Beethoven is my absolute favorite composer. Not only his compositions, but his personality. True, if I had actually met the man, the personality part might not be honest, but how can you turn away. This might be the reason I have yet to find a book about him that I like. I found John Suchet's book to be tedious, making it hard to understand the inner Beethoven. It delves into Beethoven's life, but in a way that made me feel like an outsider looking in, seeing what is happening in his life, but not knowing the man. To me, it is written in a simplistic way, which just made me want to get done with it. And why is the author on the cover with Beethoven? I thank NetGalley and Elliott and Thompson for the advance read.

This was such a wonderfully done memoir as well as something else, I thought the use of Beethoven worked overall. It was written well and in a way that was engaging with the reader. I thought John Suchet wrote this perfectly and enjoyed going on this journey with them.