True Love (BOOK REVIEW)
True Love
by Jennifer Lopez
Celebra
Hardcover, $29.95
288 pages, Illustrated
ISBN: 978-1-451-46868-0
Book
Review by Kam Williams
“This
is a story of love. It started when love was lost and I felt as if my world had
fallen apart. What followed was a transformative journey, through the process
of developing my first world tour, where I faced some of my greatest
challenges, overcame some of my greatest fears, and, with the help of my
incredible children, emerged a stronger person than I’ve ever been”.
Excerpted
from the Book Jacket
It might be hard to
believe that Jennifer Lopez hasn’t published a book before now. After all, the
45 year-old pop icon has been in the limelight for a couple decades, and her
life has at times been splashed across the tabloids to the tune of some rather
lurid headlines.
Besides brief
marriages to waiter Ojani Noa and back-up dancer Cris Judd, “Jenny from the
Block” has been romantically linked to Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs and Ben Affleck.
And she’s recently divorced salsa singer Marc Antony after a decade-long
relationship which produced Max and Emme, the children to whom she dedicates her
memoir.
True Love focuses on
the two years since she and Marc went their separate ways, a period of great
spiritual rebirth for J-Lo. It is the author’s stated hope that the opus might
serve as a source of inspiration for “anyone who has found themselves looking
for a way to reconnect with their true selves… If I can help one woman really
take a look in the mirror and accept her weaknesses and acknowledge her
strengths with love and kindness, then I will consider this a success.”
Granted, I’m not
exactly in the target demographic. Nevertheless, True Love strikes me as more
of a coffee table keepsake than a revealing tell-all for fans eager for an
intimate peak at their idol. Designed with easy-to-please diehards in mind,
about half its pages are devoted to glossy color shots of the photogenic Ms.
Lopez ostensibly taken over the course of her recent, first-ever world tour.
Most of the snapshots
are of her onstage, although some are of her with her adorable kids, too. As
for the text, J-Lo doles out simplistic advice that reads like poster speak
that can’t but resonate with any reader.
For example, nobody’s
going to argue with, “In the same way negative influences can bring you down,
having positive people around can help lift you up.” Just as banal are trite obviousisms
like, “You have to be okay on your own before you can have a healthy
relationship with another person.” and “The only way you can be mistreated is
by allowing yourself to be mistreated.”
Lotsa space is also
devoted to snippets of song lyrics from her hit songs, including “Hold It Don’t
Drop It,” “Feelin’ So Good,” “Love Don’t Cost a Thing,” and “I’m into You,” to
name a few. Yes, J-Lo does reflect a bit betwixt and between all the fluff, but
that’s essentially just journal entries about her kids and the concert tour.
The literary
equivalent of a soufflé-light fanzine, notwithstanding pretentious claims of its
being the culmination of “soul-searching, crying and laughing.”
To order a copy of True Love, visit:
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