My Young Years

by Arthur Rubinstein

Book Overview

The personal recollections of the piano virtuoso provide a record of his life and creative development from his childhood days in Poland to the years of the First World War. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394468902
• ISBN13: 9780394468907
• Release Date: January 1973
• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Length: 478 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

I can't believe I'm the FIRST to review this book!

Terrific -- and it sounds like it really was written by Arthur (Artur?) himself. It's almost diary-like in its detail, and everything is fascinating. We get a lot of juicy personal stuff, including love-life stuff and, on the other side of the coin, his young failed attempt at suicide. My own favorite part of the book is his very detailed reminiscence of the piano competition that he entered, and LOST; what's interesting is how this great, beloved, infinitely-accomplished pianist and man-of-the-world apparently never lost his hurt and bitterness over this stupid competition -- kind of like if Derek Jeter or Barry Bonds went on and on about the time they got shafted by an umpire in Little League. I don't mean this as a criticism of him; if anything, the opposite -- it's an example of how much he was just like the rest of us, which probably was a big part of why we loved him so much.