MADONNA: LIKE AN ICON

The Material Girl is respectfully, if not fawningly, limned by O'Brien in this lengthy bio undertaken without benefit of the subject's input. Fascinated by Madonna's media mastery, O'Brien considers her music-video, live-performance, photographic (remember Sex?), thespian, and other coups, inadvertently (perhaps) making the point that as singer, she's a heckuva dancer. Snide shots from reviewers aside, Madonna has made a lot of stuff in a variety of media. O'Brien seems to have covered it all to create a portrait of a driven, committed artiste of the highest order. Nary a negative word is spewed, but since by now most folks know how they feel about Madonna, hard judgments and artistic evaluations may be beside the point. Nonfans may avoid the book, but ardent followers who have either forgotten or sublimated, say, Desperately Seeking Susan will boost circulation at virtually any library. For kicking back and remembering when Madonna was cutting-edge, and not just in the worlds of kabbalah and kiddie lit, this is the ticket