Overview

An intimate portrait of the world's most iconic opera singer Maria Callas, called La Divina, is widely recognized as the greatest diva who ever lived. Jerome Charyn's Callas springs to life as the headstrong, mercurial, and charismatic artist who captivated generations of fans, thrilling audiences with her brilliant performances and defiant personality. Callas, an outsider from an impoverished background, was shunned by the Italian opera houses, but through sheer force of will and the power and range of her voice, she broke through the invisible wall to sing at La Scala and headline at the Metropolitan Opera, forging an unforgettable career. Adored by celebrities and statesmen, the notable and notorious alike, her every movement was shadowed by both music critics and gossip columnists--until, having lost her voice, she died alone in an opulent, mausoleum-like Paris apartment. In Charyn's inimitable style, Maria La Divina humanizes the celebrated diva, revealing the mythical artist as a woman who survived hunger, war, and loneliness to reach the heights of acclaim.

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9781954276482

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Reviews

Select Praise for Jerome Charyn ""Jerome Charyn, like Nabokov, is that most fiendish sort of writer--so seductive as to beg imitation, so singular as to make imitation impossible."" --Tom Bissell ""Charyn is one of the most important writers in American literature."" --Michael Chabon ""Charyn is a one off: no other living American writer crafts novels with his vibrancy of historical imagination."" --William Giraldi ""[Charyn's] sentences are pure vernacular music, his voice unmistakable."" --Jonathan Lethem ""One of our most rewarding novelists."" --Larry McMurtry ""No one writes historical fiction better than Jerome Charyn."" --Brenda Wineapple ""Among Charyn's writerly gifts is a dazzling energy―a highly inflected rapid-fire prose that pulls us along like a pony cart over rough terrain."" --Joyce Carol Oates, New York Review of Books ""Charyn skillfully breathes life into historical icons."" --New Yorker ""One of our most intriguing fiction writers."" --O, The Oprah Magazine ""Charyn's blunt, brilliantly crafted prose bubbles with the pleasure of nailing life to the page in just the right words."" --Washington Post ""[Charyn's] storytelling is off-the-chart wonderful."" --Jerusalem Post ""Absolutely unique among American writers."" --Los Angeles Times ""A contemporary American Balzac."" --Newsday ""[Charyn] writes with the sort of whirlwind energy that turns the seediest story into a breakneck adventure."" --Wall Street Journal ""Charyn has a gift for the unexpected, both linguistically and narratively. . . . The result is at once surprising and very entertaining."" --BookPage ""For half a century, [Charyn] has been an unpredictable, unclassifiable, and above all exactingly smart author."" --Open Letters Review ""Charyn is an institution. . . . His skill is such that it's difficult to separate the real-world figures and entities from the characters and places the author is inventing."" --Washington Independent Review of Books ""Wherever he takes us, Charyn's mind is always agile, and his prose is stunningly electric."" --Jewish Book Council

Praise for Maria La Divina Reading Group Choices ""Editors' Picks"" selection ""One of the most moving episodes of [Maria La Divina] is also the moment when the conventions of biography and of the novel collide. . . . What distinguishes the greatest biographical novelists is not only the judicious liberties taken with the biographical record, and the profound respect accorded to what cannot be known, but also the devotion to fiction itself that reverberates in the reader's imagination."" --New York Sun ""The heart of the book lies in Callas's artistic triumphs as she tackles one impossible operatic role after another, redefining them in the process. . . . [Charyn] gives us more to see and hear, not only of Callas, but of the opera itself."" --Arts Fuse ""A bravura performance that hits all the right notes and is sure to delight opera devotees and fans of strong women characters."" --Library Journal (starred review) ""An impressive portrait. . . . Charyn elicits sympathy for his complex lead through nuanced character work, and he manages to channel the excitement of Callas's performances. This is a marvel."" --Publishers Weekly ""Charyn's bracing biographical novel is about Maria Callas's transformation from a New York daughter of Greek immigrants to a world-famous opera soprano. . . . The allure of an opera legend is rendered with humanizing grit."" --Foreword Reviews ""Charyn impressively covers events, places, and people (even an older Winston Churchill) with a solid pace that never stalls. . . . The complex genius of the Divine Diva will stay with any reader of this work."" --Historical Novels Review ""This vivid portrait of the diva is compelling and dramatic. . . . An excellent choice for biographical fiction and opera fans."" --Booklist ""Deftly crafted . . . Maria La Divina once again showcases author Jerome Charyn as a novelist of extraordinary literary ability."" --Midwest Book Review ""Preternatural artistic force, persecuted diva, emotionally abused daughter, demanding lover--they all are on display in this reimagined life of the ultimate diva."" --Kirkus Reviews Select Praise for Jerome Charyn ""Jerome Charyn, like Nabokov, is that most fiendish sort of writer--so seductive as to beg imitation, so singular as to make imitation impossible."" --Tom Bissell ""Charyn is one of the most important writers in American literature."" --Michael Chabon ""Charyn is a one off: no other living American writer crafts novels with his vibrancy of historical imagination."" --William Giraldi ""[Charyn's] sentences are pure vernacular music, his voice unmistakable."" --Jonathan Lethem ""One of our most rewarding novelists."" --Larry McMurtry ""No one writes historical fiction better than Jerome Charyn."" --Brenda Wineapple ""Among Charyn's writerly gifts is a dazzling energy―a highly inflected rapid-fire prose that pulls us along like a pony cart over rough terrain."" --Joyce Carol Oates, New York Review of Books ""Charyn skillfully breathes life into historical icons."" --New Yorker ""One of our most intriguing fiction writers."" --O, The Oprah Magazine ""Charyn's blunt, brilliantly crafted prose bubbles with the pleasure of nailing life to the page in just the right words."" --Washington Post ""[Charyn's] storytelling is off-the-chart wonderful."" --Jerusalem Post ""Absolutely unique among American writers."" --Los Angeles Times ""A contemporary American Balzac."" --Newsday ""[Charyn] writes with the sort of whirlwind energy that turns the seediest story into a breakneck adventure."" --Wall Street Journal ""Charyn has a gift for the unexpected, both linguistically and narratively. . . . The result is at once surprising and very entertaining."" --BookPage ""For half a century, [Charyn] has been an unpredictable, unclassifiable, and above all exactingly smart author."" --Open Letters Review ""Charyn is an institution. . . . His skill is such that it's difficult to separate the real-world figures and entities from the characters and places the author is inventing."" --Washington Independent Review of Books ""Wherever he takes us, Charyn's mind is always agile, and his prose is stunningly electric."" --Jewish Book Council

