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A review by jonscott9
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
3.0
I read a few days after finishing this that Britney Spears has tapped Charli XCX among others to write for her next album, her first in nearly a decade. That helped with the persistence feels of ick to anger that I got throughout. It seems for 80% of this retelling that my 1981 baby hardly had a chance.
Yes, there are two (or twelve) sides to most books, though you have to believe her here – and through her remarks to the American courts over time – that her father Jamie Spears is an awful person. (Her mom Lynne and sister Jamie Lynn don't fair much better, though brother Bryan gets a pass most of the time while seeking to carve out a purpose and life for himself outside of their father's desires.) Conservatorships can be right, and can be wildly wrong. Capitalizing on her fame and wealth, he squeezes his daughter for more, in a way different from Amy Winehouse's father or other dreadful parents in the arenas of art, sport, entertainment and more. So tragic.
She's candid here about her own shortcomings and failures, and how she felt failed by men in her life, both her father and her loves like J.Tim and K.Fed. She may have longevity to go with her stamina, though, as we don't hear much from those guys these days.
Passing ruminations on Christina Aguilera, Madonna, Ryan Gosling, Keri Russell, Paula Cole (really) and others come and go as more than name-dropping in some cases. The cults of celebrity and money that Britney entered became her parents' drugs of choice, even as she states she never did hard drugs.
It was poignant to hear her (through a powerful narrator) talk about some of the headline-catalyzing moments, such as various paparazzi skirmishes when she was behind the wheel of a car with her kid on her lap to the notorious head-shaving incident. (It makes me wish she could have a conversation about that hair statement with Sinead O'Connor, whose memoir I am listening to next. Alas. Different kinds of tragedies in the public eye.)
There aren't a lot of other memorable moments in the writing, and I think I'd have been bored if straight-up reading it. Even so, about that narrator: The delivery by Oscar-winner Michelle Williams makes this an audio-breeze, an enhanced, captivating memoir. She lent a lot of gravity to the proceedings, and I'd be surprised if she doesn't get Grammy nominated for it. May Britney hand her the statuette, or at least be seated beside her. My take for some others involved in this recollection is simply this: Karma, do your thing.
Yes, there are two (or twelve) sides to most books, though you have to believe her here – and through her remarks to the American courts over time – that her father Jamie Spears is an awful person. (Her mom Lynne and sister Jamie Lynn don't fair much better, though brother Bryan gets a pass most of the time while seeking to carve out a purpose and life for himself outside of their father's desires.) Conservatorships can be right, and can be wildly wrong. Capitalizing on her fame and wealth, he squeezes his daughter for more, in a way different from Amy Winehouse's father or other dreadful parents in the arenas of art, sport, entertainment and more. So tragic.
She's candid here about her own shortcomings and failures, and how she felt failed by men in her life, both her father and her loves like J.Tim and K.Fed. She may have longevity to go with her stamina, though, as we don't hear much from those guys these days.
Passing ruminations on Christina Aguilera, Madonna, Ryan Gosling, Keri Russell, Paula Cole (really) and others come and go as more than name-dropping in some cases. The cults of celebrity and money that Britney entered became her parents' drugs of choice, even as she states she never did hard drugs.
It was poignant to hear her (through a powerful narrator) talk about some of the headline-catalyzing moments, such as various paparazzi skirmishes when she was behind the wheel of a car with her kid on her lap to the notorious head-shaving incident. (It makes me wish she could have a conversation about that hair statement with Sinead O'Connor, whose memoir I am listening to next. Alas. Different kinds of tragedies in the public eye.)
There aren't a lot of other memorable moments in the writing, and I think I'd have been bored if straight-up reading it. Even so, about that narrator: The delivery by Oscar-winner Michelle Williams makes this an audio-breeze, an enhanced, captivating memoir. She lent a lot of gravity to the proceedings, and I'd be surprised if she doesn't get Grammy nominated for it. May Britney hand her the statuette, or at least be seated beside her. My take for some others involved in this recollection is simply this: Karma, do your thing.