wanted so badly to love this book. And I did. At first.