Even though I have long admired Karen Carpenter's lovely singing voice I really didn't want to buy or read the new biography about her. Way back in the mid-90s I read another book (
The Carpenters: The Untold Story by Ray Coleman) that somehow managed to sound sincere and exploitative at the same time. While Randy L. Schmidt is no doubt 100% sincere and about as far from sensationalistic as a writer can get, Little Girl Blue leaves me feeling so sad and as if everything I just finished reading was nothing more than a futile experience...like watching your favorite tear-jerker movie and expecting it to end differently.The bio is very well-written and Karen Carpenter emerges not only as the very talented and kind woman she was, but also as a funny and witty person who valued friendship and family over the shallow things celebrities sometimes embrace.
We learn of some of her many experiences in the recording studio and some of the things she liked (she was crazy about I Love Lucy), but it would have been neat to know more about those kinds of things...of course, it's possible that kind of info just wasn't available. The extensive notes and bibliography Schmidt include makes it clear that he is a first-rate researcher and worked very hard on this touching book.
2 comments:
Wasn't this one of the saddest books ever?? I've been a long time fan of The Carpenters, and reading about Karen's life and her relationship with her mother just broke my heart. It's definitely a great book though. Karen seemed like a truly wonderful person and it's a tragedy that her life was cut so short :(
It was! The more I think about the book, the more I realize that one of the most striking things about it is the author's respect for Karen and how thoughtful his approach in writing it was...in the wrong hands the book could have gone for the sensationalistic approach. Instead, we get a book that treats Karen as the intelligent, caring and very talented woman she was...and to think of all that her life could have been had she lived is doubly sad...
Post a Comment