Rating: Summary: Excuses, excuses Review: This started off to be a very good autobiography. A young girl, abused, and neglected, coerced into a sordid, degrading business, the center of a huge controversy, and triumphantly turning her life around. But somewhere in between all this, I was looking for some type of growth, healing, self-discovery, which would include accepting responsibility for her own choices and actions and being candid about those choices and actions. In telling of her early childhood and the abuse, poverty, and neglect she suffered, Traci seemed very candid and open. Then when it got off into her entry into pornography, everything became cloudy, glossed over, or somebody else's fault, and it remained that way until the end. At no point, even during all her years of psychotherapy and healing and self-discovery, did she ever admit any wrongdoing or take any responsibility. I do believe Traci was victimized, but I also believe that at some point she began victimizing herself. She blames the porn industry for exploiting her, but she was the one who presented a fake ID. She was the one who was in control of her last released flick, yet she allowed it to be released and collected royalties off it. If she was so used and abused, why would she allow the one movie in her control to be released? Because the porn industry was a choice that she made, a choice that she profitted off of, and continues to still. She may have been coerced into the busines as a young teenager, but she wasn't forced to stay in it. She chose to stay in it. Like many people, Traci made bad decisions in her life, but what I was looking for was a more deep, insightful look into why, and also a more clear picture of what turned her life around. To me, this book is a lot of finger pointing, excuses, and tooting her own horn.
Rating: Summary: a girl becomes a woman! Review: This was a surprisingly good, surprisingly interesting book! I must expect I started reading it expecting trashy behind-the-scenes adult industry stories. TOTALLY not what this book is. Traci tells her whole story with shocking candor and honesty and detail. What emerges is a rather typical story of an abused teenage girl from midwestern ghettos moving to California and falling into nude modeling and porn films. But far from trashy pornographic stories Traci deals with things truthfully and to the point. In fact her career in the adult industry takes up a TINY FRACTION of the book. Most of the story is how she got there and how she got out and where she is now. Which all makes for better stories than anything her drugged-out, overhyped days in porn could produce. She really is a remarkable woman not just in spite of her traumatic childhood but because of it. You can tell the personal work that she's gone through to become who she is today - very ambitious, persevering, and wise-beyond-her-years. My only problem with the book is that, naturally, Traci takes a very rigid stance against the adult industry and refuses to believe it can be anything but the pool of drugs and abuse she got into. Which of course is what happens when a teenager, barely 16, gets into an ADULT business. But aside from Traci's expected scorn for porn the book and she were VERY impressive.
Rating: Summary: Hoping to get mine autographed Review: Traci Lords does a decent job of telling her life story. I was outraged reading about the way she was used and abused as a child. I have a lot of sympathy and even admiration for her. She was able to overcome a miserable past and become a moderate success in show business. She has an interesting story to tell, and you may enjoy reading it. It is not that well written, but then again she is not a professional writer.
Rating: Summary: Some Insights Into A Person's Life Review: Traci Lords has proven to be versatile, articulate, and successful in promoting her current career. She has claimed several times prior and in this book, that she was a "victim." The evidence from all of the sources including her, and legal affidavits, is: Lords turned this entire intentional scheme of hers to her own advantage in the beginning, middle, and aftermath. There's nothing wrong with what she voluntarily chose to do. When she got pinned, her best avenue was to point fingers, and play off of that. No one is buying that line. She was then and still is, cunning and crafty. That is why she is somewhat successful today, having appeared in a couple of high profile movie roles. All the best to her. However, I believe she needs to get rid of the rationalization and defense mechanisms that pepper this book. She used. She abused. She profited. It's as simple as that. She was going to get caught, so she dropped the dime on herself. After she got busted for what she--she alone--did, she then released a pornographic video after the age of 18, with her as the sole controlling beneficiary of the royalties. Nothing wrong with this, but be straight up about it. Ever since she cost the adult industry millions of dollars, and ruined many honest people, she comes out with her new persona: the clean and straight Traci Lords. She still uses this porn name for her website, books, and T.V. interviews. She's riding off of the wave she intentionally started years ago, and is still profiting off of it today. This is OK. I just hope people would see behind the lines, and Tracy Lords would admit to her ultuerior motives. Then I'd respect her.
