The news story that was published in the Culture section of this newspaper barely contained two paragraphs: “Karen Carpenter, who became famous in the world of songs during the 1970s in the duo The Carpenters she formed with her brother Richard, died yesterday at the age of 32. Her death occurred half an hour after the singer was admitted to the medical center due to heart failure.” It was on February 4, 1983, when Karen Carpenter’s mother found her daughter passed out in her room at the family home. She arrived at the hospital alive, but her heart couldn’t take much more. For years she had been fighting bulimia as well as anorexia nervosa, an illness that at that time was largely unknown. According to the forensic report, the artist’s body contained large doses of ipecac, a medication to induce vomiting in cases of poisoning, but which is usually used by people suffering from eating disorders. In cases of chronic abuse, ipecac can cause arrhythmia, cardiomyopathy, shock, and eventually death.
Karen and Richard Carpenter officially formed The Carpenters in 1969, when they signed to the A&M record label. A year later, they reached number 1 on the Billboard chart with their second album, Close To You. From there, they became a success, managing to reach the top of the sales charts with each new single. Two years later, in 1972, they were invited to play at the White House by President Richard Nixon, a self-confessed fan of the group. Karen and Richard Carpenter, two sober and talented siblings raised in California, became America’s children. A forceful (and somewhat conservative) response by the establishment to the musical stars who emerged in the sixties and who sang in protest of the Vietnam War and the U.S. government.
Despite their success and their pristine public image, both siblings were fighting their own private battles. Richard had become addicted to sleeping pills, and Karen suffered from an illness that, at that time, was not well understood. As their fame increased, the group’s drummer and lead vocalist appeared in public looking more and more exhausted. In 1975, at the peak of her career, she weighed only 88 pounds. Now, a new biography aims to reposition the artist in the pop imagination, viewing her through a new prism, as a pioneer in an industry that is unkind to women, and a sick woman who tried, by all means possible, to overcome her illness.
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