In the Casa Azul: A Novel of Revolution and Betrayal

by Meaghan Delahunt

This breathtaking first novel explores Leon Trotsky and his wife's years of Mexican exile in the home of Frida Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera. Mingled with the voices of Stalin's desolate young wife and that of Trotsky himself are the tales of the lesser known who have also created history--the Mexican artist who foretells Trotsky's death; a Bolshevik engineer surviving the chill of the Stalinist regime; the bodyguard who is unable to prevent the assassination. Together, the stories reveal the panorama of Russian history, revolution, and upheaval in the twentieth century.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Art, Own, Historical

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

MEAGHAN DELAHUNT is the author of The Red Book and In the Blue House, which was longlisted for the 2002 Orange Prize, won the Saltire First Book Prize, a Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year prize and a Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book. She is an award-winning short-story writer and her stories have been widely anthologized and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She lectures in creative writing at the University of Stirling, having previously taught in St. Andrews. bBorn in Melbourne, Meaghan Delahunt now lives in Edinburgh.

Reviews

[Susan Liston · Rating 1 out of 5]

The rating is purely my opinion, I see some glowing reviews, but I could not engage with this at all. First of all, despite the cover and the blurb, Frida Kahlo and the Casa Azul make very few appearances. This isn't a novel so much as a series of brief vignettes, three or four pages long at most, about a variety of characters, mostly Russian. Not only do we change narrators constantly, we also skip years and locations, it's 1954. then 1920, then 1898, then 1932 then 1940. Quite confusing. (If anyone wants to read an actual fictionalized account of Trotsky, Frida and Diego Rivera I would steer you towards The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver.)

[Madeline · Rating 5 out of 5]

"My body, the vessel.
As if history were something hot, something viscous, poured into the mold of a human being and left to cool through the ages. History, pushing the personality along through epochs and wars and revolutions and finally to the peace of the grave.
My body, the instrument of history."

A serious shock to the system. Delahunt (goddess of the written arts??) utilizes heartrendingly beautiful prose and an apparent expert understanding of the human experience to submerge readers into the minds of the Communist Revolution. The story offers an intimate and poetic exploration of the revolution's fiery inception, the bloody passion and fleeting stardom that defined the revolution, and the wisdom laying in its aftermath.

The story's focal point hovers around Lev Davidovich (Leon Trotsky)'s exile in Mexico City, where he temporarily stayed in the Casa Azul, Frida Kahlo's famous home in Coyoacán. However, the story isn't about Frida, nor is it necessarily about Leon Trotsky. Through a slew of fascinating narratives, the story is actually a thoughtful meditation on what it means to dedicate your life to a cause, the great burden and gift of loving and being loved, the lifelong grapple with the desire for greatness and, conversely, the fear of mediocrity, and how each of us comes to accept or deny our human limitations/death.

Delahunt demonstrated her ability to seamlessly pass between the minds of men, women, artists, revolutionaries, logical thinkers, suicidal poets, workers, religious thinkers, communists, capitalists, and more... She showed no reservation in representing the humanity, pain, and desire deeply embedded in each of us as we navigate the world, regardless of ideology or perspective.

I'm just going to say.... art. Food for a healthy soul. I feel like crying about this book. It took me so long to finish because I savored each sentence. I even abandoned it for a month because I couldn't bear for this reading experience to end. How often does one come across such spectacular work? Not often, my friend. Not often.

For the archives: I randomly found this book in the "Mexico" section at a tiny little bookshop in Mexico City called Under the Volcano Books. It's one of the only English book stores and is owned by an American man who drives a van all over the continent to build his collection of used books.
So many scenes in this book beautifully illustrate life in Mexico City and Mexican culture. I read most of the book while wandering around the city and, to my pure reader delight, kept finding myself in the same places that were on the page. It was truly an immersive experience, blending the smells, sights, and sounds of my reality with the highly saturated scenes within the story. Ugh, just so good.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was strangely written, told from the voices of many different characters, both in Mexico and in Russia,and going back and forth in time, mostly from 1927-1955, but also as far back as 1898. It tells of Trotsky's involvement with the Russian Civil War, his ousting from Russia by Stalin, his relationships with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, his years of exile in Mexico, the losses of his children, and the short affair he had with Frida Kahlo. The book cover tells that the novel "explores the Mexican exile of Leon Trotsky and his wife in the home of Frida Kahlo and her husband, Diego Rivera," but most of the book takes place NOT while Trotsky lived in their home, but after he and his wife moved out due to a falling out with the famous couple. There are also many sections that focus on Stalin and take place in Russia. There are also a lot of minor characters thrown in. All in all, I liked what I learned about Trotsky and Stalin, but I was annoyed by the mish-mash way the novel was written from so many perspectives and in different times. There seemed no rhyme, reason, or cohesiveness to it.

