Van Gogh's Bad Cafe: A Love Story

Long being an admirer of VanGogh's work, I was immediately interested in reading this brief novel when I discovered it recently. It's a heavy subject for an author to attempt -- I would think it would be much 'safer' to write about characters of one's own creation, eliminating any preconceptions that might be held by the reader -- but I can recommend this book very highly. Frederic Tuten has succeeded, I believe, in creating a believable view of VanGogh -- not a biography, but more like a snapshot or an observation.The center of the book is a wonderfully enigmatic woman named Ursula -- Van Gogh's lover, friend and fellow artiste (she's a photographer). She's also a morphine addict. Sharing addiction with Vincent (his addictions being to pain, art, and absinthe) gives them a bond that unites them in not only love but life. When Ursula steps through a crack in time to emerge into late 20th century Greenwich Village, the 'progress' she sees breaks her heart. She attempts to embrace it -- as she does everything else in her life -- but ultimately feels herself drawn back to her own time, to Vincent.The novel is subtitled 'a love story' -- and it is certainly that, but not in the traditional sense. The love here is not just the romantic variety, but love of life, of creation, of joy and pain -- all of the things that besiege and bless us all. The trick is to understand how to accept them.After reading about some of Tuten's other works, I'm not really sure if I want to read them or not -- I'll have to investigate them further -- but I'm certainly glad I stumbled across this little gem. It's a beautiful story, gently and lovingly told.

Beautiful, haunting, surreal, poetic. Not a book for realists or those seeking the everyday, this book allows you to enter tuten's dream for a few hours, then leave it with a thousand beautiful(and ugly)visions dancing before your eyes. A masterpiece.

Eloquent, sad, beautiful, desperate and desolate, this haunting fictional account of Van Gogh's life and those who knew and loved him is wonderful, beginning to end. The book focuses primarily on his love interest and her newfound companion, who exists in another place and time, both of them lost and desperate to be close to genius (namely Van Gogh). All in all, a gem.