FROM THE PUBLISHER

Frida is a fictional biography of Frida Kahlo, the legendary Mexican artist known for her surreal self-portraits. The book, told by her younger sister, Cristina, gives us an intimate, adoring and envious look at the passionate, talented and tormented woman behind the canvases.

Suffering from polio as a child and a crippling accident as a teenager, Frida's life was riddled with pain. Various treatments only increased her suffering. She often was confined to her bed, where she sometimes had to use a mirror to paint.

Her marriage to Diego Rivera, the muralist, was tumultuous. His affairs with women would drive Frida to have her own affairs with both men and women. However, she would view Diego's affair with her sister Cristina as the ultimate betrayal, the greatest hurt.

Behind a backdrop of great drama, a constant parade of Mexican politicians and international artists shared the stage with Frida. The parties, soirees and political gatherings were charged with excitement, fervor and even political violence. By using Cristina to tell Frida's story, Barbara Mujica shows us what it's like to live in the shadow of celebrity -- the woman who attends the party as a guest, not the star.

In the end, even as Frida spiraled downward into a haze of alcohol and drugs, it was Cristina that was always there for her. While cancer ultimately killed Frida, her wild life also played a part in her death at the age of 44.

Readers will explore Frida with this book, and for many it will be as one reviewer said - "a captivating introduction to the life -- and death -- of Frida Kahlo." (Grand Rapids Press)

FROM THE CRITICS

Book Magazine

Mujica, professor of Spanish at Georgetown University and two-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize, has here created an absorbing fictionalized account, drawn from twentieth-century Mexican history, of the life of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. The story is narrated by Frida's younger sister Cristina to her psychiatrist after Frida's death in 1954, at the age of forty-seven. A casualty of intense sibling rivalry, Cristina is emotionally overshadowed by her famous sister, and psychologically shattered by her harrowing death. Though a work of fiction, this book has a cast of characters that includes such historical figures as Leon Trotsky, Maria Felix, Dolores del Rio, Paulette Goddard and Frida's husband, the artist Diego Rivera. Some readers may question the liberties taken by Mujica in the name of historical fiction￯﾿ﾽfor example, in the book, Cristina is involved in an intimate relationship with her sister's husband. Most, however, will be compelled by this portrait of a powerful, talented, remarkably troubled woman. —Mikita Brottman

Publishers Weekly

Confessions of a guilt-ridden sister spill off the pages of this tell-all historical fiction based on the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, as narrated by Kahlo's younger sister, Cristina. Creakily structured--the text purports to be a transcription of Cristi's conversations with her psychiatrist--and sometimes transparently didactic, the novel paints a detailed picture of Kahlo and her milieu. Bullied in school for being half Jewish, Frida and Cristina grow up in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 in Coyoacan, in the Central Plateau. Cristi, a very ordinary child, often feels eclipsed by her older sister, whether seeking attention from their emotionally distant father or later, from Frida's famous, philandering husband, muralist Diego Rivera. Despite Cristi's jealousies and Frida's insatiable need for attention, the girls keep in close touch when Frida goes away to school in Mexico City and Cristi is forced to take a job to help pay family bills. As Frida's life expands to include marriage to Rivera and travel in the United States, Cristi's world shrinks: she ends up back at home, caring for her two small children and ailing mother. Although events in Mexican history and the adventures of Frida's famous friends make for some intrigue, narrator Cristi is simply not compelling enough to sustain the reader's interest. Her very identity is defined by Frida, and although she professes to love her sister, the bitterness in her voice is evident as she reminds the reader that she was prettier than Frida and that Rivera loved to paint her in the nude. However, there are two movies in the making about Frida Kahlo's life, starring, respectively, popular Latina actresses Jennifer Lopez and Salma Hayek--and they could spark interest in all things Frida. Agent, Scovil, Chichak, Galen. (Jan.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

KLIATT - Nancy Chrismer

An excellent piece of writing, this fictional biography of the famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo will be most enjoyed by those who have an interest in her art, her famous husband, Diego Rivera, and Mexican culture and atmosphere in the early 20th century. Frida's story is told through the eyes of her younger sister, Cristina, who loves her but is also jealous of her and later has an affair with her husband Diego. Cristina takes us from Frida's childhood to her death, painting a fascinating portrait of the tortured life she led. Frida's life was filled with physical problems that only worsened as she grew older and forced her to give up her dream of becoming a doctor. She started to paint when she was too ill to do anything else. She met Diego when he was painting a mural at her school, and she insisted on watching him paint. She eventually married him, divorced him, and remarried him, but their relationship was tumultuous, filled with affairs and betrayals. Both Frida and Diego were involved in politics and supported the Communist movement in Mexico. They became friends with Leon Trotsky, who was assassinated in Mexico, and in fact, Frida had earlier had an affair with him. As Cristina tells Frida's story along with her own, the art, politics, love, jealousy, sibling rivalry, and deep feeling all combine to form a picture of Frida's famous but tortured soul. As a fictional biography, this closely follows the actual people, events, and relationships of Frida's life, and it is a realistic portrayal. Only at the end, when Cristina supposedly gives her physically wasted, alcoholic, and drug-addicted sister an overdose to end her life, does the novel differ greatly from what we know to be trueabout Frida's life. Because of the graphic sexual content as well as the mature themes, this book would be best suited to mature students or to adult readers. The novel's value, however, lies in the immense insight it gives to the reader of the art and lives of both Frida and Diego, and of Mexican history and politics in the first half of the 20th century. KLIATT Codes: A￯﾿ﾽRecommended for advanced students and adults. 2001, Plume, 366p.,

Library Journal

This imaginative, fact-based novel from Pushcart Prize winner Mujica (The Deaths of Don Bernardo) uses the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo to explore a panoply of themes: competition between siblings, the meaning of marital fidelity, and the role of the arts in social activism. The story is narrated by Cristina Kahlo, Frida's sister and lifelong understudy. Throughout, the tone is confessional, as if Cristina were letting the reader in on a multitude of domestic secrets, from the ways xenophobia and anti-Semitism hurt the half-Jewish Kahlo family to the way illness and disability--their father's epilepsy and Frida's childhood polio, followed by a near-fatal trolley accident when she was 18--skewed household dynamics and personality development. As the saga unfolds, sexual longings take center stage, and Frida's passionate if tumultuous relationship with left-wing muralist Diego Rivera is made painfully real. In addition, the Kahlos' personal tale is set in political context, and people including Leon Trotsky, John D. Rockefeller, Dolores Del Rio, and Edsel Ford make well-integrated appearances. Brilliantly crafted, this book resonates with historical and psychological insight. Highly recommended.--Eleanor J. Bader, Brooklyn, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

White - New York Times Book Review