My Sister Roseanne: The True Story of Roseanne Barr ArnoldGeraldine Barr knows her sister Roseanne Barr Arnold like no other person. She grew up with her, dreamed and schemed with her - from the trailer parks of rural Colorado to the pinnacle of television stardom. Roseanne's success was neither spontaneous nor unplanned. Flying in the face of Hollywood's sexist stereotypes, Roseanne and Geraldine created the brilliant persona of Roseanne the "Domestic Goddess" who showed that a working-class woman could be as funny, smart, and insightful as any man. My Sister Roseanne is a bittersweet memoir of growing up Jewish in Mormon Utah, of discovering feminism, lesbianism, and the power of community in a small Denver bookstore; it is a tale of hilarious collaboration on the development of the "Domestic Goddess" character, of learning how to deliver a feminist message with jokes that made women laugh and men think. It is an insider's story of the comedy club explosion of the 198Os, an exploration of the surreal dining rituals of Hollywood agents and of the miraculous adventure of two determined women taking Hollywood by storm. My Sister Roseanne is also a story of paranoia and betrayal, of Roseanne's abandonment of the sisters' shared dream for the dubious role of "Mrs. Arnold, " a plastic-surgery-enhanced habitue of the talk show circuit who discovered that she could say anything - and the media, from the tabloids to the talk shows to Vanity Fair, would treat it as gospel truth. A compelling and at times frightening story, My Sister Roseanne reveals what happens when collaboration gives way to blind ambition and the power to invent and reinvent yourself becomes as dangerous and destabilizing as any drug. |
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