The Moonpainters

Suzanne Burns
Zumaya Publications (2004)
ISBN 1894942361
Reviewed by Joanne Benham for Reader Views (5/06)

Maggie Malone and Julia Chandler have been best friends since grade school. On Julia's sixteenth birthday, she asks Maggie to help her break out of the Sunnyvale Memorial Hospital where her parents have sent her to try and get control over her life-threatening bulimia. Julia doesn't know where she wants to go, she just knows that if she doesn't leave the hospital she will die. So Maggie, good friend that she is, walks out on her job at the bank and she and Julia take off in Maggie's old VW Bug. All goes well the first day but on the second day of their road trip, the Bug dies. Stranded in a campground, their unlikely rescuers turn out to be Jack and Ean, a pair of twenty-something guys driving an old VW bus to Oregon, who invite the girls to travel with them.

The story follows their travels for the next nine days, as they meet some of the most unforgettable characters imaginable, from a pregnant hooker who's found God to a frustrated artist/cafe-owner who sells LSD on the side.

As they travel, Maggie discovers within herself the strength to reject the life her parents have mapped out for her and finally choose her own path in life as an artist; and to accept that she cannot change Julia, only stand by her as she struggles with her own demons.

This is an extremely well-written book, showing the extraordinary bonds of love and acceptance.

Make comment on weblog