cover image The First Time Display

The First Time Display

Cher Coplon. Simon & Schuster, $245 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-684-00784-7

During more than three decades in the spotlight, Cher has continuously re-created herself in an industry that likes labels and doesn't think singers should act. As she evolved from hippie chanteuse to TV star, Las Vegas headliner, Academy Award-winning actress, pop star and film director, Cher's talent, determination and perfectionism have always been evident, which is why this slapdash autobiography comes as such a shock. In page-long, one-topic chapters describing a series of firsts in her life (My First Role Model, My First Affair with a Married Man, My First Plastic Surgery, etc.), Cher, working with Coplon (who coauthored My Story, by Sarah, Duchess of York), recounts certain milestones: moving in with music PR man Sonny Bono at age 16, recording ""I Got You Babe"" in 1965 (the disk sold three million copies) and marrying Southern rock god Gregg Alman in the mid-'70s. But the narrative is so breezy that it resembles an outline rather than a complete book. (""In '88 I had a medical procedure that laid me out for months. It was really intricate, and then dealing with my doctor got traumatic. By the end of the year, I had a complete nervous breakdown."") It's not that Cher pretends there has been no drama in her life: she simply fails to delve into it. There's little introspection here, and no details about major stretches of her life, from her mysterious illness to her musical comeback or her relationship with Gene Simmons of Kiss. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)