Books for February

CHER: The Memoir, Part One
by Cher (HarperCollins, £25)

Gripping, honest and funny, Cher’s memoir (dedicated to her beloved mother Georgia) hurtles along at breakneck speed, covering her erratic early life and the ups and downs of her career. Her Armenian father, John Sarkisian, a slickly handsome heroin addict, gambled away his truck business before abandoning the family. Struggling to survive, Georgia, a stunning beauty with a powerful voice, left Cher (born Cheryl) in a children’s home run by harsh nuns, paying for her keep with earnings from singing in all-night diners and as a film extra.

A self-confessed ‘smartass’ teenager, Cher secretly borrowed her mother’s car and ran wild in Los Angeles. She was just 15 when 25-year-old Warren Beatty first kissed her. Some of the book is dark, particularly Georgia’s constant lack of awareness about men – she was married five times before Cher was 16 and seven times in total (twice to John). Each new man resulted in a new school, new friends and a new neighbourhood for her daughter.

Although ‘ballsy’ and determined, Cher also attracted manipulative men. She met her first husband, the singer Sonny Bono, aged 16, after applying to work as his cleaner – and was ‘dazzled’ by him. At the time Bono was an assistant to the record producer Phil Spector, and Cher ended up singing backing vocals for The Ronettes. The eccentric couple came to London after Mick Jagger suggested that Swinging London would ‘dig them’.

He was right: their 1965 single I Got You Babewas an immediate hit, knocking the Beatles off the top of the UK charts. The couple landed their own television show and seemed a picture of hippie bliss, but Cher remembers Bono as a ‘controlling’ man who insisted she wear ‘buttoned up clothes’.
Unsettling in places, there’s never a dull moment in this celebrity-strewn gem of a memoir.

Rebecca Wallersteiner

The Let Them Theory
by Mel Robbins (Hay House, £22.99)

Whenever many of us begin a new year we often fall into the trap of making unrealistic resolutions that fizzle out faster than a festive buck’s fizz. But what if we had the tools to manage our expectations and make subtle changes which, as the days progress, could drastically change our lives? It sounds too good to be true... until the last page of this book, when every word finally makes sense.

The ‘Let Them’ theory has been doing the rounds on social media for a while, but what does it mean? In Mel Robbins’s book we’re given two examples to follow: ‘Let Them’ is a decision to remain unfazed by other people’s behaviour (their opinions and moods) and ‘Let Me’ is when we take responsibility for the things we can control (our emotions).

Although a little repetitive at times, the author balances her teachings with real-life stories of vulnerability, weakness, and past failures that were lessons in disguise. In letting go, we can find our power. ‘Let Them’ should be everyone’s mantra in today’s chaotic world.

LS

LISTEN IN: HOW RADIO CHANGED THE HOME
by Beaty Rubens (Bodleian Library Publishing, £30)

It’s hard to think of anything that transformed home life more than radio, or the ‘wireless’ as it used to be called. The biggest change was in the lives of women, who in the early days of radio were primarily housewives. Now, instead of gossiping over the garden fence they could expand their horizons by listening to news, plays, comedy and concerts, and hear broadcasts from politicians such as Winston Churchill and even the King.

The output and variety were astonishing, even though the only national broadcaster, the BBC, offered just three stations: the Home Service (later Radio 4), the Light Programme (Radios 1 and 2) and the Third Programme (Radio 3).

Radio presenters, who all spoke with clipped received-pronunciation accents, became celebrities. Regional or working-class voices were relegated to comedy shows.

Although this magical device was originally a rich person’s toy, by 1935 practically every household had one. It also spawned a vast number of publications, from comics and listings magazines to more highbrow publications. Huge efforts were also made to turn these industrial-looking gadgets into aesthetic objects.

There is also a potted history of radio pioneers and their inventions in this highly illustrated book, which will appeal equally to radio anoraks and those who like to wallow in nostalgia.

Liz Hodgkinson

FALLING ROCKET: James Whistler, John Ruskin and the Battle for Modern Art
by Paul Thomas Murphy (Pegasus Books, £22)

Art critics can make or break an artist’s career. So when the renowned Victorian art critic John Ruskin viciously denounced James McNeill Whistler’s groundbreaking painting Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket as ‘simply a pot of paint thrown at a canvas’ in November 1878, the seething artist sued for libel. This scholarly book examines the ensuing trial between these two largerthan-life personalities, which raised questions still relevant today, such as should art have a moral function or does it exist for itself alone?

The painting, which depicts a fireworks display in Chelsea, is now a treasured possession of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Murphy writes: ‘The darkest and moodiest of Whistler’s “nocturnes”, it was as close to abstraction as had yet been ventured – but to Ruskin it appeared not as a beautiful picture, but as a chaotic confusion of brilliant dots against a dark background – not art, but a sensational aberration.’

Whistler decided to sue as much for publicity as for the damages. Both artist and critic were already famous in London, although they had, until 1877, managed to avoid each other. Whistler’s work experimented with new ideas, whereas Ruskin looked back to the Middle Ages. He never entered the witness box, as he was suffering from mental illness, so the artist Edward Burne-Jones testified on his behalf. Whistler, by contrast, entertained the court with his witticisms.

Although he won, the jury awarded Whistler a farthing, an insulting amount that made it clear they were equally sympathetic to Ruskin. Both men felt humiliated, but while Whistler’s career recovered, Ruskin was never the same again.

This fascinating book is a fresh and entertaining look at the changing art world towards the end of the 19th century

Rebecca Wallersteiner

The Last Days of Budapest: Spies, Nazis, Rescuers and Resistance, 1940-1945
by Adam LeBor (Head of Zeus, £27.99

In this outstanding book former foreign correspondent Adam LeBor’s sharp journalistic eye for detail is combined with a flair for storytelling, resulting in a rollercoaster narrative that has the reader on tenterhooks.

A sweeping look at Hungarian and European history, it delves specifically into the Second World War years (1940-1945). LeBor takes us on a journey into Hungary’s political complexities: from The Treaty of Trianon in 1920, when it lost two-thirds of its territory overnight, to its involvement in the Holocaust, including the country’s complicated allegiance with Nazi Germany. Describing the Hungarian people as ‘passionate’ and ‘tempestuous,’ it is a vivid and thorough exploration.

The heart of the book lies in the persecution of Hungary’s vibrant Jewish community, deported in a systematic ethnic cleansing to concentration camps, shot into the Danube or forced into Ghettos: ‘Hungary’s slide into darkness.’

LeBor is masterful in documenting the many resistance organisations. The Budapest Zionists’ document workshop, for example, produced tens of thousands of documents and identity cards, saving many lives, as did the heroic Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.

This important work is more than a history lesson: we are absorbed into the narrative and its colourful, real-life characters make it read like a spy thriller.

EF

More book reviews in the February issue and month editions of The Lady Magazine.
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