Customer Reviews

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera (Pegasus Library)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book gave me a glimpse into Frida's life, the turmoil she must have constantly felt to love a man whose weakness was all women. I could almost feel her thoughts through the author's words.
The ending brought me to tears. I wish I knew her. Once I started reading, I couldn't put this book down! thank you for a glimpse into Frida and Diego's lives.

This book provides better than average insight into lives of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. While people are now eagerly awaiting the Fall 2002 Selma Hayek movie on Frida, this book does provide some background into the world of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. If you are unfamilar with these artists this book would be a good place to start.

The photographs include some not seen in the many other books on Kahlo, which is the primary strength of this book. However, it seems that some of the facts are drawn from the March biography of Rivera - which is at best questionable - and at worst Rivera's mythical reinterpretation of his own life. The unusual grammar and typographical errors are somewhat distracting at times. Overall, however, it provides a nice overview of the important points in the Kahlo-Rivera relationship.

I'm baffled that a book can be published with so many typos and gross errors. Frida's name is even misspelled "Kahalo" in one place. It states her tragic accident happened on "17 December 1925" which it did not (it was September) and it says this twice. On the very next page it shows her diary entries discussing her pain from the injuries, the entries are dated October 1925 and on. I mean it's really distracting and totally unacceptable. Sentences were incomplete and you are left rereading and looking for the rest of the statement. Some of the sentences just didn't make any sense. I ended up reading with a pencil in hand to make corrections. As for the actual bio info, I agree it's interesting, but Frida and Diego were unquestionably fascinating people even in poorly written text. Thankfully I checked this out from our public library. I would NOT recommend this book to anyone. Get another bio from a different publisher. One that is reputable, responsible and does good work. I give it two stars for photo selection.

This book is a very good introduction to the tragic love story of Frida Kahlo and her husband, the famous Mexican muralist and womanizer Diego Rivera. It presents an insight into their stormy relationship and how it affected her personal life and her art. If you are just getting acquainted with Frida Kahlo this is a great "Frida Kahlo 101" book. It's very well written and easy reading. There are several color illustrations of works by both artists as well as several black & white photos. Although several illustrations of their works are included, there is very little discussion of the works....this book is, for the most part, biographical. And, yes, as another reviewer on Amazon.com pointed out, there are a few typos in the text, and some of the sentence structure is a bit "unusual" and there are a couple of facts that aren't quite right...but just overlook that and you'll find this book very interesting and informative.

This is a wonderful short collection of color prints and includes an account of the lives of two great artists, troubled though they were. For art lovers who don't love spending a fortune on their art books, this volume is a natural. I highly recommend it.