Title: Mona's Eyes
Author: Thomas Schlesser
A brief overview, from the publisher:
"Ten-year-old Mona and her beloved
grandfather have only fifty-two Wednesdays to visit fifty-two works of
art and commit to memory “all that is beautiful in the world” before
Mona loses her sight forever.
While the doctors can find no explanation for Mona’s brief episode of blindness, they agree that the threat of permanent vision loss cannot be ruled out. The girl’s grandfather, Henry, may not be able to stop his granddaughter from losing her sight, but he can fill the encroaching darkness with beauty. Every Wednesday for a year, the pair abscond together and visit a single masterpiece in one of Paris’s renowned museums. From Botticelli to Basquiat, Mona learns how each artist’s work shaped the world around them. In turn, the young girl’s world is changed forever by the power of their art. Under the kind and careful tutelage of her grandfather, Mona learns the true meaning of generosity, melancholy, love, loss, and revolution. Her perspective will never be the same—nor will the reader’s."
While the doctors can find no explanation for Mona’s brief episode of blindness, they agree that the threat of permanent vision loss cannot be ruled out. The girl’s grandfather, Henry, may not be able to stop his granddaughter from losing her sight, but he can fill the encroaching darkness with beauty. Every Wednesday for a year, the pair abscond together and visit a single masterpiece in one of Paris’s renowned museums. From Botticelli to Basquiat, Mona learns how each artist’s work shaped the world around them. In turn, the young girl’s world is changed forever by the power of their art. Under the kind and careful tutelage of her grandfather, Mona learns the true meaning of generosity, melancholy, love, loss, and revolution. Her perspective will never be the same—nor will the reader’s."
Insights and Opinions
Translated from the French, Mona's Eyes is actually two things -- an in-depth study of each of 52 pieces of art and a story about the relationship between a young girl and her beloved grandfather and their mutual fear of her possible future blindness. This double purpose was precisely the reason for a profound split in the reactions of our group to the work.
The story opens with a brief episode of blindness for young Mona, which terrifies both the child and the parents. An emergency medical visit leads to no helpful answers. The temporary solution is to continue regular visits to Mona's physician and also to begin sessions with a child psychologist. Mona's grandfather offers to handle the psychiatry visits, provided he can choose the doctor and accompany Mona without interference. Everyone agrees, and the novel settles into its format, which looks roughly like this:
- Each chapter begins with a scene of a few pages -- Mona with her friends, or Mona at school, or Mona at her father's resale shop. In these scenes, we learn that Mona's mother is frazzled, Mona's father drinks too much, and there is a mystery surrounding a dead grandmother no one speaks about.
- Next, Mona and her grandfather arrive at a museum (there are three art museums in all), and stop in front of a piece of art. The artwork is then described in lengthy detail. Mona is directed to look at the art as long as she is able. In some cases, she studies for as long as 20 minutes. The museum visits occur when Mona's parents believe she and her grandfather are at an appointment with a psychiatrist.
- Then, her grandfather asks her to tell him what she notices and they discuss the work. Typically, some sort of moral or nugget of wisdom about living life emerges from these discussions. Each of these "nuggets" forms part of the chapter title.
Our discussion made one thing clear from the outset -- there are two ways to read this book.
- Method one: One can read the book word for word, chapter by chapter, lengthy artwork description by lengthy artwork description.
- Method two: Or, one can skim over the lengthy artwork descriptions and just read it for the story of Mona and grandpa and school and mom and dad and the missing grandmother and whether Mona will ultimately lose her vision.
Members of our group fell into two camps -- those who followed method one and those who (more or less) followed method two, perhaps starting with method one and then moving to method two for various reasons.
+ For some, the lengthy artwork descriptions grew tedious, especially given the fact that there are 52 of them. As someone who spent 20 years leading tours in front of art, Margy felt that this particular ground is well covered elsewhere for any student of art. "I did think this was a clever device, though, the way he was able to advance the story by tying it to what they were looking it."
+
Vicky, on the other hand, saw the artwork descriptions as
interpretations that added to her understanding. "It's not like your
normal book. It's a conceit. You must let go of normal expectations and
just let it be what it is."
+ Steve said he learned more from this book than from a semester at Vanderbilt and plans to listen to it in French.
+ Liz found it a slow read but worth the time spent. "I read it not as a novel but as a philosophy of life. Look at the message attached to each work of art. And I learned a lot. The writer is an art historian, and I was happy to learn from him. I know I couldn't look at a piece of art for 20 minutes in silence, and I certainly don't believe any 10-year-old could. But I didn't care if the reaction from a 10-year-old was believable." Vicky agreed. "A 10-year-old won't stand there, but I will. I'm interested. I agree it's not believable. The dialogue between them isn't realistic, but as a writer, you just get beyond that."
+ Jocey succumbed to tedium after awhile. "52 times," she said. Chris admitted to switching to the skimming method after about the sixth chapter. "I did make it through, but I skimmed a lot and used Chat GPt." Linda claimed annoyance with the first third, but then "I just got into it and let go." Margy said "I was with you guys and then realized I was running out of time and I thought I'd skim and just read the story. By doing that, it turns out I don't like or believe these people."
+ Per our group, the story portion of the novel falls short. Schlesser has a tendency to introduce characters and circumstances that seem like they will be important, and then dropping them altogether later. Mona's father's alcohol problem seems like it will lead somewhere, but it doesn't. Some felt the final resolution about Mona's eye condition was a bit out of left field and not believable.
+ Both Linda and Margy cited Debra Dean's novel The Madonnas of Leningrad as the clear winner over Mona's Eyes if one is looking for a novel with a strong story and a careful study of specific works of art.
+ Chris noted that reviews of Mona's Eyes are mixed. "Reviewers either love it or they don't." Just like us.
Our Next Read
For June, this is what we will be doing:
Title: Ghosts of Fourth Street: My Family, a Death, and the Hills of Duluth
Author: Laurie Hertzel, who will attend
Host: Jocey
Audience: Both book club members and mates are welcome (and other special friends)
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| A pretty good crowd for this session. |
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| Steve joined via Zoom. |
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