Review by The Baltic Times:
Vaira Vike-Freiberga - the mere name causes a headache when you consider the amount this woman has accomplished in her lifetime. The mere thought of writing a book about her and I'm instantly seized with a migraine. That said, I have the utmost admiration for literary critic and professor Ausma Cimdina for accomplishing this feat. Cimdina has managed to sail a sea in which I would most definitely have capsized. The first edition of Vike-Freiberga's biography, published in 2001, was the most bought and read book in Latvia that year. Cimdina begins where most biographies do - at the beginning. As she writes, people are shaped by the circumstances of their upbringing. Most would agree that Vaira Vike-Freiberga is an exceptional person, so it's no great surprise that her childhood was also out of the ordinary. Before she was a teenager, the president experienced war, death, hunger, exile, humiliation - things that parents pray their children never hear whisper of. Using Vaira's own memories, stories from those close to her and historical documents, Cimdina does an excellent job illustrating the president's war-torn childhood and how it molded her into the women she is.
Yet at times she can be overly indulgent. Although Cimdina includes the opinions of those who opposed and challenged the president, it seems that each of these are followed by a counter example of adornment. There are moments when she goes so far as to almost deify the president. At one point, I don't think I would have looked twice if she had said the president could fly.
With a history like Vaira's, one could almost let her life's events and accomplishments speak for themselves. And to an extent, Cimdina does this. The book's strength is its raw material - direct interviews, powerful excerpts from speeches, publications and poems, official documents, and poignant photographs. These passages are the backbone to Vaira's biography and carry the reader to the very last sentence.