Super Star

A well written Bio of a true Super Star, lives have been enriched and is sadly missed artist RIP Karen ! 10/10

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1 person found this helpful

Don't read this if your heart breaks easily.

If this is true, then those Carpenters were one nutty crowd. No doubts there!
.

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Great book

Loved it . Found it a bit strange to begin with but later on was all about Karen

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There was so much I didn't know.

I am a huge fan of The Carpenters, and have watched and read a lot on them. this book shared information I was unaware of. Karen's life was even more tragic than I had realised, and her mother was even worse than I expected.
Excellent book.

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fantastic read

this was a great book and narrator was very easy to follow recommend this and listen to her songs with a renewed respective

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Sweet Angel Karen Carpenter

Beautiful but extremely sad book. Karen carpenter will be forever missed.. beautiful sweet Angel Karen

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A heartbreaking tale of a dysfunctional family...

Prior to starting this book I had just finished the excellent “Rise and Fall of The Third Reich” and thought that a story about the Carpenters, all ‘Mom’s Apple Pie’ and Church On Sunday, would be an interesting change of pace after 3 months in the company of Hitler, Goering, et al.

Boy, was I ever wrong…

The book paints a picture of a very dysfunctional family, presided over by a controlling, manipulative mother, Agnes Carpenter, who lives vicariously through her son Richard, and who is endlessly suspicious of all outsiders to the detriment of everyone else around, including her husband and their daughter, Karen. Agnes moves the family west from Connecticut to California in order to give Richard all the opportunities for his talent to blossom, and she talks only of Richard and how he is a musical genius. She even tells Karen, ‘Without Richard, there would be no Karen. Your brother is a genius and you must do everything to support him’

But as awful as Agnes most definitely is, equal villain of this sad story is Richard Carpenter, who allowed and often supported his mother’s bullying just so he could remain the centre of attention. And woe betide anyone who upsets that particular apple cart, as Neil Sedaka finds after he consistently brings the house down as the opening act for the duo during an engagement in Las Vegas, for which he finds himself fired by Richard. Sedaka, always the consummate professional, just sighs and quips “That’s the first time I got fired for playing well!”

The bullying and the familial manipulation continues when the band are on the road, and the book details a number of occasions where people who got in the way of the Carpenters juggernaut were simply thrown away, with no thought for who got hurt in the process. Friendships, Relationships, even Family; everything and everybody is sacrificed for the sake of Richard’s career.

But most people will buy this book to try and understand just what happened with Karen, and her losing battle with Anorexia. The erosion of her self-confidence by years of constantly being told she was second-best are undoubtedly a driving factor. And as Karen feels she has no control over her personal and professional life (and she really doesn’t, to an astounding degree), she exercises the only control she feels she still has, that being what she eats. Consequently years of dangerous dieting, strenuous touring schedules (over 150 shows a year on average), and mental bullying by the people she trusted finally came to a head, and her body just gave up. Such a tragic loss…

There’s a lovely section near the end of the book where Karen embarks on a solo recording project whilst Richard is recovering from ill-health and exhaustion. She flies to New York and teams up with producer Phil Ramone, who then introduces her to Billy Joel’s touring band, known to be one of the hardest working bands of the day. Over the ensuing weeks of recording Karen finds a whole new way of working that is exciting and fresh, as the band members and fellow artists Billy Joel and Paul Simon welcome her into their circle, enabling her to relax and have fun. She discovers a totally different approach to recording and really blossoms in the studio away from Richard’s control.

Narration by Cheryl Bentyne is first class, and keeps the listener engaged throughout

A highly recommended book, but be warned; you will never listen to the Carpenters music in the same way ever again.

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9 people found this helpful

Learnt some more

Heart breaking story. Information about her life garnered from close intimates and friends. From various television documentaries watched have heard same stories rehashed so good to learn Info from more reliable sources. Would recommend.

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Good Read!

Enjoyed it more than i thought i would. A good, very researched book. A very accurate account, detailing the good and the bad, in an informative way! I enjoyed it.

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Almost there

After scrutinising as much information about the Carpenters and their lives as I could get my hands on, and absorbing the inferences made by various people close to them, it seems to me that the truth is still out there and being censored.

The Richard and Karen relationship, and the constantly orbiting Agnes, creates a deeply disturbing narrative that is never fully analysed in any of the authorised accounts.

This is an interesting book, but will we ever be allowed to know the un-redacted story?

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