tinac37's Full Review: Sharon Osbourne - Sharon Osbourne Extreme: My Auto...
extreme by sharron osbourne
I am a big fan of charity shops, I love bargains and having a good old rummage around however some times they are just full of junk and it's at time like this when panic. I feel so guilty if I don't want to buy anything and I don't want to walk out with out buying so I always look at the books and end up buying something ill probably never read.
This is what happened when I found the Sharron Osbourne autobiography. I love autobiographies and at a bargain £1.00 I had to buy it (if only to ensure I bought something)
I'll admit I knew very little of Sharron. I enjoyed the first series of The Osbourne's on MTV but soon got fed up with the shouting and arguing that happened on a daily basis. I did think that she seemed like a lively character and enjoyed her on X Factor but that was the extent of my knowledge on Mrs Osbourne so I read the book with no expectations.
The book starts as you imagine when Sharron is a small child and we learn all about her family, I had no idea who they were but it turns out her dad was a famous artists manager in his time managing bands like ELO and loving all things American, his name was Don Arden. Not only was he big in the music business but he was also a small time gangster who like to beat and bully any one who was in his way including is own family. (When he fell out with Sharron and her husband Ozzy he threatened them and their children) he had guns and an entourage of "heaveys" working for him and was not afraid to do what he felt had to be one. One story that shocked me was when he found that a member of house staff had been stealing from him he tried her to a chair wrapped a gold chain around his hand and repeatedly hit her in the face until she confessed.
Sharron's mother was ten years older then her father and put up with a lot, he would cheat on her and buy her beautiful expensive things then sell them when he had no money. This might explain why she too was a hard woman who could turn her feeling off.
Sharrons story is not what I expected, her father had tight rains on her and leaving his business was like leaving the mafia! She left with nothing, no money, no family connections, just the debt her father had accumulated in her name, which she was still paying off when The Osbournes was been filmed and we began to know who she was.
She spent a lot of time being over weight, penniless and pregnant with three children and three miscarriages.
I already feel like I have told too much of this story so ill stop with the commentary and start with my personal opinions.
This book is really well written, I don't know if she had a ghost writer or if she did it all herself but it flows really well. It keeps going back to present day and then back to the past but everything fits really well.
I love the fact that it has lots of swearing because that is what Sharron is famous for (well obviously not just the swearing) the dialogue is wonderful.
"You're a Jew, aren't you?"
I was completely dumbstruck. Ro me it was like saying 'so you like a bit of dick up the a**e, don't you?' "
"'Are you decent?"
'Of course not Mikey I make it a point to be positively IN decent' "
"Ozzy and ballet do not mix"
"And then I lifted up my skirt and I swatted down and shat on it"
I have read lots of autobiographies from Dave Ghrol to James Dyson to Princess Diana and I have never heard dialogue like it, it's wonderful.
I would no like to get on the wrong side of Sharron, she is one hard and mean lady. I love the raw truth she has but she also scares me a bit. Some of the things she has done and the way she handles things but I guess this is the way she has survived her whole life.
This is a woman who pee's her pants, poo's on things eats too much, cry's too much but also laughts alot and that shwy i loved it.
The book is a real page turner I read it in a few days and was truly captivated by all the events that unfolded throughout the book, birth death, attempted murder, hospitals, drugs, lots of house moves and lots of swearing.
I loved the book and if I was to make a criticism it would only be that I personally would have liked to hear more about her kids and how she felt when they hit highs and lows. But that is probably because im a fan of Jack Osbourne and admire everything he has done, (ill be the first to buy his life story when he writes it)
I know this is a relatively short review but I hate it when people write very long and boring reviews telling you everything just to knock up the word count so this is just a brief out line of the story and my personal opinions, I'd love to know what you thought of it so please feel free to leave me a comment.
As always thank you for reading.
Extreme - by Sharon Osbourne co writer - Penelope Dening
Published by Time Warner Books
ISBN 0-316-73131-5
£18.99 hardback also available in softback
Published in 2005
372 pages
22 chapters
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