The Eyes of van Gogh

Cathryn Clinton eloquently describes the internal and external world of a struggling artistic teenager, Jude, in this wonderful novel. The young woman has just moved, yet again, with her somewhat irresponsible mother. Jude begins to find a niche in her high school and finds solace in visits with her grandmother, who is in a coma in a nursing home. But just as it seems as though everything is coming together for Jude, she falls apart. Although I don't usually read young adult literature, I found this book hard to put down. As a resident of Lancaster County, I also liked the way the story was set here and included realistic descriptions of the area.

Something about this book cought my eye, and I'm so glad I picked it up. Difficult subjects like depression and thoughts of suicide can sometimes turn into an afterschool special, but Clinton handles it with such creativity that you forget that you are reading about despair and leave the book with a feeling of hope. Her main theme is perspective. As a reader on the outside of the situation you can see the downward spiral happening and feel powerless to stop it, but once Jude (the main character) begins to see things from another perspective...well, read for yourself. Highly recommended.

A small town in Pennsylvania is yet another move and new school experience for Jude and her shiftless mother, but unlike the other towns, Jude finds reasons to want to stay. She regularly visits her grandmother, in a post-stroke coma, and imagines her grandma's responses to Jude's thoughts and questions to be caring and supportive, unlike what she has ever known in her life. In her senior year of high school, she is blessed with two real friends and a teacher who encourages her artistic talent and who *gets it* when she identifies with the tortured artist, Van Gogh. Jude's loneliness and depression are real and gently portrayed and her pursuit of the security she has always longed for leads her to a reality that she cannot allow herself to believe is real. She gives in to the depression and decides life is not worth living, yet in doing so, she moves through the what appears to be defeat to finding hope for the future. Cathryn Clinton has sensitively and accurately tapped the universal need to belong and to be understood and readers of all ages will empathize with Jude and will champion her life, not wanting the story to end, wanting to know who and what she becomes as she continues to grow up.