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Frida & Diego: Art, Love, Life

Review

Frida & Diego: Art, Love, Life

Any piece of biographical work deserves a plethora of applause, since it takes an intense amount of work to produce a piece on the entire existence of a human life. But when two people are the biographical specimens, one can only imagine the countless hours spent leafing through books, studies and museum inventories. FRIDA & DIEGO: Art, Love, Life is a precise view into the minds and lives of two of Mexico’s most famed artists.

Catherine Reef’s book reminds me of a one of the murals Diego Rivera might have constructed. It was part art history, part world history, part politics and part biography. Reef binds these two controversial figures together with enough ease to convince readers that Frida and Diego were indeed one specimen. The story of the two artists is a fascinating study into the human psyche and how it reacts when pushed to its limits in life and love. Reef illustrates the intensity of the love that the two shaped and it how it influenced their lives.

"Reef managed to write a biography that gives a reader so much more than facts and figures. She infused her writing with culture, geography, and a psychological insight into the life and times of the two artists."

With guiding photographs and plenty of quotes, it was very easy to see what it was about Frida and Diego that was so charming, yet potentially off-putting. FRIDA & DIEGO embraces radical thought and action, and it was clearly written for fans of the Mexican artists and for those who may be perplexed by the two, but intrigued nonetheless. The amount of coverage that each artist receives may seem unequal, but it brings up a great point about the artists themselves; Frida lived her life for the world to see and in a perpetually vulnerable state whereas Diego hid behind an insensitive, selfish mask.  Riotous, courageous Frida was readily available to all while Diego remained a stubborn enigma to those in his company.

Reef managed to write a biography that gives a reader so much more than facts and figures. She infused her writing with culture, geography, and a psychological insight into the life and times of the two artists. Nothing is better than a book that fulfills your intellectual, creative, and curious mind. With FRIDA & DIEGO, you can begin to study and learn history or you can continue to feed your mind with the ethereal story of these two Nicholas-Sparks-gone-wrong lovers.

Reviewed by Yaira M., Teen Board Member on August 20, 2014

Frida & Diego: Art, Love, Life
by Catherine Reef

  • Publication Date: August 26, 2014
  • Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Young Adult 12+
  • Hardcover: 176 pages
  • Publisher: Clarion Books
  • ISBN-10: 0547821840
  • ISBN-13: 9780547821849