Book Review for The Boy with the Blue Cap by Norman Beaupre

The work of certain artists impress upon our minds. What qualities in an artistic piece make it special or appealing?
There are times when we must turn to the characters who were responsible for the creation of these masterpieces in order to better understand the pieces themselves. One controversial artist whose work is liable to be better understood through glimpsing into his life experiences is Vincent Van Gogh, the painter whose vibrant, colorful paintings will leave an impression with any person to look upon them. And where do we turn to view a portrait of Van Gogh’s life? The answer is Norman Beaupre’s The Boy with the Blue Cap.
Beaupre’s The Boy with the Blue Cap is the vision of this brilliant artist’s life and time painting in Arles as told through the eyes of the son of the region’s Postmaster, who actually knew the subject of the piece. The work itself is fictional but littered with elements of the real, and the story proves enticing and suspenseful as the relationship between the Van Gogh and the Postmaster’s son carries us through this phase of Van Gogh’s life and work.
Beaupre must be commended for giving readers the opportunity to better understand this controversial figure’s complex creative work through an engaging and semi-historical account of Van Gogh’s time in Arles.