The Other Woman: My Years With O.J. Simpson

by Paula Barbieri

The former girlfriend of O.J. Simpson reveals the "real" O.J., describing what happened during the explosive days before the trial and her daily visits with him during the criminal trial

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Memoir

312 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Stacey Bryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

How 90s is this cover? This bitch. This is a victim-blaming, hero-worshipping turd of a book. She thinks OJ is innocent from day one and she never strays from that. He couldn't hurt a fly, she says, even though he consistently hurt her throughout their 2 years together. But he never left bruises so that doesn't count. Yeah. He also cheated on her numerous times while she was watching. Great guy. This woman is an idiot. No one should have ever let her write a book. She's pretty sure she killed Nicole with her bad, jealous thoughts. Half of the book is about how miserable she is with OJ and how toxic their relationship is. Then he becomes the only suspect in a murder trial and he's the model boyfriend.

-She left OJ the day before the murders for Michael Bolton. The whole first chapter is how she had to leave Michael for OJ and how she's always regretted that. Girlfriend loves her some MB.

- She says before the big chase OJ tried to kill himself with a gun while it was still wrapped in the towel but the towel jammed the gun

- When they first started dating he gave her a compilation of his greatest sports moments.

- OJ wasn't great in bed. He would get off and go to sleep. And he never once in two years went down on her. He also lacked stamina and Paula said sex would be over quickly. But she never brought it up bc she liked conversations with him more than orgasms. Ok.

- OJ came out in support for Ross Perot the day before Perot pulled out of the race.

- Paula's first love was Dolph Lundgren

- if OJ gives you a gift you pretend you like it or get the gift thrown at you. She said this took her a while to "learn."

- Paula refers to Sean Penn as a "nice-upstanding fellow" so obviously she's an idiot

- Paula had a lot of faith in Robert Shapiro (whereas Marcia thought he was a joke and a horrible person) but OJ told Paula that a black jury would never find him innocent if he didn't have at least one black lawyer so he had to replace Shapiro as lead with Johnnie Cochran.

- OJ's phone calls from jail to Paula mostly consisted of him complaining about prison food while his lawyers were eating nice lunches in restaurants. Poor baby. Or he would complain he wasn't getting enough phone time when he was getting just as much as any other inmate. He wasn't getting special privileges yet he asked for them repeatedly. Again, another book portraying him as a complaining baby.

- A year before the trial Paula posed for Playboy but the photos weren't risqué enough so they shelved them. Playboy didn't use the pics until she became famous for being a murderers gf and while OJ was in jail they came out. She said she felt "raped" by playboy even though she voluntarily posed for them and got paid for her work. But she was raped.

- OJ loves show tunes.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yep you guessed it. More You’re Wrong About reading material.

[Caro Buchheim]

This memoir is so poorly edited that it made me wonder whether the person editing this secretly hated the author and/or this book. It's the only logical explanation why passages like this one (about a moment shortly after the murder of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman) made it into the finished product: "I took OJ up to his room. Helped him undress to his briefs. Watched him crumple into bed. That was a knife to my heart, to see the most exuberant person in the world look so helpless and vulnerable." And this is not the only supremely cringey knife/murder-adjacent metaphor that made it into this memoir.

It's a darkly fascinating book written by a woman who grew up in an abusive family and hasn't fully grasped that she spend many years with a serial abuser who killed his wife. Only at the very end Barbieri starts to exhibit signs of understanding that she and the murdered wife have more in common than she and the murderer - only to end the book on a love note to the killer.

It's often accidentally funny, too: There are countless plainly absurd cameos by famous male celebs and just so much 90s awfulness and ridiculous explanations of despicable behavior. It was fun googling the photos of shoots Barbieri mentions, though - the 90s were a trip.

"You're wrong about" made me read this - and as Sarah and Michael quote someone in one of the OJ episodes - everyone came out of this trial diminished.

[Katrine Engelhardt Thomsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was quite surprised by this book.

I started reading it because it was mentioned by the wonderful Sarah Marshall on the podcast “You’re Wrong About”.

I was expecting very little, maybe that’s why I found myself caring more than expected about Paula and her side of the story.

