'angel On My Shoulder'

By Natalie Cole with Digby Diehl

Warner Books, 353 pages

Black-and-white photos

The offspring of a superstar seeks an identity of her own. Sound like a familiar theme? It becomes a measure more so with "Angel on My Shoulder: An Autobiography."

Unfortunately, it's more of an organizational strategy than an actual life struggle. Natalie Cole wanted fame in her own right, rather than as the daughter of her father, the great Nat King Cole — and she got it.

This is a telefilm plot and not a good one. Nevertheless, the book brims with seemingly candid intimate details, and there are touching moments when she writes about the death of her father and the death of an ex-husband for whom she still carries a torch.

But if you were hoping that Natalie Cole would give you the lowdown on some of her father's heavyweight buddies from the early days of Capitol Records, think again. Sinatra, Ella and Basie and the boys are in there, but only in passing.

And if you wanted to know how to make an album that wins seven Grammys, like Natalie's "Unforgettable," you'll have to read hard between the lines. Here again, the saga is already familiar from yards of publicity, though she does manage to give you a few production details and corrected credits.

There are quite a few fresh details in the story of Cole's drug addiction and rehab. There is oodles of copy on her love life. And there is even more on her feud with her mother.

Digby Diehl, former book editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, has done a smooth job helping the superstar singer with her writing problems. Except that he drops in tabloid headlines Cole feared would appear, though they never did, such as:

Daughter of Nat King Cole

OD's on heroin in tenement

drug den bathroom

He would never make it on the copy desk at the National Enquirer, but that's all to the good. His subject is making it as a singer, however, and that too is all to the good.