I cannot think of Van Gogh without the accompanying beauty and pain that surrounds his life and work. Van Gogh’s art is known for it’s beauty, bright and bold colors, and expressive brush strokes that became an influence for countless artists since his death. But he is also known for taking his life tragically young and for his work being unappreciated during his lifetime.
When we think of Vincent Van Gogh, I think we’re often reminded of two parallel infinities and the eternal tightrope that we walk between life and death and the constant question of what it means to be alive. This is the exact same feeling I had while reading The Undead Truth of Us by Britney S. Lewis.
Days before Zharie’s mom dies, she turns into a zombie. A zombie that is different than what we’ve seen before and different from the movies. She isn’t hungry for brains, she hasn’t lost her mind, and she is still full of emotion, but something has drained the life from her, turning her skin into rot. And that’s how it begins: death starts following Zharie everywhere. Zombies begin to inhabit Zharie’s world, but no one seems to notice. They are a reminder of mortality and a reminder of her mother. They walk down the street, they go about their lives, and they even move into her apartment building, but still no one can see them but Zharie.
When she meets Bo, who turns into a half zombie right before her eyes, something feels different. He isn’t anything like what she thought these zombies were and Zharie can’t shake the feeling that getting to know him might help her understand what is happening to her and more importantly, what happened to her mother. How could it be that Bo turns half zombie and yet he somehow feels more alive than anyone she’s ever met? What does it even mean for someone to feel alive?
The Undead Truth of Us places itself outside of the expected conventions of a single genre and opts for a novel version of a surrealist painting. It’s speculative fiction element is light and noninvasive, it’s a manifestation of how grief can slowly kill us on the inside, and only Zharie can see the world in this way. It makes zombies in this story not expectedly scary, but deeply sad and almost beautiful in their own right. You never know when someone is going to turn into a zombie or when flowers will start to consume a passerby. It’s exactly how I perceive Van Gogh’s work: tragically beautiful.
And amidst our attempt at solving the mystery of the zombies, our search begins to feel like we’re solving the mystery of what it means to be alive, and our painting begins to show our two infinities. We find ourselves identifying with the zombies in our pain, we feel our skin rotting in our grief, we see our joy begin to grow sunflowers and our happiness begins to shine like the stars in the night sky. Our tightrope changes from life and death to love and grief, two opposites circling each other in constant balance, for we cannot have one without the other.
I’ve always loved Van Gogh. His life and art finds balance on this tightrope for all of his two thousand-ish paintings and ten or so years that he was doing it. The paintings capture the fullness and beauty of life while the style of surrealism makes it feel like it’s slipping away. As a teenager, I was drawn to this story full of grief and art (in that moody teenager way). So the first time I ever left the country we stopped in Amsterdam so that i could go to the Van Gogh Museum.
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
📍 Van Gogh Museum, Museumplein 6, 1071 DJ Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam houses the world’s largest collection of works by Vincent Van Gogh. You need to prebook your tickets on the official Van Gogh Museum website; no one is fussing with tickets when you arrive. They even offer an audio tour in fourteen languages for a few extra euros, so you can walk the museum while learning about the paintings and Van Gogh’s life.
Walking the halls of the museum feels like moving in slow motion. There are beautiful paintings everywhere and, because of the style, it all feels like it jumps right out of the canvas and takes over the whole building. Just like the vines that wrap around people’s feet in the book.
If you’re not too into Van Gogh, I think you would still be surprised how many pieces you recognize here. Van Gogh is beloved in pop culture and hints of his work are referenced throughout media, also just like the book. His sunflowers are iconic, his self portraits are filled with sadness, and everything feels as ephemeral as life on earth.
Amsterdam’s Sunflowers
Explore more of Van Gogh’s work at https://www.nga.gov
When I think of Vincent Van Gogh, I think of the beauty and pain, life and death, love and grief that infinitely circle his life and his work. But I also think about sunflowers. I think about the eleven sunflower paintings Van Gogh painted that, only after his death, became some of his most famous works. I think about his deep relationship with grief and how through that scope he saw the world in a way most of us can only dream of. But mostly I think about how sunflowers are so closely related to both life and death and how Vincent Van Gogh saw that more clearly than any of us.
Sunflowers have a long history in the lives of humans and in our mythologies. They are a symbol of light, joy, and good fortune, but are also common at funerals because they signify the light that person brought while they were alive. When I think of sunflowers, I think of love and grief and how they are two infinities on either side of the starry night sky. I think of how closely those love and grief are tied to life and death. I think of those eleven infamous sunflower paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. And now I’m also thinking of Zharie.
Bookish Brews Snapshot
The Undead Truth of Us by Britney S. Lewis
After Zharie’s mother turned into a zombie and died, Zharie begins seeing zombies everywhere. When her new neighbor, Bo, transforms right before her eyes, she can’t help thinking that getting to know him may unlock the answers to her mother’s death.
🌱 Character Growth 😭 Emotional 🎶 Lyrical Prose 🌼 Self Discovery
- Genre: Contemporary, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult
