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A review by imtashamonet
Who's That Girl?: A Memoir by Eve.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
I don't read memoirs often. I spend more time reading fiction, and it is rare that I pick up a memoir to read someone's true life story. Additionally, I feel a bit weird writing a review of a memoir because it's the story of someone's life. So, the review below is about the storytelling itself. With this in mind, please take my opinions below as a reflection of my experience as a reader, and not a judgment about Eve's life.
First, I appreciated that this was written in a way that is accessible. Often, I've found memoirs to read more like dissertations (and don't get me wrong, I can read those as I've written one myself), which is not enjoyable to me as a reader. Who's That Girl reads like a conversation with you and Eve. Well, it reads more as if Eve were in an extensive interview about her life, but, ultimately, the tone is conversational.
I do have to be honest. I picked up this book mainly because it's titled after one of my favorite songs by Eve and it really got me thinking about the fact that I truly do not know much about her. I'm not the type of person who really needs to know about the personal lives of celebrities, so my intention with reading this was really to see if the book would actually answer that question. Upon reading, it became apparent to me that the purpose of the book (at least, the way it functions in my mind) was more of Eve defining for herself "who's that girl". She opens the book discussing her name, it's meaning, and the way in which it shaped her early conceptions of who she was as a person. As you continue reading and learn more about Eve's experience, you see her grow and really come into the woman that defines her own experience and the way she moves within it.
Something that I appreciated about this book is that it wasn't written like a tell all kind of memoir that exposes the misdeeds of others. This truly was about Eve's experience and, while other people were mentioned, by name or not, the focus was on how Eve navigated it. With that said, if you're someone who wants a tell-all type of read, this is not the memoir for you. This is not an exposé. It truly is the telling of Eve's life as she sees it.
The story was told fairly linearly, but sometimes I struggled with the timeline of things. There were some times in the book when she'd go back a few years to tell a different part of a storyline and, while there isn't anything wrong with this form of storytelling, it took me a bit to figure out where in time we were in the story. This could also be due to the fact that Eve is a real person and I was attempting to reconcile the timeline with events I could remember as someone growing up while Eve was blowing up as an artist.
Ultimately, this is a quick and easy read that gives a bit more of Eve's perspective of her journey.
First, I appreciated that this was written in a way that is accessible. Often, I've found memoirs to read more like dissertations (and don't get me wrong, I can read those as I've written one myself), which is not enjoyable to me as a reader. Who's That Girl reads like a conversation with you and Eve. Well, it reads more as if Eve were in an extensive interview about her life, but, ultimately, the tone is conversational.
I do have to be honest. I picked up this book mainly because it's titled after one of my favorite songs by Eve and it really got me thinking about the fact that I truly do not know much about her. I'm not the type of person who really needs to know about the personal lives of celebrities, so my intention with reading this was really to see if the book would actually answer that question. Upon reading, it became apparent to me that the purpose of the book (at least, the way it functions in my mind) was more of Eve defining for herself "who's that girl". She opens the book discussing her name, it's meaning, and the way in which it shaped her early conceptions of who she was as a person. As you continue reading and learn more about Eve's experience, you see her grow and really come into the woman that defines her own experience and the way she moves within it.
Something that I appreciated about this book is that it wasn't written like a tell all kind of memoir that exposes the misdeeds of others. This truly was about Eve's experience and, while other people were mentioned, by name or not, the focus was on how Eve navigated it. With that said, if you're someone who wants a tell-all type of read, this is not the memoir for you. This is not an exposé. It truly is the telling of Eve's life as she sees it.
The story was told fairly linearly, but sometimes I struggled with the timeline of things. There were some times in the book when she'd go back a few years to tell a different part of a storyline and, while there isn't anything wrong with this form of storytelling, it took me a bit to figure out where in time we were in the story. This could also be due to the fact that Eve is a real person and I was attempting to reconcile the timeline with events I could remember as someone growing up while Eve was blowing up as an artist.
Ultimately, this is a quick and easy read that gives a bit more of Eve's perspective of her journey.