Beethoven Variations Poems on a Life by Ruth Padel

This was something of an experimental read for me. I enjoy a good bio, but remain unsold on a lot of modern poetry, so I was interested in checking out how the combination of the two would work for me.  And it was, in fact, interesting. The author seems singularly suited to the task of creating a Beethoven biography in verse, not just as a fan and a poet, but also as a musician from a multigenerational musician family I would imagine it makes her someone who understands music (classical and otherwise) and rhythm (poetic and otherwise) on a pretty profound level. 
    The book comprises four distinct intervals of Beethoven’s life from cradle to grave and an actual (poetry free) bio too, so if the poems don’t give you much of an idea of the events, the supplemental information will, but the goal here seems to be the marriage of the two, with the poems providing the emotions and the biographical material facts, dates, etc. 
   The poems aren’t just biographical, they are also very personal, retracing Padel’s steps as she visits all the significant places of Beethoven’s life. It seems not a very happy life at that, the man had constant financial and romantic difficulties, deemed too ugly by some women (really? are the portraits we have too flattering? because he seems ok looking), too lowborn, etc. There was all that sibling animosity. And that weird obsessive relationship with his nephew. And that temper. And, of course, of course,  his ever decreasing ability to hear, infinitely more devastating for a musician…and yet, and yet, despite all that, somehow he managed to bring so much light and beauty into the world. It’s really astonishing the way he was able to rise above the daily tribulations and create such magic. 
     So as far as experiments go, it was a perfectly decent one. It didn’t really change my opinion of modern poetry, I still want it to rhyme, pedestrian as it may seem to the real fans. In this form, it reminds me of elegantly turned out sentences with some rhythm to them, almost like some stylized novel. It was possible for me to appreciate some of the beauty of the language, which I’m going to take as a win. And the supplemental bio was most informational, so now whenever I’ll listen to Beethoven, it’ll be with informed ears.  For how quick, original and educational this was, it a worthy read.