This was amazing and I enjoyed every page, even when I was having an anxiety attack because I was so worried Theo was going to give his wife syphilis.

One of the things I liked best was the depiction of the relationships between all the famous artists before they were legends. I'm a big fan of Georges Seurat and Paul Gauguin's work and it was really fascinating to read about them in relationship to Van Gogh. It's wild to think of Theo amassing a collection of priceless masterpieces and his bosses at the gallery telling him to stop wasting his time. Dummies!

My other favorite thing was how well Heiligman describes art. There's a thing a good writer can do where they make you appreciate something on another level. I felt that way about how Pam Muñoz Ryan wrote about making music in [b:Echo|22749539|Echo|Pam Muñoz Ryan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1460587774s/22749539.jpg|42294915]. I like art. I like music. But I feel the importance of both more deeply when I read great books about them. ( )

Examines the relationship between Van Gogh and his brother, Theo. Based on the letters they wrote to each other. Despite that fact that Van Gogh led a dramatic life, this book is slow at times. ( )

This book was okay, but I didn't find it very compelling to read. ( )

A story about an artist, Vincent Van Gogh, and his brother, Theo, an art dealer, and how their relationship as brothers made the artist we know as Van Gogh.

At first I wondered why it was marketed to young adults. Then I started reading and saw that the simplicity of the writing style and the short chapters might appeal to younger readers.

It reads like a novel, a novel you can't put down. There is so much research here, and so many primary sources, their letters, from which Heligman drew to write her biography. I felt, as I read, that I was there in the room with them.

It was also a story of courage, Vincent's courage in the face of undiagnosed mental illness, probably bipolar disorder, based on my reading. How he managed to paint during his good times, and survive his bad times, until he didn't. And his friendship, not only with Theo but with other artists of his time, how he befriended, and Theo promoted the Impressionists. He had a tremendous generosity of spirit, first trying to work as an evangelist to the very poorest, then championing other artists when he hadn't even achieved renown himself.

It is a heartbreaking story. You want to shout, "No," as each brother dies. Their stories ended too quickly. And it seems to me, but for Theo's wife, Johanna Bonger, we would not have come to know Van Gogh as we do. It was she who pushed his art into the world, after Theo died.

Recommend this to readers who are artists or interested in art, even if they are no longer "young adults." ( )

2019 audiobooksync free audiobook download

teen/adult biography/narrative nonfiction (history, art, mental health issues)
seems ok for those who love historical fiction, but not really my thing (hard for me to process so much detail over audio). The narrator has British accent which is pleasingly quaint (and also provides accurate pronunciation of the European names and words). I listened to about 11 minutes of this before abandoning, but I would guess that I would like this book OK, but would absorb more of it in print format. ( )