Rating: Summary: Triumphant Tale of a True Survivor! Review: Traci Lords joins Cher & Tina Turner in the Superstar Survivor department! Many celebrity autobiographies begin with the obligatory chilldhood background story, but never was it as essential as in Traci's book. Growing up poverty stricken in a violent household and mistreated by classmates, boys, and worst of all her parents, her descent into the world of pornography isn't really all that shocking. In desperate times people do desperate things and posing for Penthouse at age 15 is about as desperate as one can get. The wild years of Traci's porn past have been told repeatidly, but never by her. Finally she has her say on the matter and tells all as to why she did what she did, not that she should even have to explain her self in the first place. But be glad she did. UNDERNEATH IT ALL is a terrific book that I read from cover to cover in one day. The sex and drugs years may be the meat of the book that attracts the curious, but the heart of the book is in how Traci struggled through the "legit" industry of Hollywood to overcome her past. And she certainly has. Traci has already proven herself as a decent actress and most interestingly as a club diva (her excellent CD "1000 Fires" still lands in my CD player quite often), but now she can add "author" to her resume' as there is no 'ghost writer' credited in the book. A rarity for a celebrity autobiography. There will never be anything written about Traci Lords that doesn't mention her porn past, but thanks to her growing resume' that includes top notch gigs on "Melrose Place", "First Wave", and "Roseanne" as well as John Water's classic film "Cry Baby", the media will be hard pressed not to give her a few extra paragraphs of space when reporting on her career. Traci is only 35, thus UNDERNEATH IT ALL only wraps up the first chapter in her life. If the worst has already happened to her, imagine the great possibilities Traci's future holds. A truly inspirational tale that proves that there can be a happy ending for anyone, no matter how rock bottom one's life has become.
Rating: Summary: Sensational On Purpose Review: Traci Lords may seem like an unlikely girl to write a brilliant novel but she has done just that. The hook is that she has everyone second-guessing "What is True and What is Not?" And guess what? She is laughing all the way to the bank. It's the same formula that Rikki Lee Travolta used writing "My Fractured Life" which has to be one of the best books in the past 5 years. It makes perfect sense that Traci has the same success with the same formula. It worked for Travolta and Traci is a smart enough girl to know that if a system ain't broke don't go trying to fix it. It's sensationalism in written form and it's great.
Rating: Summary: Half of a Perfect Duo Review: Traci Lords: Underneath it All is a good half of the story of Hollywood. It has patches and holes. What's there is great. It needs more though. I bought Amazon's package of Traci Lords: Underneath it All together with Rikki Lee Travolta's My Fractured Life and they are perfectly matched. Together they provide the full story of the nastiness of Hollywood. Traci came in the business as an underaged porno princess. Rikki came in as the illegitimate child in a famous family. Together they saw the splendor of sexual and drug temptations from different prospectives. Both succeeded in the end, against the odds. That alone is amazing and shows the champion spirit of these two writers and actors. I suggest you buy the package because the books really compliment each other and it is by reading them together you get the whole picture of Hollywood.
Rating: Summary: Not an expose of the porn world Review: Underneath It All is not a behind the scenes look at the porn world. It is a story of a woman who had a very rough life and has managed to pull herself up. There is no "graphic" details of the porn industy. However she does go into some detail of how various people took advantage of her, of drug addiction, of a very unhappy childhood, and how she worked to overcome and make something of herself.
Rating: Summary: You got to be kidding right? Review: When I first saw this book in the store I almost laughed myself to tears. I flipped through it half expecting it to be a coloring book. In any other country Miss Lords would starve, but here in America she is a porn star, actress, singer, exercise and fitness spokesperson, and now author? Come on already.
I remember Traci from my adult film collection I had in the 80's. Of course when everyone found out she was 16, all her movies disappeared from the shelves. Then when she turned 18 she made the now impossible to find 'Traci I love you' video which has one of the most hardcore gang bang ever filmed.
She went on to make terrible B movies and her greatest claim to fame as an 'actress' was in STephen King's made for TV movie 'TommyKnockers'. You may also remember her from a few episodes of Married...with Children' which featured quite a few porn stars.
After buying and reading this book as a joke, I realized Traci is as thin and one dimensional as the paper her story is written on. She is a complete airhead who expects everyone to give her whatever she wants. If she had any talant or at least a personality it would be understandable, but she has none of these. I can't really feel any sympathy for a girl who is eating in the cafeteria at high school and all the boys know her from adult magazines.
Traci you are the American Dream. Few have done so much with so little
Rating: Summary: A review Review: When I saw Crybaby for the first time, a friend told me that Traci used to be a former porn star and centerfold model and I was suprised she made the transition from porn star to an actress in A movies and not just B movies, having a background like that. Here and there I'd catch bits and pieces about her and the things that she had gone through but really knew nothing about her. I was reading a magazine one day that had a review of her book with an excerpt as well, and it caught my eye, especially since the magazine gave the book a pretty good rating. I still have a few pages left to finish, but I pretty much get the gist of what's going to happen in the end. The book is an easy, quick read, and sometimes it was hard for me to set down. A lot of the times I found that some parts/chapters could have been left out of her tale, but all in all it's a decent book, entertaining and even captivating at times. People who know a lot about her probably wouldn't enjoy this book, but for others who only know a little about Traci and would like to know more, this is something to read.
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