I even found myself getting misty eyed while reading of her mother’s history with spousal abuse (the image of her mother sitting frozen in the kitchen, still holding her glass of wine after her husband has thrown a spagetti dinner in her face will stay with me for a long time), but especially when I read Paula’s realization about her and Nicole during the civil suit following the trial:

“My anger opened a door. As I kept reading, I began to see Nicole in a new light - no longer as a rival, but as a woman much like me.”

This book moved me and for that I give it three stars.

[Paula · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this online at work because I was bored silly and I had recently watched "People vs O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story" on Netflix. This book reads like a teenage girl's diary and her descriptions of sexy times with O.J. made me cringe. I honestly hope that Ms. Barbieri has grown up a little since this book was published.

[M]

ah..whiner..

[Hannah Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading about O.J. Simpson and the murder of Nicole Brown is my guilty pleasure. I came across Paula's book in a thrift store on half price book day and decided to dive in. I found Paula's writing to be engaging and entertaining. I enjoyed reading about not just her side of O.J.'s story, but also about her personal life as a whole. So often, in the telling of the O.J. Simpson trial, Paula is included as an afterthought, or not at all. I was intrigued to know how close she was with O.J. through the entire ordeal. Finally, as a fellow Christian, I found her story of finding and growing in faith to be very encouraging in my own faith walk.

[Jenn Seefeld · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the beginning of this book I thought damn this girl is just writing to help the public perception of OJ and it wasn't until near the end that I changed my mind. Of course this book is about Paula's personal experience with OJ and it does shed a lot of light on the behind the scenes of the trial because it turns out that Paula was actually involved in a lot. But, it's also a story about how someone can get sucked into a bad situation little by little and suddenly look around them and wonder "how did I get here?" Truly the more compelling story for me in this book was Paula's story not OJ's.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t sure what to expect- but was not disappointed. What I didn’t realize until the very end is that Paula endures her own trauma, and was another victim of O.J. Simpson and details that in this book. It’s very empowered

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt I had to read this because it's possible I've read every other book about the O J Simpson incident and trial. It was good - I learned a lot about Paula Barbieri, who I had forgotten about until now.

[Theresa Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was ok but tedious at times there is a lot of repetition in this book and Paula Barbieri comes across as extremely self centered and spoiled .. it's all about her "oh poor me" throughout this book can be irritating.

[Candra Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one hurt, lol.

[Hester · Rating 1 out of 5]

Watching the awesome miniseries The People V. OJ reminded me that I read this mess what feels like a hundred years ago, so my memory is foggy but I'll divulge what I remember.

Paula drops such bombshells such as she broke up with OJ the day before the Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ronald Goldman murders to date Michael Bolton. That's right, Michael Bolton! But before love could blossom Michael dumped her ass after the murders, he didn't want that bad juju tainting him!

What else... Oh, Paula says that OJ's dream team begged her to pretend that they were still an item to make it look like OJ couldn't possibly be jealous of Nicole and other men because he was in relationship so why would he care who Nicole was seeing. Also OJ wasn't all that in bed. I almost forgot that she dated Dolph Lundgren and found out that Jillian Barbieri was her half sister.

In the end she found religion, because don't they all?

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing style was a bit dramatic. Book started off interesting enough as it talks about her time with OJ but then halfway through she talks about growing up, which you would think you would start of the book that way but if it did start at Chapter one then no one would continue on reading. Good Job Editors - lol

[Tina Landow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book while vacationing with my beautiful niece and husband in St Maarten years ago. I was glued to the t.v. when his trial was going on and was interested in hearing what he was like as a person. Good book.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Total fluff, but figured I'd read it when I happened to see it at the library. No real revelations, though I feel a bit sorry for her for her rough life that just continued when she got involved with Simpson.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felt for her in many ways. Very happy she found a clearer path. Love is so complex.

[Megan Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting perspective

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book and a must read for those obsessed with the case. I went in hoping for lots of little case details. And while I did learn quite a bit about the case that I didn’t know, I quickly got caught up in Paula and her story and how she fit into everything. A well written book that’s an easy read.