Praise for Beauty is Convulsive A Chicago Review of Books Best Book of the Month "Maso's incantatory description of her conjured-up subject's embrace takes on extraordinary power . like Frida Kahlo's painting--impossible to look away from." --Kai Maristed, Los Angeles Times "Maso repeatedly cites Rivera's description of Kahlo's art as ascetic and tender, hard as steel and fire and delicate as a butterfly's wing, adorable as a beautiful smile and profound and cruel as life's bitterness. Without a doubt, one might apply these same words to Maso's precise and poetic prose, which brims with emotion, imagination, intelligence, and beauty." --Trey Strecker, Review of Contemporary Fiction "An utter original, one of the true and plangent voices in American writing." --Mary Gordon, author of There Your Heart Lies "[A] consistently inventive writer. Maso's prose has generated wide respect, making this an important purchase for libraries with literary fiction collections." --Carolyn Kuebler, Library Journal "There's been more than enough written on Kahlo to fill bookstore display tables.

This . may be one of the best." -- Publishers Weekly "Maso, a highly original writer, distills her contemplation of Kahlo's indelible paintings and vital diaries and letters into a supple, discerning, and haunting prose poem, a biographical meditation that elegantly charts Kahlo's epic resiliency, artistic daring, unrelenting suffering, soul-saving 'sense of the ridiculous,' and glorious defiance. Maso's spare yet lyric tribute, a genuine communion, is a welcome antidote to the mawkishness and sensationalism that is starting to blur our appreciation for Kahlo's pioneering art and incandescent spirit." --Donna Seaman, Booklist.