the brunette bibliophile: carole maso

Monday, July 30, 2012

Review: Beauty is Convulsive: The Passion of Frida Kahlo by Carole Maso

title: Beauty is Convulsive: The Passion of Frida Kahlo [purchase here]

author: Carole Maso

pages: 170

genre: poetry

published: 2002

source: New York Public Library

"Something strange had happened. Frida was totally nude. The collision had unfastened her clothes. Someone in the bus, probably a house painter, had been carrying a packet of powdered gold. This package broke, and the gold fell all over the bleeding body of Frida. When people saw her they cried, "¡La bailarina, la bailarina!" With the gold on her red, bloody body, they thought she was a dancer." (p.33)

In college, I was three measly credits shy of a double major in Art History, and any lecture that focused on the work of Frida Kahlo was always a highlight. As an artist and as a woman she was vibrant, outspoken, honest, raw and incredibly talented.

Carole Maso's poetic exploration of Kahlo's life did for Frida lyrically what Julie Taymor did for her cinematically. Both were haunting, dreamlike, and pitch-perfect in capturing Kahlo's aesthetic.

Maso drew from Kahlo's own diaries, medical documents, and letters as well as her biography to craft her poetic exploration of/dialogue with Kahlo's life and art. I found Beauty is Convulsive incredibly hard to put down, as Maso managed to really appropriate Kahlo's use of startling, jarring, hallucinatory imagery in her work to create a piece that was moving and visceral.

"Beauty is convulsive or not at all." (p.124)

Rubric rating: 8.5 I am adding Room Lit By Roses and Break Every Rule: Essays on Language, Longing, and Moments of Desire to my epic "to read" list, and I'm adding Beauty is Convulsive to my "must purchase" list.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

I'm back!!!!

It has been more than a hot minute since I've posted, and for that I sincerely apologize. A couple of reasons:

1) My close friends, R & N, got married! It was an epic celebration of their love...and after the ceremony I edited over 700 pictures. So that took some time...if you'd like to see pics, they're posted over at my event photography tumblr agirlcalledjack photography.

2) My younger brother and his wife are expecting a little girl, Paisley Michelle, and I've been shopping like a crazy person. She'll be my first niece of what I anticipate will be several nieces/nephews from those two, and I couldn't be more excited for them. Pics from the shower should be up on the photography site this week, too.

(n.b. re: the name Paisley. When I first heard the name, my thoughts were more along the lines of this. But then I caught an episode of Toddlers and Tiaras (I may be a book snob, but my taste in TV is admittedly low brow) featuring Paisley, and SHE'S THE MOST HILARIOUSLY PRECOCIOUS CHILD I'VE EVER SEEN!!! She has this sense of comedic timing and the things that come out of her mouth are priceless! If our Paisley comes out even half as spunky and witty, we're golden.)

3) I launched a style blog! I am a beauty product junkie, and spend almost as much time reading Vogue and style/design blogs as I spend curled up with a book, and I figured I needed to create a home for my stylish musings separate from that of my literary ones. If you're interested, check it out over at XOXO, Jacki.

But I'm back with you and my regular blogging schedule should more or less resume by the end of the week. Coming soon...

Reviews of:
A Sense of Direction by Gideon Lewis-Kraus