The Secret Life of Sunflowers by Mara Molner was recommended by a friend. I thought about suggesting it to my book club, but decided to read it first. I will definitely recommend it when it’s my turn. I have grown to love historic fiction. This is an easy read, and it’s the third book I’ve read this month.
This book is about half fiction and half history, going back and forth in time. It follows the life of Emsley, an art auctioneer and granddaughter to Violet, a Hollywood Celebrity (current day, fiction). Her grandmother leaves a box to her, which contains an old diary, in addition to some letters written in Dutch. As Emsley is reading the diary, written in English in the 1800s, she realizes this is the diary of Johanna Bonger, the sister-in-law to Vincent Van Gogh. We are transported back in time to her life (historic and true with some fiction interspersed for the story’s sake). I learned a lot about the Van Goghs that I didn’t already know, or had forgotten.
Tim and I visited the Van Gogh museum nearly 30 years ago when we were in Amsterdam. It was our first trip overseas as a married couple (not including our mission trip to Mexico, as that was not technically “over-seas.”) We were on a tight budget. We booked the cheapest flight and that’s how we landed in Amsterdam. We also booked an inexpensive hotel. We were so new to traveling at the time, we really had no clue how to go about finding the best locations.
Little did we know, we would have to walk through the red light district to get anywhere! I remember the smell of cannibus everywhere we went, being offered to buy it in the shops, and feeling a little unnerved by the women standing in the windows as we walked through the district (I had never seen glow-in-the-dark underwear before – wow).
I also remember the good things. The canals, the very old architecture, the trams, and the snowflakes. They were the biggest I had ever seen fall from the sky; I have never seen any to compare since that day. People continued to ride their bikes as a primary means of transportation, even in the snow, holding an umbrella with one hand and the handlebar with the other. It was surreal. We also took a day tour of the windmills and a shoe factory. Now that I think of it, our daughter was 3 or 4 years old at the time. I bought her a little Dutch outfit which she wore for the fall festival later that year. Good memories.
Vincent Van Gogh was Dutch, and his brother Theo believed in his brother’s talent, trying to sell his work. He only sold one painting while Vincent was alive, and that was to a family friend. You may remember from art history that Vincent was mentally ill, and eventually committed suicide. What I did not remember was that his brother Theo was so grief-stricken and filled with remorse that he, too, ended up in a home for the mentally ill. He died about six months after Vincent. That’s the sad part of the story.
Johanna, now a widow and mother to an infant, took on her husband’s baton. It was her way of keeping the memory of her husband alive in her heart. She was rejected many times, but did not give up. She finally decided to represent his work herself. She was the first female art agent, and was not taken seriously in the beginning. However, her persistence was largely responsible for making Vincent’s artwork famous. Johanna kept impeccable notes in a diary, which Emsley is reading. There is an actual diary, which has now been made public. However, the author published the book just a few months before they were made public, and had to get her research from numerous other sources, mostly out of print. Her recounting of Johanna seems to be spot on though, in my humble opinion. Regardless, The Secret Life of Sunflowers is a great story with a lot of uplifting quotes that encourages women to just “go for it.”
Emsley’s life also provided some levity to the book. I think it added immensely to imagine that her grandmother had in her possession the diaries of Vincent’s sister-in-law. Emsley’s friends (and Violet) made me laugh, and her pet chicken was a great addition to the story.
Read it. You won’t be disappointed.
Vincent Van Gogh painted a lot of sunflowers, which provided some insight into his life. His addition of color amidst all the gray in his other paintings (as well as life) brought moments of happiness for the artist. Apparently, sunflowers will grow wherever they are planted, regardless of soil type. He believed sunflowers were stretching toward the sun in gratitude. The is a reminder for us to do the same.
Also, if you believe someone is suffering from a mental illness, please reach out and help them. You may be the only sunflower in their life.
À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!