Just Jennifer

The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo by F.G.  Haghenbeck (Atria Books, September 2012)

After Mexican painter Frida Kahlo’s death at the age of 47, several still unpublished notebooks of hers were found.  Author Haghenbeck uses another, imagined notebook full of recipes and recollections of celebrations, especially for the Day of the Dead.  These recipes are woven into the story of Kahlo’s life, including the polio and bus accident that rendered her spine injured for life, her two marriages to fellow painter Diego Rivera, her struggle to have children and her many lovers over the years.  Kahlo used her painting as a sort of pain management tool after her accident and readers are able to see how her physical and mental pains translate into her colorful paintings.  Told with a mix of mysticism with a strong basis in fact, the narrative often times is as surreal as Kahlo’s colorful paintings. The Day of the Dead becomes the unifying factor as Haghenbeck tells the colorful life story, short as it was of this most intriguing artist.