My favourite part of Ariane Sherine’s book about Sinéad O’Connor comes right at the end, when she talks about the things she has in common with the beautiful troubled Irish singer.
Ariane Sherine was only seven years old when O’Connor released ‘The Lion and the Cobra’. She never met her, and never saw her perform. But like her, she experienced a difficult childhood and persistent difficulties with mental health.
While Sinéad had a life-long love-hate relationship with Catholicism, Sherine is an outspoken atheist, who has had her own struggles with press attention.
This kinship, helps Sherine create a sympathetic and sisterly portrait of O’Connor – albeit one derived mostly from press cuttings and second-hand accounts.
The odds were stacked against O’Connor from the beginning. Although prodigiously talented, she also endured terrible childhood abuse, which left her with persistent mental and emotional scars.
Becoming internationally famous at the age of just twenty, she refused to play the record industry game – shaving her head rather than adopt the conventional cuteness of a female pop star.
Her rage against the Catholic Church, her refusal to be constrained by convention and her outspoken criticism of the over sexualised appearance of young female artists, can all be understood better in the light of childhood trauma.
Journalists such as The Guardian’s Simon Hattenstone, who interviewed O’Connor at different stages of her career, add their own insight into her struggle which seemed to become more unmanageable as she got older. Social media became a trap – which led to more public exposure – particularly during periods of mental ill health.
Sherine gives the writers who documented O’Connor’s life, career and music the chance to re-evaluate their first impressions – and with hindsight some of them apologise for under-estimating the pressure of being a beautiful, talented, unconventional female star.
It’s a shame Sherine doesn’t have more first-hand accounts from family, close friends and colleagues who, perhaps might have been able to shed some light on the singer’s inner-life.
But in some ways it is appropriate to re-examine O’Connor as she appeared in public. By presenting this chronological account of reviews, interviews and social media posts, Sherine builds up a picture of a woman whose life was lived in the unforgiving glare of publicity and fame.
The singer suffered so much as a result of the way she was perceived and described in print. But thanks to Ariane Sherine’s empathy and understanding of the woman behind the headlines, this life of Sinead O Connor offers a fresh perspective.
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-Real-Sinad-OConnor-Hardback/p/50665
