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Didn't We Almost Have It All: In Defense of Whitney Houston
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40/99
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32/99
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Volume
26/99
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About This Book
An up-close and intimate journey through Whitney Houston's incredible ascent to stardom and her tragic fall from graceDidn't We Almost Have It All is a portrait of the woman behind one of the most famous voices in the world; a performer whose struggles and insecurities with race, sexuality, addiction, identity, abuse, faith, and class ultimately contributed to a heartbreaking demise that was devastating and inevitable in equal measure. Whitney Houston's story is a cautionary tale about the perils of fame and addiction, but it's also a story rife with emotions that are universal to the human experience. She lived much of her life trying to please others—her parents, her family, her mentor Clive Davis, the public—all people who made her a prisoner to her successes and failures in the last decade of her life. This groundbreaking new biography is centered around firsthand reporting that weaves together the story of a rising star and, for the first time, digs into the dark underbelly of the abuse, addiction, and anxiety that caused Houston's very public fall from grace and ultimately her death.
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Reviews
"By telling Houston's story alongside those of contemporary Black celebrities including Beyoncé—who, Kennedy writes, have spent their careers walking the high wire between being 'too Black' and 'not Black enough'—the author both celebrates the legendary singer's inimitable talent and offers a rousing critique of oppressive systems still at work today."
"Kennedy's book, unlike so many before it, is not a gossipy biography but a collection of often powerful meditations on Whitney's life and the culture that failed her ..."
"The thematic rather than chronological structure of the chapters results in some repetition."
"The great strength of this book is that Kennedy—who sees Houston through the lens of the Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, and LGBTQ+ movements of the last decade—refuses to pass judgment."
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