Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter

Unlike the recent 'biography' of Freddie Mercury, which made me angry with the laziness of the authors, this objective study of Karen Carpenter stirred different emotions - sadness, of course, but also frustration. I wanted to go back in time and smack her mother and brother's heads together for feeding Karen's demons and then doing nothing to halt the tragic spiral of self-doubt and self-harm that eventually killed her. For me, and I suspect for most people, Karen was the Carpenters, with her beautiful voice. Richard might have been a great pianist and composer - of other people's songs (I wasn't aware that nearly all of their catalogue of hits were covers or written by other lyricists - not a crime, but I'm a fan of Queen, who wrote show more all their own material) - but she was the star. To quote Richard, I am very much 'Team Karen' - he's probably not as black as he's painted, but he could have encouraged his sister instead of holding her back to further his own career. And Agnes, Richard and Karen's mother, was probably the original 'soccer mom' - for her son's benefit, at least. Horrible woman - the biopic was spot on.

Yes, the Carpenters were MOR, no, they didn't write original songs, yes, they got stuck in a rut - but who can listen to Karen's soulful, emotional voice and not be moved, whether to sing along or just listen with a smile? Her death at 32 from a disease that nobody really understood, after being taken advantage of by those closest to her for most of her life, is one of music's great losses. show less

I thought this book was a sad, but well-researched retelling of Karen Carpenter's life and tragic death. The author did not have her family's cooperation (her passive father and domineering mother are long dead. Brother Richard didn't want anything to do with it), but he did have access to two of her close friends. I have the impression that no one ever knew Karen Carpenter very well, and when she died, she took her secrets with her.

The last third of the book was very sad: She was defeated by the shelving of her solo album (perhaps it deserved to be shelved; nonetheless, she had put her heart and soul into it), followed by the failure of her impulsive marriage to a man who was not what he seemed. Her therapist at the time (a man who show more had made a name for himself in the then-obscure field of eating disorders) advocated a treatment approach that required the patient to become dependent on the therapist. It was perhaps the opposite of what Carpenter needed. Such a waste. show less

I've given this 5 stars and I never finished it and I never put it on the Given Up On shelf.

Simply put I found it too upsetting to finish. I knew the ending and I really did not want to see that slow motion car crash unfold.

Karen Carpenter, for anyone too young to know, had one of the most amaing voices to appear in the 20th century. By and large the songs were crap but that voice would just stop you dead and pull feelings out of you that bypassed any conscious process you may have been engaged in at the time. I still cannot hear Rainy Days and Mondays without tearing up.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__SPIzKxVL0)

I wasn't interested in all the dates and places, it was the family dynamic I was interested in and it pretty much is all show more laid out here.

Suffering from an almost (at the time) unknown disease called anorexia nervosa, ignored, belittled and diminished by her mother this biography reads like a catalogue of intentional errors and wilful ignorance as she slowly fades away.

Sad, so sad, poor Karen. show less

I don't know the exact reason why, almost 30 years later, Karen Carpenter's death still leaves me sad whenever I hear a song of hers on the radio or my iPod shuffle. From all accounts written about her, from everything friends of hers have said, Karen was a very fun and funny woman...kind, super talented and a genuine person. That's probably a major part of it.

But the way she died and how it eventually came to overshadow (in some ways, at least) her amazing voice and musical legacy...somehow that makes it all the more tragic.

In his heartfelt and touchingly sincere book _Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter_, Randy L. Schmidt gives the lovely singer what very few writers before him have: the ability to be taken seriously, free show more from any gaudy tabloid fanfare.

Schmidt's deep admiration for her is apparent, but so is his keen knack for attacking the story with a warm yet still objective approach.

