Bernier-Grand, C. T. (2007).
Frida: Viva la vida!
Long live life! Tarrytown , NY
I love art museums.
One of my ideas of a perfect day off is to head to any one of a dozen art museums in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area and roam the rooms and rooms of paintings. While not my favorite artist, one of the painters that fascinates me is
Frida Kahlo. Her work is known to almost everyone due to her numerous
self-portraits. However, I realized that
I didn't know anything about her when I picked up this volume of poetry about
her life and her work. The book is a
goldmine of information about Frida. The
poems, many accompanied by photos of her paintings, reflect the pain and
turbulence Frida experienced throughout her life.
Bernier-Grand writes the narrative poems describing Frida’s
life from birth to death with such vividness in Frida’s first person voice that
I had to double-check to make sure these poems were not written by Frida
herself.
Hummingbird
Wings
I am a
wounded hummingbird
caged in my
room for nine months
with polio,
crippling polio.
Her entire life was a tug-of-war between the pain and health
issues she felt following polio and a crippling bus accident, and the joy
she felt in life when married to her love, Diego Rivera. Even when her marriage disintegrated after
Diego’s affair with Frida’s younger sister, and through the 31 surgeries she endured due to her accident, Frida continued believing that life
was worth living. These poems and the
accompanying paintings demonstrate the sadness and joys of her forty-seven
years of life.
The book also includes two photographs of Frida, a brief prose biography; a
chronological list of events from her birth to her death, Diego’s death, and
the opening of her Blue House as a museum; a glossary of the Spanish words used
throughout the poetry; sources of information including books, movies, and web
sites; notes; and acknowledgements.
Readers who already know something about the life of Frida Kahlo, as
well as those who do not, will come away from reading this biographical book of
poetry with rich insight into Frida’s life.
A Pura Belpre Honor Book and an ALA Notable book, this
volume would be an excellent addition to an art class, a history class, or an
English class.
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