Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

The life of Picasso contains rich material for an accomplished celebrity biographer. Huffington's literary credentials are appropriate, but this book too frequently shifts from insight to psychosexual patter. True, the artist's actions followed a Jekyll/Hyde spiral, culminating in alienation for many close to him. Yet despite her book's title, Huffington seizes chiefly on the dark side of genius; Picasso is examined in terms of his personal cruelties, with little offered to enlighten art history. Roland Penrose's biographies and Mary Mathews Gedo's Picasso: Art as Autobiography ( LJ 4/15/81) are better treatments. Still, because of its sensationalism this book will be sought by general readers in many public libraries. Paula A. Baxter, NYPL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

When Picasso's eight-year-old sister died of diphtheria, he decided God was evil but took her death as an omen that he should become a painter. Later, the youthful artist, rebelling against his father, left home for a few weeks and moved into a brothel. Impulsiveness, rebellion, guilt and sexual energy drove Picasso as he gave form to his inner demons. He wielded his art as a weapon, exacting vengeance for the wives and mistresses who died, went mad or committed suicide. Huffington, author of Maria Callas, has written an astonishing biography, a shocking portrait of a man driven by a compulsive need to destroy even as his creativity burst forth. Based on interviews and primary sources, this intriguing and exhausting book lifts the veil of secrecy surrounding Picasso's sexual and personal sadism, his compulsive fears and self-identification with Christ. First serial to the Atlantic; BOMC featured selection. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

This sensationalizing book presents as a soap opera the biography of a major 20th-century artist. Largely rehashing well-known material, whose sources the author often fails to credit, Huffington proceeds from breathy anecdote to breathy anecdote in a florid style and irresponsible manner. The author of a similar biography of opera diva Maria Callas and diverse other unrelated subjects, Huffington is not knowledgeable about the historical period, the history and esthetics of 20th-century art, or Picasso's art. Misunderstanding and distortion make this a useless book, despite the much-publicized "new material" in the form of exaggerated stories that one of Picasso's former consorts, Francoise Gilot, has purportedly suddenly remembered or dared to tell. Above all, the author's animating assumption that an artist's scandalous life dictates how we should view the importance and meaning of his or her art--and this despite the fact that Huffington has very little indeed to say about individual images--hardly qualifies this book for any reader seeking to understand Picasso's art or life, much less for a college audience. -P. Leighten, University of Delaware

Booklist Review

Blackstone offers polished performances of five very different pieces of literature. Three of the works are read by May, whose voice may initially sound a bit hard-edged but whose artistry will soon win over any doubters. May is at her best, perhaps, in the mystery Many Deadly Returns, where she maintains remarkable differentiation among the many daughters and sons-in-law of the murdered Lady Balaclava. In the Picasso biography, May clearly shares author Huffington's fascination with this complex artist and ably handles the French and Spanish pronunciations. May is equally at home in the famous Hamilton re-creation of Greek civilization; this recording is a signal addition to audio literature. Ward provides Heidi with the right Swiss rhythms and accents and truly enhances this classic. Kandinsky honors the distance that novelist Percy places between himself and his characters in The Last Gentleman with a calm, almost reportorial tone. Packaging, listener aids at the beginning and end of each cassette, and proof-listening are all of first-rate quality. ~--Ted Hipple

Kirkus Book Review

Huffington (Maria Callas: The Woman Behind the Legend, 1981) is more interested here in the destructive nature of the man whom many regard as the greatest painter of the 20th century than she is in his creativity. Granted there was much about the Spanish-born artist that was despicable--his egomania, his cruelty, his male chauvinism. By focusing almost exclusively on these qualities, however, particularly as they affected the women in Picasso's life, the author has produced a biography that becomes more than a little repetitive in the telling. Much of the material here is, of necessity, familiar. Picasso's affairs with Fernande Olivier, ""Eva"" Humbert, Marie-Therese Walter, and Dora Maar; the ""Banquet Rousseau""; his friendships with Gertrude Stein, Max Jacob, and the matador Dominquin: all have become part of his mythology in dozens of previous books and articles. Huffington does come up with some new details, although even a few of these fall more into the category of gossip than of corroborated fact. There are speculations, for example, about a possible homosexual relationship with an unnamed gypsy while Picasso was in his late teens, and intimations of a self-serving affair with an early promoter, the art-dealer Pere Manyac. In attempting to substantiate the homosexual allegations, the author points out the number of nude boys who appear in Picasso's paintings during the period, which is a little like claiming Van Gogh had a foot fetish because he created several paintings of shoes. Most damaging perhaps is the amount of attention given to Picasso's relationship with Francoise Gilot. While it is tree that Gilot was probably the most intelligent of the painter's many mistresses and wives, she has already told her story in her Life With Picasso, and Huffington's many interviews with her have apparently merely reinforced what has already been explored. A one-note, feet-of-clay biography, then, which may come as a shock to Picasso idolaters but which reveals little that is new or important. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Arianna Huffington was born on July 15, 1950, in Athens, Greece. She received an M.A. in economics from Cambridge University. She is the cofounder and editor in chief of The Huffington Post and a nationally syndicated columnist. She is the author of several books including The Female Woman, Third World America, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder which is a New York Times 2015 bestseller and The Sleep Revolution. She has also written biographies of Maria Callas and Pablo Picasso. She is the cohost of Left, Right and Center, public radio's political roundtable program.

(Bowker Author Biography)