I am really falling in love with Cynthia Rylant. I can't believe I never knew about her wonderful talent before now. This book is another in the quickly lengthening list of her books that speak to me on more than one level. I am amazed at how much she is able to pack into this book of only 53 short pages.
Magical things happen in this cafe operated by a father and daughter team. Unusual animals show up and have a marvelous effect on visitors, the owner takes to writing poetry which predicts the future, magic muffins heal injured children, and a movie star comes to wait for his angel to come and take him to heaven (Did anyone else catch the fact that the movie star is homosexual? I found this interesting). I am a fan of fantasy. It is definitely my favorite genre. This book is a fantasy, yes, but it is so much more than that.
As I mentioned in class a theme I see in a lot of Rylant's work is having an appreciation of who and where you are, no matter where that may be. This book is the most wonderful example yet of that ideology. The Van Gogh Cafe is a place where magic happens but, it is also a place where people come to heal, rest and be taken care of. The cafe is magical even without its' magic. Marc and Clara have a deep love and appreciation for their little cafe. They put their all into it. You can feel that love in the way Clara describes it. She starts with the fact that it used to be a theatre and then "shows us around the place". The Hydrangeas painted on the walls in the bathroom, the porcelain hen, the Bless All Dogs sign (I love that I get that now)and the phonograph playing the song about being nice to come home to all make us, the reader, feel as welcome as the customers do when Clara pours them their coffee.
The people who come to the cafe are sometimes changed in dramatic ways by the magic. But, everyone who comes to the cafe, magic happenings or no, has a sense of belonging and friendship that brings them back again and again. I was wishing that Solomon Slinger and his Angel could join Marc and Clara at the Van Gogh Cafe. What a wonderful family they would make. My favorite chapter was the last one. The writer who had given up on his dream receives the most magical gift of all, inspiration. The love that flows through the cafe gives him the courage and the will to write the book he always wanted to write.
Here's the thing. I think that the writer in the last chapter is actually the narrator of this story. I think that the cafe's only magic was Clara and Marc and the love and friendship between them, the cafe and their customers. I think that this writer came to the cafe, received his inspiration and then wrote about this "MAGICAL" place. What do you think? This question is one of the reasons I love fantasy. Maybe you have a different interpretation.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
The Van Gogh Cafe By: Cynthia Rylant
I am really falling in love with Cynthia Rylant. I can't believe I never knew about her wonderful talent before now. This book is another in the quickly lengthening list of her books that speak to me on more than one level. I am amazed at how much she is able to pack into this book of only 53 short pages.
Magical things happen in this cafe operated by a father and daughter team. Unusual animals show up and have a marvelous effect on visitors, the owner takes to writing poetry which predicts the future, magic muffins heal injured children, and a movie star comes to wait for his angel to come and take him to heaven (Did anyone else catch the fact that the movie star is homosexual? I found this interesting). I am a fan of fantasy. It is definitely my favorite genre. This book is a fantasy, yes, but it is so much more than that.
As I mentioned in class a theme I see in a lot of Rylant's work is having an appreciation of who and where you are, no matter where that may be. This book is the most wonderful example yet of that ideology. The Van Gogh Cafe is a place where magic happens but, it is also a place where people come to heal, rest and be taken care of. The cafe is magical even without its' magic. Marc and Clara have a deep love and appreciation for their little cafe. They put their all into it. You can feel that love in the way Clara describes it. She starts with the fact that it used to be a theatre and then "shows us around the place". The Hydrangeas painted on the walls in the bathroom, the porcelain hen, the Bless All Dogs sign (I love that I get that now)and the phonograph playing the song about being nice to come home to all make us, the reader, feel as welcome as the customers do when Clara pours them their coffee.
The people who come to the cafe are sometimes changed in dramatic ways by the magic. But, everyone who comes to the cafe, magic happenings or no, has a sense of belonging and friendship that brings them back again and again. I was wishing that Solomon Slinger and his Angel could join Marc and Clara at the Van Gogh Cafe. What a wonderful family they would make. My favorite chapter was the last one. The writer who had given up on his dream receives the most magical gift of all, inspiration. The love that flows through the cafe gives him the courage and the will to write the book he always wanted to write.
Here's the thing. I think that the writer in the last chapter is actually the narrator of this story. I think that the cafe's only magic was Clara and Marc and the love and friendship between them, the cafe and their customers. I think that this writer came to the cafe, received his inspiration and then wrote about this "MAGICAL" place. What do you think? This question is one of the reasons I love fantasy. Maybe you have a different interpretation.
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2 comments:
I'm not a fan of fantasy, but truly enjoyed the Van Gogh Cafe. I think the fact that the magic happened to realy people really roped me into the fantasy of the book. I wondered after reading the final chapter if the cafe had always been named the Van Gogh Cafe; however, I did not think that the narrator in the story could have been the writer in the cafe. Awesome thought! I think your thinking makes sense... the writer wanted to share the inspiration of the cafe by creating magic for everyone in his fantasy world. I also liked that the magical cafe was managed by the father-daugher team and provided a sort of inner peace and inspiration for all it's customers.
I really like your idea about the narrator. I wonder if Rylant found herself in a place like The Van Gogh Cafe and wrote the book based on her own experience. It really is amazing how magical little things can be.
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