Title: The Hard Bargain: Music, Medicine, and My Father (Richard Tucker, Opera Legend)
Author: David Tucker & Burton Spivak
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN: 978-1-5434-4558-9
Pages: 308
Genre: Biography
Reviewed by: Matt Hurd
Pacific Book Review Star
Awarded to Books of Excellent Merit
“His dreams became his citadel, a fortress that could not be breached by doubters and naysayers…”
The Hard Bargain: Music, Medicine, and My Father (Richard Tucker, Opera Legend) is a beautifully written chronicle of family, fame, and the lives of two men lived in one another’s shadows. To begin, the book features fully authorized biographical elements of the life of legendary opera tenor Richard Tucker. What makes it unique and truly notable though, is that it is also the story of his son David (the effort’s co-author), leading a life delineated by familial clashes, opposing dreams, and the shadow of his father.
Tucker and Spivak’s collaboration is, in many ways, a story defined by legacies. As a man who started out with little and who felt that fame was not the greatest achievement in life, Richard Tucker passed on a complicated legacy of competing ideals to his son, David. The book chronicles their clashes over David’s desire to follow in his father’s footsteps and become an opera singer – a goal that was to become secondary to Richard’s desire for his son to become a doctor. Tucker’s examination of this period of his life, and the influence and motivations of his father, is surprisingly nuanced, guided by the perspective that age can provide.
David’s stories provide unique insight into both his own life and the life of his father. Perhaps even more notably, however, said insights are remarkably unvarnished. David admits to his own faults, anger, and shortcomings, while coming to grips with the actions and decisions of his famous father as well. It’s rare to read such an honest accounting of one life, let alone one of such a challenging father-son relationship.
This biography will be of interest to a wide range of readers: fans of Richard Tucker seeking insight into his life offstage; those interested in the medical field (as there are extensive chapters on David’s life in medical school and as a doctor); and most especially those who seek out honest, revealing stories about the relationships between fathers and sons. In the end, this is not the story of a son being controlled by his domineering father, nor is it the story of a miraculous rebellion with a Hollywood ending. This is a story almost painful in its familiarity, bittersweet in its reality, and unflinchingly honest in it’s telling.
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