 The book received mixed reviews . Caroline Foulkes wrote in The Birmingham Post : " The thing about this biography is the depths to which Taraborrelli has dug to get information on a famously controlling woman . He relates revealing anecdotes as if they were mere bagatelle , making News of the World style revelations look like kid 's stuff . If Taraborrelli were to include in his list of acknowledgments ' thanks to the maid who let me into Madonna 's bedroom to raid her underwear drawer ' , it wouldn 't be any great surprise . " She also felt that " despite the sensationalism , Taraborrelli 's writing style lets him down . Too often it descends into the kind of mush you expect from an airport novel , with the singer coming across more like a character from Shirley Conran 's Lace than a real woman . " Peter Sobczynski reviewed the book for the Post @-@ Tribune and felt that " the problem with writing an unauthorized tell @-@ all biography is that , in this information @-@ rich world that we live in , by the time a book gets written on somebody , most of the juicy stories are already common knowledge . To make up for that , the tell @-@ all author needs to fill his or her pages with either a thoughtful analysis of the subject at hand , or , frankly , newer and better dirt . Unfortunately , celebrity biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli does neither with his latest concoction , Madonna : An Intimate Biography . " 
