From left, Frida Kahlo in 1938; Self-portrait with thorn necklace and hummingbird, 1940 (detail); Kahlo in 1939. Credit: Photos: Nickolas Muray Photo Archives She would be bored of it all by now.

(Other figures to come to her aid included Frida Kahlo, Marsha P. Johnson, Audrey Hepburn, and Miss Piggy.) When Mulvaney first set out to write a memoir, it was supposed to be a straightforward ...