Coming Home to Myself by Wynonna Judd, Patsi Bale Cox Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Coming Home to Myself
Book Review: Mixed Feelings
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this book on Kindle and was excited about reading it. It's a reflection of Wynnona's life and rather disappointing. I was especially interested in her account of The Judd's success, having already read Naomi's "Love Can Build a Bridge". Wynnona explains throughout the book her reasoning for her irresponsible and ungrateful behavior early in her career ~ and while claiming personal responsibility, she backhands her own mother throughout it. It's clear to see through the wordy smoke screen that she is resentful about her mother while all along claiming to care about her. The drunk driving conviction was hers alone and while stating how wrong she was for it, she puts her mother down in the next paragraph to detract from the seriousness of her own choices. Things her mother did in public that she says shamed both her and her sister Ashley are repeated again in this book. Wynonna is full of contradictions. 'Coming Home to Myself' reads like a pitiful veiled 'Mommy Dearest'.Book Review: Not an Interesting Person, Not an Interesting Memoir
Summary: 1 Stars
You may be fooled by the many positive reviews about this book, which I believe are mainly by Winona's hard-core fans. For fans, anything from their idol is interesting. However, if you are not a fan, you should skip this one.
We live in a time when ghost writers are available for any rich or famous personality to tell their stories. With their communication power, these books are sure to get a good audience. This is unfortunate, because now one doesn't need to know how to write, nor to have a good story to tell before publishing. I wonder how many great authors are still unknown for lack of opportunity to publish, while books about "stars" abound.
Wynonna's book has basically three parts:
1) Her crazy, gold digging mother destroys her childhood and adolescence by using her as a child singer in a country music career. Wynonna is basically a prop in her mother's show, what a doll is to a ventriloquist. She grows up without developing any maturity, insecure and codependent.
2) Wynonna as an adult is wildly successful. Because of her mother issues, she has weight problems, spends millions in an irresponsible lifestyle, and doesn't manage her life, her career nor anything else. She is a 30 year-old teenager. Monster mommy still stays in backstage, pulling her strings and manipulating her.
3) Wynonna is almost 40 (yawnnnn...) and finds a psychology clinic which helps her to have some very basic ideas about how to control her life. She marries a guy who is sane and helps her to have some (just a little) independence from monster mommy. Now she is free to enjoy her millions of dollars and millions of adoring fans.
It is very hard to empathize with Wynonna. She basically never had a problem in her life besides her mother. After 10 pages, the reader wants to scream: "get rid of the witch of mother ! It is all her fault !" But Wynonna can't see that.
Her mother is a calculating, super ambitious, manipulative witch who would sell her soul for some success. She absolutely controlled her daughter and destroyed her psychological development. However, Wynonna is so timid that she just refuses to deal with the subject for 40 years. Even in this book, which is supposed to be the tale of her liberation from mom, she just can't face the very clear fact that her mother is a bad person. I know it is hard to say that about your mother, but then, if you can't face it, why write the book after all ? It is just so hypocritical.
The other problem is that Wynonna's life is not inspiring. I like memoirs because we usually find there tales of courage, of exceptional trials or unusual situations. Wynonna's life, however, apart from the singing career which she doesn't detail nor analyze at all, is just boring. How can anyone sympathize with her problems, like not being able to control her spending millions of dollars in useless junk ? Or having people to do just anything for her? I wish I had those problems.
The psychological solutions she presents are also extremely basic, with techniques like "mirroring", where you just repeat back to them what the other people say, in order to improve communication. It sounds silly and artificial, the way Wynonna does. One would better buy psychologist Erick Erickson's books about these techniques.
Wynonna still lives the life of a teenager. She is one of those new age Christians (she even goes to Hindu ashram) who sees a super special meaning in everything that happens to her, regards her life as a "journey", sees her songs as "life altering works of art", her casual feelings as "elevated encounters with her inner self" (I am paraphrasing). She thinks too highly of herself and her experience. She really needs a reality check.
If you want a good biography of a female singer, buy one from Janis Joplin or Edith Piaf, that is the real thing.
Book Review: Overall A Good Book
Summary: 4 Stars
There were some interesting stories and lessons to learn from Wynonna's book. She's had the same relationship and financial challenges and struggles with herself that many other people do, just on a bigger scale. So there's definitely something to gain from reading this. She tends to go on too long with certain stories to prove her points, but it's still a good read overall. Very much worth the purchase, especially if you're a Judd fan. Cool insights into their world.Book Review: Wasn't a fan before picking up this book...
Summary: 4 Stars
Knowing I'll read just about any biography, my mother picked this up for me. I can't say I know a single Judds song, but I am a songwriter and am generally interested in anyone's story in the music business.
That being said, I found Ms. Judd's book to be a pleasant surprise. Unlike so many celebrities, she isn't the least bit self-congratulatory. Her love for music comes through loud and clear, more than any attachment to financial success or celebrity. She is very open about her at times-strained relationship with her mother and her equally-famous sister Ashley. She has no problem calling it like she sees it.
Though at times the blow by blow descriptions of her counseling can get tedious, I still applaud her for speaking so frankly and honestly. The reader gets the sense that she truly is speaking from the heart in an attempt to help others struggling with similar issues (family, financial choices, weight), and not merely trying to sell books.
I'm now going to backtrack and buy some of her music. I think that says something about her storytelling. :)
Book Review: Wynonna does the next right thing.
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this book to be fun,a relaxing read. I love the way she comes off as a person not just a famous person. This is a book about real life- human issues that we all deal with. Bravo. Wynonna is a great role model for generations to come and generations right now!