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Little Girl Blue: The Life Of Karen Carpenter (2010)

by Randy L. Schmidt(Favorite Author)

3.76 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1556529767 (ISBN13: 9781556529764)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Chicago Review Press

review 1: Singer Karen Carpenter became internationally famous in the 1970s as one half of the very successful brother-sister duo The Carpenters. Her voice had a unique timbre that made it instantly recognisable to any listener of soft rock, and was much admired by the public and her musical contemporaries alike. This biography, published in 2010, is the latest and probably the most honest of her life stories set down in print. Previous efforts glossed over the more unpleasant aspects, whereas this one is more candid, going into some detail about her unpleasant family life, with a dominant, overbearing mother, who doted on her son Richard, yet seemed to almost resent her daughter, and was extremely controlling of both her children's careers and personal lives. Eventually, Karen succ... moreumbed to the pressures of constantly touring, recording, and trying to please others, became anorexic before anyone really understood what that meant, and died at the young age of 32. Schmidt is never lurid, but is frank in his reporting of interviews with Karen's family, friends, and music business associates, and the reader is led to draw their own (fairly obvious) conclusions about Karen's eventual demise. He is an unpretentious writer, presenting his subject matter objectively, but still retaining warmth and compassion for Miss Carpenter's sad and difficult life. Both fans of the Carpenters and those interested in the history of pop music or pop culture will enjoy the book.
review 2: This was an okay look at the life of Karen Carpenter. It does not whitewash her illness but it still seems at times to be an overview of her career and not of her actual life. Perhaps since her parents have passed away it was able to be more even handed than other biographies mentioned in the book but having never read them I cannot confirm that this book reveals anything not previously known about Karen. less

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