Very few biographies have been written about Karen Carpenter, but of the ones that have been this is the one to read, the one that lays the story down without making it sound like a VH1 Behind the Music special. show less

This was a fascinating and insightful look into a troubled and tragic, albeit creative and impactful life. Fortunately, I re-watched the The Karen Carpenter Story made-for-television biographical film about singer Karen Carpenter and the brother-and-sister pop music duo which aired on CBS on January 1, 1989. The book starts with an overview of the film and how this film done without family support yet would prove insightful due to the friends and associates that came forward without a familial spin control. Indeed, this makes it appear Karen's mother's controlling, loveless, OCD nature initiated an environment of dysfunction carried on in the insular sibling enterprise. It actually rings true and seems par for the course for other show more family troupes: Osmonds, Jackson 5, etc. There's a lot of detail on recording sessions, the story behind the initial shelving of Karen's solo album, Richard's Quaalude abuse, and the complicated dynamics of the awfully close pair - but, hey no incest, just rarely talented artistes battling rock on the charts with ballands and lacking any normal childhood. show less

This book was not authorized by the family. Any earlier biographies, tv movies, etc, were all authorized by her family and, seemingly, “whitewashed”. The author of this one talks to many, many people who knew Karen - friends, family, other celebrities - to put together her life.

Karen Carpenter was one of the siblings in the musical brother-sister duo, The Carpenters, who became stars in the 1970s. Karen became anorexic and died at 32-years old.

The above was about as much as I knew about Karen Carpenter. The Carpenters were big before I was born and when I was very young. I do remember some of their music from when I was younger, but I particularly remember watching the tv movie that aired in 1989. I was in high school at that time show more and that may have been when I found out about her anorexia. This book brings to light some of the reasons that she may have developed anorexia: an overprotective mother; a disastrous marriage; though she was the “star” of the Carpenters, she was always second-best in her family, as brother Richard was always her parents’ (or at least her mother’s) favourite, and that was never hidden.

There was a lot of detail about the songs/hits, etc. Maybe a bit too much. At the same time, I had a Carpenters soundtrack running through my head the entire time I was reading it! I even had to youtube their music to listen to some I didn’t know (or some I did know, but didn’t recognize based on the title). And I’m listening to The Carpenters as I write this review.

Overall, though, I thought it was very good. There was a lot I didn’t know about Karen, and it was all very interesting, and no question, very sad. show less

How refreshing it is to read a biography that is honestly written with no intent or end product of sensationalism.

The Carpenters were at the top of the charts in the 1970's. We've Only Just Begun was standard wedding music. Karen's voice was perfect in pitch, and while many did not confess to embracing the duo, their songs were exceedingly popular and well known with 16 consecutive top 20 songs from 1970-1976.

This is the sad and tragic story of Karen Carpenter who died at the age of 32 from self imposed starvation.

Traveling more than 200 days a year, producing back - back albums, behind the smiles was a heap of sadness.

Stretched to the limit of physical endurance, the Carpenters attempted to continue to ride the merry go round and grab show more the brass ring on a perpetual spin that escalated till they were going so fast, they were flung from the carousel.

Told from the perspective of close friends who knew her well, Karen's sadness is brought to the forefront as the reader learns of a very dominating, controlling, unemotional mother, a brother who loved her dearly, but struggled with jealously when it was her voice and not his compositions that defined the group.

Beginning a down ward spiral, Karen at first lost weight until it became an uncontrollable eight year obsession. A flippant, passing comment in a review noted she was chubby and this then led to her death.

Consuming no food and injesting cocktails of diuretics, large quantities of laxatives and, in order to speed her metabolism, she consumed many tablets per day of the prescription drug synthroid, Karen was not able to stop her dangerous obsession.

When she made a very bad choice of a husband, it was the beginning of the end for her.

So little was known about anorexia during Karen's plummet to a skeletal 83 pounds. Under the treatment of an "expert", she was hospitalized and intravenously fed. Rapidly, she gained 30 pounds.

When she returned home, her psychiatrist believed she had kicked the habit of an obsession and addiction to laxatives. Little did he know that she was swallowing bottles of an over-the-counter vomiting inducing chemical called ipecac.

Consumption of ipecac, combined with years of abuse, damaged her heart.

Poignantly, her final recording session of a beautiful song titled Now, was done in just one take. It was perfect, with no need for correction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXvjVhETNU4 show less