Galina

Rating:
Summary: Description of a life rich enough to fill several lifetimes.
Review: This is an extraordinary account of her own life by a woman who is not only a world-famous opera singer and wife of a great man, but also a person who has lived through the Stalin era in Russia, (barely) survived the 900-day blockade and famine of Leningrad, beat tuberculosis (then a fatal diagnosis in Russia) to become the Bolshoy Theatre's star singer, and even then, most of life's trials and tribulations were still ahead of her. Galina Vishnevskaya does not mince words in life or in her book. She describes not only the life of great artists in post-war Soviet Russia but also the life of ordinary people, the cunning and resourcefulness it took every day to accomplish everything - from buying toiler paper to avoiding KGB recruitment. Unlike many other artists who wrote their autobiographies - such as Maya Plisetskaya - Galina does breathe life into her own past and that of her country. Apart from being a great read, the book is written with a great sense of humour, and sometimes, sarcasm. A thoroughly enjoyable and edifying read.