Book Review: My Love Story

I've loved Tina Turner since I was a child. My parents listened to her music along with much of the music of her era and genre - Rod Stewart, David Bowie, Bryan Adams, The Rolling Stones - and I was brought up listening to Tina's Foreign Affair and Simply the Best albums on cassette in the car, and Dad had a VHS tape of a performance she did at Koko in Camden that I knew every word to by the time I was about 7. She seemed so cool, so fearless, and always looked like she was having the best time on stage. She was the first 'celebrity' that I looked up to and wanted to be like.

Tina's first autobiography, I, Tina, dealt mainly with her youth and her years touring with (and married to) Ike Turner. My Love Story offers a new perspective on those years, perspective gained most likely by the years that have elapsed since then and everything Tina has experienced and endured in that time. Her struggles with domestic violence and control at the hands of her ex-husband has been well documented, and Tina is often portrayed as some kind of stoically brave person who took control of her own destiny and escaped a life that would've eventually killed her. From reading this book, however, I picked up on her vulnerability; that yes, she was strong and kept going when all the odds seemed stacked against her, but that this was a struggle. That inside she was terrified, downtrodden and trapped for much of the time.

Learning about all of the things Tina has suffered later on in life - intestinal cancer, a stroke, kidney failure, and the devastating loss of her son, makes her enduring positivity all the more astonishing. In the book she says that her motto has always been 'to go on' no matter what life throws at you, and that seems to be the underlying theme through the whole of the book. Tina completely rebuilt her life, launching her solo career when she was pushing 50, in a predominantly white, male genre of music. She pushed boundaries of what people expected from a woman of her age and racial background and set the bar for so many artists to follow. She gave up everything and left herself with no place to go, no possessions except the clothes on her back and only $0.36 in her pocket, and she took on the world.

I'd wholly recommend this as an inspiring, honest, and often humorous read. I always thought I looked up to Tina Turner because of how badass she was (and this is still true) but I realise now that it's because she, to me, is the epitome of resilience and grace. She shows that strength doesn't have to be bolshy and loud, and that simply pushing on and working hard can get you where you want to be.