Maria Book

I must admit that although I am a huge fan of Ms. Huffington's popular aggregate news site (The Huffington Post) - I had not realized that Ms. Huffington had previously written biographies!! I am not much of one for self-help and the type of non-fiction she has written in recent years (I have not read any, so no comment) - but I discovered this gem in a wonderful used bookstore and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Being of Greek origins herself, Ms. Huffington offers slightly unique perspective to the well-known story of Maria Callas and I found her writing - especially despite how young Ms. Huffington must have been at the time - to be fairly effortless and I enjoyed the book beginning to end. Even for those of you not a fan of Ms. Huffington's politics, the book speaks for itself and is as good an insight into what made the fascinating, mysterious, elusive and I always imagine deeply tortured Maria Callas as any and is much less dry than many similar offerings. For some reason, Maria Callas always broke my heart - even before I was old enough to understand the whole Aristotle Onassis angle - and I truly felt she was captured here at her most alive, most complicated and most tragic - from the highest of highs to the depths of pain to which any (or at least many) woman can relate. Yes, there may be more clinical, factual, in-depth biographies of this mysterious creature, but I rather enjoyed the less-formal, more casual tone here, as to me it suits the subject who, although ethereal and larger-than-life, was in the end proven to be just as human and breakable as the rest of us. Sometimes it takes a woman, and a more knowing/understanding lens, to truly understand another emotion-based, fallible woman. Some people are best explained in technical, emotion-less ways, but for me Ms. Huffington's slightly more informal yet also more compassionate portrayal remains my favorite insight into a womanly force such as Maria Callas. And I am glad she wrote the book long ago, whereas her take now might be more polished, I loved this just as it is, vulnerability and all.