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challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
“I wish… I could do whatever I liked—behind the curtain of “madness”. Then: I’d arrange flowers, all day long, I’d paint, pain, love and tenderness, I’d laugh as much as I feel like at the stupidity of others, and they would all say: poor thing! she’s crazy.”
TITLE—The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait
AUTHOR—Introduction by Carlos Fuentes; Essay and Commentaries by Sarah M. Lowe
PUBLISHED—1995 (Frida started her diary in the mid-1940s)
GENRE—facsimile art book; memoir
SETTING—Mexico
MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—the life of Frida Kahlo; art; love; suffering; politics; self-identity
WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
BONUS ELEMENT/S—the fact that Frida’s writing reads like poetry and I wish she’d written more!
PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Only one mountain can know the core of another mountain.”
This was the *perfect* book to read after finishing Hayden Herrera’s Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo—honestly they should come as a set. So much of the writing in this book reads like poetry. I wish Frida had written tons more!
I am also *obsessed* with facsimile editions of old books—especially illustrated ones. The care and attention to detail that went into creating this edition is incredible. My favorite drawing & excerpt is the one called “Las Dos Fridas”, which Herrera mentions in her book.
“I hope the leaving is joyful—and I hope never to return— FRIDA” — the last lines of the last written passage in The Diary of Frida Kahlo
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
TW // grief, death, chronic pain, medical content, trauma, infidelity, suicide
Further Reading—
- Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, by Hayden Herrera
- Trekways of the Wind, by Nils Aslaak-Valkeapaa—a beautiful collection of poetry mixed with drawings with the same sort of barely contained energy and passion for life as Frida’s diary
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Miscarriage, Abortion