CRAZY

In this debut verse novel, a teen artist worries that she’s triggered her mother’s mental illness and that she’ll get it too.

Laura’s art teacher says she could be as good as van Gogh. Her mother used to paint and accepts Laura’s invitation to start again, but Mama quickly shifts from depression to “constantly moving / fidgeting / pacing” and even seeing people who aren’t there. Laura thinks she’s responsible for Mama’s nervous breakdown—which requires hospitalization and shock therapy—and that she herself had better stop painting or she’ll have one too: “If I let go for a second, / the anxiety brimming below the surface / will pull me down, / and I will drown / in a Jackson Pollock frenzy / of disorganized splatters.” Given the refusal of her father and other relatives to discuss mental illness, it’s reasonable that Laura connects it with art. Less believable is the ending, where the text supports Laura’s hopefulness after a doctor says she’ll probably be fine, despite evidence to the contrary. Phillips’ free verse is serviceable, though the line breaks often feel arbitrary. Beatles references and the Kennedy assassination ground the 1963-1964 setting.

While the optimistic assertion about Laura’s mental health seems dismayingly incomplete, this is worth a read for the text’s vivid link between emotions and fine art.