Diva 💛

By Daisy Goodwin.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Diva is a richly drawn and emotionally absorbing book that explores the life of Maria Callas, focusing on her relationship with Aristotle Onassis and the personal cost of loving so fiercely while living in the public eye.

The book opens in 1968, with Maria reeling from the shock of Onassis’s sudden marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy.

From there, the story moves back and forth through Maria’s life, from her childhood in Nazi occupied Greece, where her mother relentlessly exploited her extraordinary voice, to her early career and marriage to a man who valued her talent but never truly saw her as a woman.

Daisy Goodwin captures the ache at the heart of Maria’s story particularly well. When Maria meets Onassis, she believes she has finally found someone who recognises her beyond the legend.

Their relationship is intoxicating, lavish and deeply unbalanced, and the book convincingly shows how seductive that world was, even as it slowly eroded Maria’s sense of self. The glamour, wealth and celebrity are vividly rendered, but the loneliness beneath never disappears.

I especially appreciated the attention given to Maria’s fears about ageing and the fragility of her voice. The sections covering her preparation for performances, and her awareness that her career cannot last forever, felt authentic and grounded. The characters are well developed, and the shifts in time and place are handled smoothly.

That said, I did find the pacing uneven. I put this book down and picked it back up again more than once, and it took a while to fully settle into the story. Once past the midpoint, however, the flow improved and I was keen to continue.

Overall, this is a compelling and sensitively told portrait of a complex woman, balancing immense talent, vulnerability and ambition. I went into this knowing very little about Maria Callas, and while that may have limited some of the emotional impact for me, it was still an engaging and rewarding read.

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