Madonna: A Rebel Life

Biographer Gabriel (Ninth Street Women) fastidiously captures the four-decade-plus career of a boundary-pushing star “who spoke her truth, took shit for it, and kept standing.” Ever since her childhood in Michigan, Madonna nurtured a love of music and performance, influenced by Detroit’s thriving Motown scene and such “revolutionary” pop girl groups as the Shirelles and the Shangri-Las. In 1978, at age 19, Madonna moved to New York City with $35 in cash and dreams of a dancing career, but later began pursuing music, first performing as the front woman of the band the Breakfast Club, and then going solo in 1982 after she was signed by Sire Records. From the start of her career, Madonna was fueled by an overwhelming determination to do and be more: “I always remembered Madonna as never being happy,” one friend recalls. “She always seemed like she was so impatient to move ahead.” That grit paid off with such early successes as 1984’s Like a Virgin, which debuted to scathing critical reviews but rave audience responses and went platinum after only three months, with three million album copies sold. Drawing on extensive research, Gabriel paints a satisfyingly nuanced portrait of a trailblazing musician who never shied from controversy, whether the issue was her “corsets and push-up bras and garter belts” that scandalized fans and enraged feminists or her 1980s advocacy for AIDS awareness. The singer’s myriad admirers won’t be disappointed. (Oct.)