... a story that gets to its essence not by sticking too long with any one episode, but by showing through a long series of short memories that a lifetime of well-meaning neglect can breed fear, uncertainty, and dissatisfaction in children ... Upper Bohemia can feel disjointed; at times it is a frustrating read because Herrera moves so quickly from one memory to another. Still, Herrera espouses a form that mirrors her upbringing. She doesn’t stick to any one thing for long because the narrative of her own life was one of constant interruptions.
Herrera’s clear, piercing language both manifests and foils the allure of the society her mother calls 'Upper Bohemia.' Herrera’s craft shines in her ability to write candidly about class and privilege in a memoir dedicated to childhood wonder.The book imparts a desire for belonging and parental affirmation; Herrera writes affectionate and at times scandalous portraits that preserve her younger self, her siblings, her parents, and her parents’ lovers, sometimes with images of their naked bodies. And yet, the romance she best preserves in this memoir is her relationship with Cape Cod, a pastoral setting of lost generational wealth and intense familiarity ... Herrera’s memoir engages in discussions of mental health, equality, and fulfillment without passing judgement on her subjects; a rare feat. A riveting story of necessary resilience.
Ms. Herrera’s account of her privileged but wanting upbringing by narcissistic parents, who each married five times, is both insightful and forgiving ... Ms. Herrera paints a particularly vivid portrait of her aloof mother, a restless beauty forever seeking excitement ... Upper Bohemia carefully chronicles the tolls of instability on a sensitive child...whose sense of recall borders on the uncanny ... Upper Bohemia captures an enchanted but erratic childhood in a rarefied milieu with the critical but appreciative eye of a seasoned art historian.
Hayden Herrera offers a richly detailed account of her artistic and chaotic upbringing ... Herrera has a fine eye and impressive memory for period details ... But too often, she unfurls her life more as a timeline than a narrative, with consequential and trivial events rendered in the same tone. I often wanted the storytelling to slow down, to allow her adult voice to provide more perspective on her younger self. When Herrera does give traumatic events the space they deserve, they carry a powerful impact ... When Herrera ultimately describes her own adult life in contrast to her upbringing, she is able to frame her life and her parents’ later lives in thoughtful, forgiving and accepting ways.
Herrera’s incisive portraits of her parents and their volatile world subtly forecast her future calling as a superb biographer of artists Frida Kahlo, Isamu Noguchi, and Arshile Gorky (whose widow became Herrera’s stepmother and godmother) ... Herrera seems to have cultivated her keen powers of observation to survive neglect, upheaval, and worse. But she also recounts the joy she found in nature and other exhilarating experiences as she reveals a little-known realm of insistent liberation, romance, restlessness, recklessness, and the pursuit of beauty.
... [an] excellent memoir ... She maintains the perspective she had on events at that time, vividly evoking the little girl at the center of this story: her curiosity, pain, constant concern about her weight, disappointment in her father, and idolization of her mother ... The author’s accounts of the drive and the years in Mexico are highly cinematic, and Herrera avoids the excessive commentary, analysis, blame, and self-pity common in this type of memoir, allowing readers directly into the experience. In a satisfying epilogue, the author fills in the rest of the story up to the present day. The black-and-white photos attest to the beauty of the settings and all the people in them. By concentrating on telling a colorful, absorbing story rather than proving a point, Herrera moves and transports us.
In this intimate memoir...Herrera vividly brings to life her childhood summers in the 1940s and ’50s spent with her sister swimming at the family property, Horseleech Pond, in Cape Cod and of her chaotic and often magical experiences living in Manhattan and on the outskirts of Mexico City ... This is a sparkling portrait of a rarified and complex upbringing.