The title is misleading because this book doesn't really take place "In the Casa Azul" (Frida Kahlo's Blue House), and much of it doesn't even take place in Mexico, so I was disappointed because I wanted to get a better feeling for Mexico City and for Frida and Diego. Trotsky and Stalin and the Russian Revolution and the forming of the Soviet Union are really more of what this book is about, though Frida appears as an ever-present supporting character.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

A realistic and credible account of the exile and death of Leon Trotsky in Mexico and his relationship with Diego Ribera and Frida Khalo.
Told from the perspective of a range of historical characters and imagined people in Mexico and Russia the historical realities of revolution, exile, politics and relationships shine out.
Well written and easy to read.
There is an interesting comparison with Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna, a novel which covers the same events and relationships.

[Betsy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A surprising lack of Frida Kahlo in this book that should be at least half about Frida Kahlo

[Teri Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

“What is one life but a record of other lives?”

That is, I think, the sentence that sums up the structure and narrative devices of this novel.

I was hoping for historical fiction about Frida Kahlo but what I got was a history of the Russian revolution in personal vignettes. The chapters are brief, sometimes first person and sometimes third, sometimes 1920, sometimes 1954, sometimes 1889, etc, jumping about. There is not usually any obvious reason for a particular change of perspective or year, making the storyline difficult....
Until you come to the end and see this sentence—what is one life but a record of other lives? And then it becomes clear that this wasn’t meant to be a story, but rather a collection of the lives contained in the record of one life (Trotsky’s).

It did have some lovely writing.

[Shelley Cater · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meaghan Delahunt's debut novel is an historical fiction that chronicles Trotsky's exile in Mexico, hosted by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera at the casa azul. Written from the perspectives of witnesses to the events; from Trotsky's secretary, his wife Natalia, his assassin, Frida's "Judas-maker", and even the childhood minds of Stalin and Trotsky, this work is lyrical without being overly sentimental. Delahunt's evocation of the imagery of Mexico and the October Revolution in Russia is rich and colorful. Trotsky emerges as a bit more of the tragic hero than I would like, but overall this book was a great read.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating to read something set in the communist revolution (worldwide), definitely something left out of my American public school education. But the storyline drags to a hault about a third of the way in, and the characters are all over the place, not very connected, and often dull. I tried to perservere, for my education, but when the fictionalized version gets as slow as a textbook, that's when I throw in the towel.

[Elif · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the Casa Azul by Meaghan Delahunt is an interesting book about Trotsky's relationship with artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

English: https://elifthereader.com/books/in-th...
Türkçe: https://kitaplikkedisi.com/kitaplar/m...

[Charli Fulton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating historical novel about the assassination of Leon Trotsky in exile in Mexico. The story is told from many points of view, including Trotsky, his wife Natalia, the artist Frida Kahlo, Trotsky’s bodyguard, the killer, Stalin, Stalin’s wife, and Trotsky’s father. The novel begins during Trotsky’s exile, after his break with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, and flashes back to revolutionary times, to Stalin’s determination in the present to have Trotsky killed, and even back to Trotsky’s childhood estrangement from his parents. Despite all this changing in point of view and time period, the story was easy to follow because it focused on the beliefs of the characters and their motivations for their actions. A strange and interesting book; recommended.

[Cary B · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is quite poetic in the beginning chapters and seems to be a promising read. It's about the time that Trotsky lived in the Casa Azul with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Delahunt only touches briefly on Frida, nevertheless that part is interesting. The trouble is that then we're dragged into a load of turgid stuff about communism and the Russian Revolution which just isn't effective or interesting. I skimmed and skipped most of that, about half the book! Then I read the end about Frida's death and Trotsky's murder. Very unsatisfactory and a bit of a failure for me.

[Hermien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't expect a novel about Frida Kahlo and La Casa Azul but rather a bit of Russian history laid out through time capsules told by various historical and fictitious characters dealing with the conflict between Trotsky and Stalin, eg. the two protagonists themselves, Trotsky's father, Stalin's wife, Trotsky's secretary/bodyguard and Trotsky's assassin amongst others. I didn't find it too difficult to keep track of the various personages and the jumping back and forth in time and found it an intriguing and enjoyable read.

[Dee Rush · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was a good book but it was a little too hard to read. Lots of the sentences were in abstract phrases almost like works of impressionist art but as it was from several different view points it was unusual that they all have the same style. However it bore well under a second reading which allowed the book to flow much better and it was very interesting seeing the events of that time from different perspectives.

[Gustavo Gil · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing mix of stories about facts in the life of four people who stayed together in the Casa Azul: Trotsky and his wife, Frida and Diego. Stories are exposed form different narrators, part of the construction is taken from a Trotsky biography. At the end, Meaghan did an interesting job and she really absorbed part of the feelings lived by these two couples, when she visited the Coyoacan house.

