Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Diary Of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self Portrait by Frida Kahlo

2 reviews

jessthanthree's profile picture

jessthanthree's review against another edition

5.0
emotional inspiring sad medium-paced
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ceallaighsbooks's profile picture

ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition

5.0
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
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