Louise and Vincent
Byington’s novel’s covers the last 70 days of Vincent van Gogh’s life, when he stayed at the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. The novel paints an evocative portrait of the artist who paints so boldly and originally, and the man who is beset with mental illness and crushing rejection by the art world. What Byington introduces into this biographical novel is Van Gogh’s imagined affair with his innkeeper, Louise Ravoux. As Byington rightfully claims: “Speculation is the purview of fiction.”
Louise is the first-person narrator of this story. She is married to a brute who steals the income from their inn to drink and support his mistress. She has two daughters to whom she is devoted. And she is a painter herself, delighted to have Van Gogh as a guest. Their relationship builds slowly, believably from teacher/student to lovers (albeit short-lived).
The novel creates a sympathetic heroine in Louise, and the plot is as much about her coming into her own as a woman as it is about her relationship with Van Gogh. She meets various challenges as a daughter, wife, mother, friend, and entrepreneur with real intelligence and real emotion.
The plot is developed with sharp suspense and keeps the reader engaged. The only weakness in this novel is its dialogue, which is often stilted and awkward.
