The Eyes of van Gogh (review)

Ellenville, Pennsylvania initially looks like just another stop for Jude and her hard-drinking and rootless mother, but Jude soon finds herself growing attached. She spends time with her institutionalized grandmother, who's brain-damaged after a stroke, and she imagines the woman to be providing the ideal and nurturing responses that Jude's mother never offers; in school she finds friends and solid encouragement for her artistic talent. Most importantly, she finds Todd, a gentle football player whose devotion, Jude is sure, will lead to his providing the home for which she's always longed. The picture of depressed and lonely Jude is tenderly drawn, and it's credible that such a girl would begin to identify with the tortured soul of Van Gogh. Jude's efforts to find security and approval are poignantly depicted, and readers will see early on that her hopes of Todd are somewhat unfair as well as misplaced. Unfortunately, the carefully wrought buildup is squandered with an abrupt resolution that leaves Jude suddenly hunky-dory after a failed suicide attempt and a medically implausible coma, grossly undercutting the subtle accretion of setbacks and sorrow that had put Jude in extremis. Still, she's compelling in her defeat if not in her eventual victory, and readers will empathize with her yearning for release.