The End of Innocence: A Memoir

Rating:
Summary: check your expectations at the door
Review: I think the only thing that could ruin this book is wrong expectations. I came into it thinking "Ooh a book by Cher's daughter! Cher is God so I should read it!" and when I found out it was about her lover Joan's battle with cancer I was like, "Aw, sad! This is gonna be depressing!"

neither expectation proved true!

By the end of the book I not only did I have a deep respect for Chastity Bono as her own person, not just Cher's daughter, but I was deeply inspired by the story and life of Joan! The book is really a very inspiring tale of love and life and everday, universal struggles (despite the fact its mainly about fame, the music industry, battles with cancer, and the struggles of lesbians). Its really a very triumphant book whose only fault is the fact that it was written by someone so young so the ending comes all too soon. I hope for a sequel!

Rating:
Summary: check your expectations at the door
Review: I think the only thing that could ruin this book is wrong expectations. I came into it thinking "Ooh a book by Cher's daughter! Cher is God so I should read it!" and when I found out it was about her lover Joan's battle with cancer I was like, "Aw, sad! This is gonna be depressing!"

neither expectation proved true!

By the end of the book I not only did I have a deep respect for Chastity Bono as her own person, not just Cher's daughter, but I was deeply inspired by the story and life of Joan! The book is really a very inspiring tale of love and life and everday, universal struggles (despite the fact its mainly about fame, the music industry, battles with cancer, and the struggles of lesbians). Its really a very triumphant book whose only fault is the fact that it was written by someone so young so the ending comes all too soon. I hope for a sequel!

Rating:
Summary: Left much to be desired
Review: I thought by reading this book, I could learn something from the journey Chastity has taken thru life. However, not much to learn here. Although I admire her love for Joan, there wasn't much to take away except the sense that I may have wasted my time and money.

Rating:
Summary: Boring.....
Review: I was really excited about reading about Cher's sexcapades over the years, all the men, all the wild times, to get to know the real woman who is the diva we all know as Cher. Who better to tell it than her daughter? All the reviews here talked about Chastity's "honesty." What a bust! Chastity was honest all right, honest about her own boring life. Who cares! There was hardly any content on Cher at all. At least she could have tossed in some Greg Allman stuff, or a few tid-bits on Rob Camiletti a/k/a the Bagel Boy. No! Not a word! All it was was some boring tale about Chastity's life as a lesbian. Sorry, that holds no interest for me. If you don't have any interest in Cher, this book is for you. Otherwise, stay away!

Rating:
Summary: Way Too Much Information
Review: i was so depressed closing this book it was unreal. i found her honesty admirable, but i also found too subtle and not so subtle self pity in most of her narrative of situations....the book was or could be somewhat confusing, and overwhelming, with the doe si doe recital of the lesbian history starting from her grandmothers time. chastity bono was a young woman, yes, but talk about a stunted childhood, or slow on the uptake maturing....she constantly put one girls needs (manipulations) before her own and let it affect her relationship with her true love, and she was just unanchored, flailing, weak. also, the graphic descriptions of joans illness? please, way too much information. horrible. real, yes. reality, sure, but did we need to hear explicit descriptions of every tube, every failing orifice, to get the points? NO WAY. perhaps being a breast cancer survivor colored my reaction to her detailed account of joans physical deterioration, but i found it very sad she felt it had to be that graphic. honesty is honesty but c'mon, couldn't she let the love of her life keep ANY of her DIGNITY even in death? NO. i felt she wrote all this just to show what SHE suffered through with joans suffering of cancer... i sure won't buy her 3rd book about her drug use. and am glad i got this copy of "loss of.....
total empathetic descretion".... for less than original price.

Rating:
Summary: It's her life...
Review: No better way to find out who Chastity Bono is than to read her story in her own words, written in her own way. It's not sugar coated and painted as a pretty picture. It doesn't focus on her Mother, and her life wasn't a fairy tail sort of life. Hers was a life full of struggles. A major one her relationship with Joan. Anyone else ever take care of someone with a terminal ilness? All when she was very young. The cancer patient gets the Morphine to dull their pain, and the shot to help them sleep, but their friend in the cot next to them gets nothing to dull their pain and fears, and nothing to help them through their many sleepless nights. At home, they give the shots and clean the bed sheets. The sad part is many do not get so much as a thank you, and the patient gets the flowers. That is not meant to take away from the patients suffering. But, what her book brings out is the fact that many times the care takers and loved ones are suffering because it is a hard and emotionally draining job, and for them there is no relief.

How else to give you a sense of who she was, other than to tell exactly what she was going through and how she felt, and ultimatly how she dealt with it all. It is not a feel good book. It's just an honest story and a quick read.

Rating:
Summary: A personal autobiography of great love, grief, & courage
Review: The End Of Innocence is the personal memoir of Chastity Bono, the daughter of the famous entertainment celebrities Cher and Sonny Bono. With the literary assistance of Journalist Michele Kort, Chastity Bono recounts her lesbian love and partnership with Joan Stephens, as well as the horror of watching the woman she loved succumb to non-Hodgkins lymphoma. The End Of Innocence is strongly recommended reading as deeply personal autobiography of great love, loss, grief, courage, and the will to live one's own life on one's own terms.

Rating:
Summary: Cheers to Chastity!
Review: This book is moving, honest, and real. I was suprised at how candid Chastity Bono was about her affair with Joan, who was 20-some-odd years her senior, and how she dealt with her lover's cancer diagnosis and eventual death. The book is filled with information about her "dyke dramas," as she calls them, and about the roller-coaster relationship she had with one of her female bandmates. Chastity Bono comes off as smart, funny, and warm in this heartwarming memoir that will leave you wanting more.