A Review of Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick

Sunflowers

Author: Sheramy Bundrick

ISBN: 9780061765278

Print Book Price: $14.99

Publisher: HarperCollins

Score: (4.25 out of 5)

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Rachel, a prostitute, takes a nap in a garden. When she awakens she finds, Vincent van Gogh, an artist, drawing her. She's heard about him, the odd foreigner who paints. Although she finds him interesting, she makes him stop.

After, she tells him about the brothel she works in and hopes he'll call on her. When he arrives it becomes apparent he has little money.

Still she is intrigued. Their mutual attraction draws them together and they begin a tender relationship. Rachel spends her non-working time with him. She makes his meals and spends the night in his rented house when she can.

Then one night, he shows up at the brothel and gives her his severed ear. She faints and has a miscarriage. When she heals, she learns Vincent is in the hospital.

Deeply in love, she goes to visit him. After a long recovery, he moves back into the yellow house and they resume their relationship. By turns despondent and euphoric, Vincent is desperate to sell his paintings to support himself.

Meanwhile, their love grows. Then he falls ill again and is admitted to an asylum. While neighbors and some friends turn against him, Rachel continues to love and support him.

He recovers only to have more episodes. Throughout, Rachel remains loyal hoping to become his wife once he is better.

Sunflowers was an oddly sweet love story that left me with mixed emotions. While I usually love historical fiction based on real people, I felt this one held too few historical facts to surmise Vincent had had a grand love affair in the final years of his life.

I would like to believe this true, because there is no doubt of the man's genius and of his suffering. I would like to believe he'd been treated with the kindness Rachel's character had shown.

At any rate, I enjoyed learning about van Gogh and his trials during this period of his life. If one can tell anything from his work, he was passionate. He is portrayed as passionate in the book and likely, given the author's research on the topic, we got a flavor of the real Vincent.