Reviews for Maria

The average rating for Maria based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-07-13 00:00:00 Theresa Gates I have mixed feelings about this. Usually biographies are nothing but stale and dry facts accompanied by fancy sentence structures. This one was something right in the middle. After reading it I was overwhelmed by La Callas (as they called her back then) personal and juicy life details that kind of belittled her artistic genius she was carrying inside with her 'til her death. Pursuing a career in a similar artistic sphere, the biography itself was a nice treat to spice up a free evening, as I really understood where her motives and tatrums were coming from. Opera world back then was unimaginably demanding, yet the audience possesed a short-term memory, acting almost like ambitious little children. Having a world-renowned career meant riding an American rollercoaster with no stops in-between. Maria Callas went there because she didn't have any other option, yet, I wonder if she would've chosen that same path otherwise. It's a sad story about an artistic Genius who was cursed from the very beginning. Callas was a fragile little creature who wanted nothing more but pure acceptance, empathy and love. Stage was the only place where she could satisfy that hunger and constant need of being verified. Later, as the history showed, it broke her internally. Ugh.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-07-01 00:00:00 Tony Hunter 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.