Reading: food of my soul

I am reading a really good book. I read it every night when I go to bed until I cannot keep my eyes open any longer.

The book is The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. 

The story takes place in the later 30's through the late 40's in Mexico and the United States. 

The main character is a writer/cook who has mixed parentage, mother being Mexican and father, American. Both parents lead self absorbed lives, though in different ways. The mother, ties herself to rich oil barons and newspaper men, in an attempt to escape the excruiting monotony of being married to a man married to his government job. 

The main character lives most his life in Mexico, with a short stint in an east coast boarding school after his mother dies in a car accident when he is a boy. She was a huge figure in his life and her death caused a great sadness and personality change in him.

That part of the book is fairly good...but half way through it gets really good. 

Our man Shepherd goes to work in Mexico as a cook for Diego Rivera and Frida Khalo. Since he was a strange child moved from wealthy house to wealthy house, he hung out with the cooks, learning their skills. This serves him well, as he becomes first a plaster mixer, then the cook in not one but two households.

He develops a friendship with Frida and also Liev Trotsky whom is seeking asylum with the Rieveras, who were communist sympathizers. I won't ruin the story by telling what happens, but suffice it to say, the book offers a glimpse of pre and post WWII everyman, both in the Mexico but also in the United States . The main character is encouraged by Frida to become and artist with words and he does, when he is forced to leave Mexico after a very tragic event that changes his life in many ways.

Inevitably going onto fame with his books about Mexican history, which seem to be Kingsolver's forte. The political climate both before and after the war was so treacherous for so many people, we sometimes forget how "big brother" our country was, often catching innocents in it's net. 

As someone who loves art, especially Frida Khalo, I truly am enjoying this book. Too often we know the art, but not the artist, especially from someone else's perspective. The relationship between Shepherd and her is interesting, as two people who are not used to have real relationships, but struggle to have one. The political themes of the book are also very intriguing. Communism has long been portrayed as evil and democracy the converse good. But if you truly look at the two in practice, they are so similar it is hard to tell the difference. Thought provoking as always, Kingsolver has hit a home run with this book, at least in my view. I have about 14 pages left. The siren song of it and my warm bed are calling me...

PS. If you are interested in a great movie about Frida Khalo, watch Frida with Selma Hayek.

Lovely movie.