Anna akhmatova biography book

I'm not entirely sure what to think about this book - so I'll comment as generously as I am able.

The text of this narrative resembles a concatenation of notes more closely than the text of any other biography that I can remember reading - all arranged so that the information in them appears in chronological order, all transferred to the page in complete, simple sentences.

Much of what I expect to find in literary biography is missing from this book, especially an exploration, in detail, of the inner life of the writer, a narrative of its genesis, the emotional and intellectual events that occurred there, and so on.

But I also have to think that this particular composition is the product of the biographer's intention - her design for the book that she wanted to write.

What is it that Feinstein achieves - and achieves splendidly - through this design and technique?

A decidedly vivid impression of the presence, th