Does reviewing the life of a real person make sense, even if it is in the form of a book in which the author made up some bits to fill some holes? Who knows? That didn’t stop me from disagreeing with lots of decisions made by the main character.

We follow the life of Maria Callas, an ordinary woman with a gift too grand to bear. A gift that forced her into a life that was never her own. A life in which she was never taught love, forcing her to chase one in every rotten soul. 

She witnessed family love with a mother that saw her as nothing more than a means to make money. She knew married life with Meneghini, who used her as a cash cow. She learned what friendship is with Elsa, who saw in her a rich source of gossip. She tasted adoration in front of an audience who worshiped her but would crucify her at the tiniest human error. What was left for her to experience was romantic love, and it’s that part of her life that this book documents the most. But as you would have guessed, that love, too, was nothing more than deceit and lies.

I’m about to disappoint a lot of people with what I’m going to say next, but Maria didn’t represent a strong woman who knew how to navigate life. She was naive, hid behind a pride built on insecurities and never learned how to love herself properly, which resulted in the life she led. She never learned how to forgive or how to fight. Her strength was nothing but an act as she went along with the flow that pushed her to her demise. The lack of love made her numb without her realizing it, and that numbness is what got her through life without breaking down. What can you expect from a life that never gave you anything? 

It’s a shame because she had people around her, both her maid, friends and strangers, warn her throughout her life, but she didn’t listen to them, too blinded or should I say too thirsty to forge on her own path in a desperate attempt to control her own life.

In the end, all her story does is open the reader’s eyes on how messed up high society is. How inhuman people, sitting on their pretty thrones made of jewels, barbarically destroy human lives and hide their atrocities behind the mask of a civilized personality. Maria’s gift was indeed a curse that led her to these people. I see her life as nothing more than a tragedy, similar to those that made her famous. 

The 2 rating is for the writing. Now, at the beginning, I was satisfied with it. The author knew how to write in a way that her writing didn't stand out, making us fully focus on Maria’s life alone. Her writing was simple and not distracting. But it somehow started to change halfway in the book. Sometimes there were too many repetitions and sometimes her writing felt beginner’s level where she would put a few sentences together just enough to make a coherent paragraph but devoid of any narrative value. 

The author claims to have taken some liberties in order to tell a compelling story. But in my opinion, she took liberties at the wrong moments. Intimate scenes between Ari and Maria didn’t require so many details as it ruined the reading experience for me. While the scenes where characters confronted each other would have been better with a bit more details.

Now would I recommend this book to my friends? Only to those who have a keen interest in public figures from the 1950s. Would I ever reread this book? Absolutely not! The frustration and the anger the story makes you feel is not worth it. Life is already depressing as it is without the need to live another person’s life.