Review: Sunflowers

Synopsis

There's nothing like a knock on the door at 3:00 a.m. to change your life forever. Gus Moore discovers how true this is when his ex-girlfriend blows in on an icy January night just long enough to dump "his problem" on the couch. From indolent single slob to competent single parent, Gus's metamorphosis over the next six years is astonishing.

All is going for Gus and his son, Sam, until two women complicate their lives: Sarah, with whom Gus has an unsatisfactory friends-with-benefits relationship, and Maureen, his son's bipolar mother, who has decided she wants back into her child's life. Maureen's illness is a subtextual presence that eventually steers the course of the novel.

Sunflowers, which takes its name from the Van Gogh studies of the same, will appeal to a wide spectrum of contemporary fiction readers. Refreshingly, Gus does not have the stereotypical Mr. Mom awkwardness of being a single parent (although he does "outsource the Jesus stuff" to the mother across the street), and there is no predictable "happy couple works it out" ending.

Review

"As they galloped toward the kitchen, he gazed down at the baby's tiny sleeping face, so trusting and innocent. This was his child. Everything this child learned or experiences was his responsibility, staring right this minute. He leaned over and kissed her sweet smelling hair."

This is one of the best books I've read this year. I say this because I struggle to find emotional, unpretentious and deeply engaging reads. This is unsuspecting good, from the first page I was drawn into the drama, into Gus and Sam's lives, into the chaos. When Gus discovers he is the father of a four month year old baby, his life changes  for the better. The baby's mother dumps the baby with a broken leg and leaves Gus with more issues that one human being could handle but he copes unlike many men who would have complained into a coma. 

The baby's mother Maureen has bipolar and through the course of the book, her illness determines how this book progresses. Bipolar is such a misunderstood illness. The reader is forced to address their misconceptions without being forced to. Starkey deals with bipolar sensitively but effectively in that I didn't feel like I was being preached or lectured at but I wanted to learn more and understand deeper into the effects of bipolar and why its such a difficult illness to cope with. Gus points out the idea of fighting against your personality, depending on medication to become the person  society sees fit.  He rediscovers the love he once had to Maureen and with this comes the responsibility of learning to cope with her complex mind. 

I was captivated by Gus's growth into a mature human being but I also admired his parenting. His son (Sam) was simply endearing.  He is perceptive and unlike many characters he was able to cope with the many issues with the maturity of an adult and the understanding of a child.  I initially disliked Maureen, she seemed callous and unloving, the type of woman who could abandon and abuse her child without a second glance but as the book progressed I began understand her struggle with bipolar and her lack of control. 

Starkey deals with so many issues from mental illness to abandonment to poverty. She handles all these issues maturely without creating cardboard characters and an overly happy unrealistic ending.  This book is well written, engrossing and emotionally mature. I would recommend this book wholeheartedly.