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main character in this story is Trostsky. It is about his days in Coyoacan before he was murdered. About his relationship with Frida Kahlo. About la Casa Azul and some Mexican traditions. About Russia and its revolution. About Stalin and his second wife. Communism. I enjoyed reading this story. I liked the way it was written: like small pieces of a jigsaw puzzle or like squares that, when put together, will form a blanket.

[Denise Rawling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some reviewers seemed thrown by the episodic approach of bits of stories but I found the style engaging and the material fascinating - don't know as much as I would like about the start of the Russian Revolution. I now know more perhaps about Stalin than I might like but still an interesting and successful approach.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Choppy. Too many character centered chapters. Not enough background (required knowledge of the Russian revolution). Misleading quatrième de couverture-- makes you think it's about Frida Khalo but she's barely a minor character.

[Roisin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and beautifully woven together across time and narrators.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate the writing style but this was hard for me to follow at times. If you read this I would recommend researching Stalin & Trotsky beforehand.

[Robyn Sage · Rating 2 out of 5]

Excessive perspective changes and just lacks any explanation in like every place, more of a guess what's going on.

[Tripmastermonkey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book's beginning is really amazing. There are some passages on Frida's art that i thought were really insightful, some interesting commentary on certain marxists' prudishness around weird things like surrealism, and some powerful passages on the Spanish Civil War.

The book was evidently expanded from a short story, and the middle of the book was too drawn out for me. I could have done without all of the chapters on Stalin (the passages on his second wife are okay). & There are other vignettes around a Russian questioning certain aspects of Stalinism, but these chapters ultimately seem flat- like it was an obligation to write against Stalinism (but maybe it's different in Australia, where the author is from, for their communists...).

It's much better to return to Mexico in the later chapters, where the writing seems more thought-through, although nothing compares to the first section. This book starts out strong, and just slows down. So it goes.

[Arnoldo Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the Casa Azul provided an intimate access, a close encounter with the life now almost mythic, legend, of Frida Kahlo, a surprise. Frida Kahlo in this novel comes across as a human, a woman painter, frail, tough, vulnerable, protagonist of her own creation and creativity.

This is one of those books that almost demands non-stop reading from beginning to end and I wish it would go on even when the end the novel's and Frida's are inevitable, real, and you're able to realize how young she was and how powerful her work was.

[Judy King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating view of a turbulent time as the author expertly slides us gracefully from one narrator to another as each tells us their view of the times and situation--giving important bits of insider information.

It was interesting to stroll through the uncomfortable childhoods and young adulthoods of Stalin, Lenin and Trotsky--and seeing how they manifested these experiences into their famous lives and experiences.

I'm glad I read it.

[Hallie Yam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written book, and with so many different voices contributing to an old story from multiple perspectives. I only wished I knew more about the Russian Revolution (however, it did make me start looking into biographies of Stalin and Trotsky, and non-fiction books about the Russian Revolution, which I am totally okay with). The book was written so that each chapter almost could have been its own short story, which I found interesting, but very enjoyable.

[Ulas Ergin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book,not just in terms of its story but in terms of the way how the story is told. In fact I can not clearly say that the books is a story on x.At some point you find your self as Trocki between your wife Natali and lover Frida Kahlo.At some point you are Stalin feeling anger for Trocki.At some point you are Nadejda Allilueva(Stalin's second wife) considering suicide.At some point you are Svetlana Allilueva(Stalin's sister) observing your father's death.

[Marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me cogí este libro porque me encanta la vida de Frida Kahlo y el argumento de esta novela se centra en la etapa en la que Frida tuvo a Trotski y a su esposa en su casa, ya que estos estaban exiliados y perseguidos. Hay pasajes que son muy bonitos, próximos a la poesía. El punto negativo es que hay muchas voces narrativas y los conocimientos históricos de esa época se dan por supuestos.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel, about the assasination of Leon Trotsky by an agent of Stalin, is a poetic, lyrical, hard-headed Historical account of one of the great betrayals of the 20th Century. Delahunt weaves a tale of intense interest and high tension and drama even though the story itself is well known.

[Peter Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a quite astounding and beautiful first book with a unique and interesting construction, giving a lot of well-researched background to the Russian revolution. I could not help but marvel at the deep insights to the human condition that this young author was able to produce.

[ANGELAGAIAMOLA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tutta parte dalla realtà ma risulta un romanzo. La stesura è piacevole e si riesce a seguire la storia pur essendoci il flash back. E' stato molto bello conoscere le diverse storia in diverse parte del mondo e nei vari periodi storici. Bello molto bello. Lo consiglio

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel about the life of Frida Kahlo...