Mona’s Eyes by Thomas Schlesser follows the life of Mona, a ten-year-old girl. The book opens to a scene where Mona is at home completing her math homework when the world around her becomes dark; blindness. Her blindness lasts over an hour, longer than the estimated ten minutes the doctor predicted. Her parents took her to the hospital, and I was curious to hear the diagnosis, but her condition became a “medical mystery.”
Mona’s grandfather, Henry (or Dadé), that she is quite close to, insists on coming to visit. During the visit, Mona’s parents request him to take Mona to a child psychiatric appointment weekly, but Henry doesn’t trust the therapy. He agrees, but instead he plans to take Mona to see one work of art every week on Wednesdays to fill her eyes in case she goes blind.
Each chapter of the novel is a different week of the year, with a different work of art. Through the 52 works of art Henry shows Mona, he teaches her meaningful lessons. For example, he taught her to continue smiling despite hardships in life through Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. While the content in these chapters did feel a bit repetitive and slow paced, the novel still maintained a nice plot.
Throughout the book, Mona faces a couple other relapses of blindness (SPOILER: Her grandmother’s necklace plays a part). Then, the truth of her grandmother's death is revealed to Mona. However, when the truth was revealed, it made me wonder if by lying Mona’s mental health was negatively affected, and whether there are positive outcomes from lying to protect someone. Following, there is another plot twist, where Mona’s mom stumbles upon the diary with the entries Mona wrote about each art piece from her secret visits with her grandfather. Throughout the rest of the book, Mona navigates the tension in the family, her trauma from her grandmother’s death, and the secret behind her grandmother’s necklace.
The book ends with a heartfelt scene where Mona finally overcomes the trauma with the support of her grandfather. This scene in particular stood out to me because of the history behind the setting, and its link to her grandmother. It gave a deep message about letting go and moving on, emphasized with the removal of the necklace. In the final moments, Mona submerges into darkness one final time before she overcomes the trauma and emerges healed from the full year of art pieces and lessons.
In the end, Mona’s Eyes isn’t only about navigating relapses of blindness as a “medical mystery,” or learning lessons through art, but rather about overcoming psychological traumas and learning to move on. This is especially highlighted in the coming-of-age story arc in the final scene when Mona finally let's go, and where she remembers her grandmother’s words, “Forget the negative, my darling; keep the light forever inside you” (442, Schlesser).
Hyelynn
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