Times Leader

Learning about Mariah Carey, through her own words

I’m not sure why I chose this book. I suppose I thought it would be entertaining. I’ve never been a true Mariah Carey fan per say, but I certainly know how talented she is. Maybe I wanted the book to debunk the public opinion of Mariah being called a “diva” and being categorized as so many celebrities are. I also saw Mariah on a well-known morning show, and then realized later that it was a rerun from a year ago! Oh well, I still read the book anyway and it kept me engaged.

I had no idea of Mariah’s past, upbringing, marriage, and relationships other than I knew she had twin boys with Nick Cannon and that her famous Christmas song has been played millions of times over and over. That’s about it.

Mariah tells the story of her upbringing in Long Island, NY, with a white mother and a Black father in the seventies, and a tumultuous family story it is. Mariah struggles with her relationships with her older siblings and deals with the complexities of going through her parents’ divorce. Mariah also struggled with her identity due to her skin color and where she fit in.

She experiences bullying and frequent moving around while her mother searches for jobs, new boyfriends, etc. Her mother was an incredibly talented singer in her own right, Juilliard trained. She recognized Mariah’s talent early on and started pulling her into circles that helped her hone her skills. When it came down to it, however, Mariah’s success was due to her own talent and tenacity as a young woman.

So, not the best childhood with a lot of strange situations and tough times. At 18 she meets music mogul Tommy Mottola, gets signed to Sony Music, marries Tommy, many years her senior. The next few years brings fortune and fame to Mariah, locked behind the gates of an upstate NY mansion. That marriage lasted seven years and finally, after that time Mariah started to feel free and live her life.

Up to this point, the rags to riches story unfolds, but it is here, where I saw that Mariah was truly pouring out her heart and soul into the book. She shares exactly what she was feeling and thinking about her short-term relationship with Derek Jeter. For me, that was the changing point of the book and I started to understand and appreciate her story.

The book continues to follow along her career, the ups and downs, how she met Nick Cannon and about motherhood to her twin boys.

I recommend the book despite my original hesitation. I loved the music references and meeting musical talent through Mariah’s eyes. I think it also debunked some of my thoughts about celebrities and their behaviors. We think we know everything about a celebrity because we see them on TV or read a newsbyte, but really, we know nothing about their personal circumstances unless they share it with us. Good lesson to be learned.

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Kerry Miscavage is publisher of the Times Leader Media Group. She writes About Books with her mother, Jacquie O’Neil.