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A review by cozylittlebrownhouse
Frida's Bed by Slavenka Drakulić
3.0
As a Spanish teacher, I have studied Frida Kahlo's life and paintings off and on for several years; she paints with an honest brutality not demonstrated by many artists. (As I tell my students, I like learning about the emotion and story behind her raw artwork, but wouldn't want to hang them in my home! They're just a little too much for say, the living room.) I find her life fascinating, so I enjoyed this unique, if not peculiar approach to what makes Frida, Frida.
That being said, the writing is somewhat jarring because she bounces around between first and third person (like many other reviewers have mentioned), the grammar is a bit rocky at times, and the breaks for a description of her paintings weren't always fluid. While I was familiar with the paintings described in the book, many people might not be, so visuals would have been nice.
This was a good book that could have been GREAT. Kahlo laid out her entire life on her canvasses, so the idea of mixing bio/art history would be very effective. It just isn't here. Perhaps something got lost in translation.
That being said, the writing is somewhat jarring because she bounces around between first and third person (like many other reviewers have mentioned), the grammar is a bit rocky at times, and the breaks for a description of her paintings weren't always fluid. While I was familiar with the paintings described in the book, many people might not be, so visuals would have been nice.
This was a good book that could have been GREAT. Kahlo laid out her entire life on her canvasses, so the idea of mixing bio/art history would be very effective. It just isn't here. Perhaps something got lost in translation.