Praise for Maria La Divina ""An impressive portrait. . . . Charyn elicits sympathy for his complex lead through nuanced character work, and he manages to channel the excitement of Callas's performances. This is a marvel."" --Publishers Weekly ""This vivid portrait of the diva is compelling and dramatic. . . . An excellent choice for biographical fiction and opera fans."" --Booklist ""Preternatural artistic force, persecuted diva, emotionally abused daughter, demanding lover--they all are on display in this reimagined life of the ultimate diva."" --Kirkus Reviews Select Praise for Jerome Charyn ""Jerome Charyn, like Nabokov, is that most fiendish sort of writer--so seductive as to beg imitation, so singular as to make imitation impossible."" --Tom Bissell ""Charyn is one of the most important writers in American literature."" --Michael Chabon ""Charyn is a one off: no other living American writer crafts novels with his vibrancy of historical imagination."" --William Giraldi ""[Charyn's] sentences are pure vernacular music, his voice unmistakable."" --Jonathan Lethem ""One of our most rewarding novelists."" --Larry McMurtry ""No one writes historical fiction better than Jerome Charyn."" --Brenda Wineapple ""Among Charyn's writerly gifts is a dazzling energy―a highly inflected rapid-fire prose that pulls us along like a pony cart over rough terrain."" --Joyce Carol Oates, New York Review of Books ""Charyn skillfully breathes life into historical icons."" --New Yorker ""One of our most intriguing fiction writers."" --O, The Oprah Magazine ""Charyn's blunt, brilliantly crafted prose bubbles with the pleasure of nailing life to the page in just the right words."" --Washington Post ""[Charyn's] storytelling is off-the-chart wonderful."" --Jerusalem Post ""Absolutely unique among American writers."" --Los Angeles Times ""A contemporary American Balzac."" --Newsday ""[Charyn] writes with the sort of whirlwind energy that turns the seediest story into a breakneck adventure."" --Wall Street Journal ""Charyn has a gift for the unexpected, both linguistically and narratively. . . . The result is at once surprising and very entertaining."" --BookPage ""For half a century, [Charyn] has been an unpredictable, unclassifiable, and above all exactingly smart author."" --Open Letters Review ""Charyn is an institution. . . . His skill is such that it's difficult to separate the real-world figures and entities from the characters and places the author is inventing."" --Washington Independent Review of Books ""Wherever he takes us, Charyn's mind is always agile, and his prose is stunningly electric."" --Jewish Book Council

Author Information

Jerome Charyn is the author of more than fifty works of fiction and nonfiction, including Maria La Divina; Ravage & Son; Sergeant Salinger; Cesare: A Novel of War-Torn Berlin; In the Shadow of King Saul: Essays on Silence and Song; Jerzy: A Novel; and A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century. Among other honors, his work has been longlisted for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award and PEN Award for Biography, shortlisted for the Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award, and selected as a finalist for the Firecracker Award and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Culture at the American University of Paris, Charyn has also been named a Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture and received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Manhattan.

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