To add to it, the powerful realisation that it isn’t just a story you are reading but a wonderful mesh of facts and fiction weaving the life of a real man who existed on the same planet as you– Lust for Life engulfs you, to say the least. His pain becomes your own as you feel his sorrow through every rejection, every insult and every denial. Rarely does he find any of it as he struggles with denial and rejections every step of the way.Īnybody who has ever been loathed by society because of their eccentricities will see themselves in Van Gogh. What makes you fall in love with this book is Van Gogh, the man who craves to be loved, and who like every human being craves for a family, children and a home. As you turn the pages, you find yourself on the streets of Paris, in the coal mines of Borinage, in the landscapes of Nuenen, in the cottage of the Potato Eaters, under the Starry Night over the Rhone, and in the Wheat field with Cypresses. It takes you back to the 19 th century, a powerful time of transition in art–from realism to impressionism to post-impressionism. The description of every mountain, every river, every gorge, every tree, every colour, every shade is so exact, so clear and so precise that it probably induces the same picture in every reader’s mind. Stone’s Lust for Life reads like a painting. It does what it is supposed to do–tell the story of Vincent Van Gogh. Lust for Life is a stunning revelation of this.

Assumptions such as these ruthlessly render meaningless the pains and struggles of famous men. It’s easy to assume great artistes are naturally gifted or that the talented don’t lead average lives.

I picked up the book as somebody whose knowledge of Vincent Van Gogh was limited to keywords like ‘genius painter’, ‘cut off his own ear’, ‘paintings cost millions’ ‘the artist who ushered in Expressionism’–too ignorant to have known genius isn’t a word but an earned title. Irving Stone’s Lust for Life doesn’t do that. Most biographies rarely do justice to their protagonists’ stories–glamourising their flaws, meddling with their perspectives, adding unnecessary depth to their personalities–biased as they can be towards their prized main character.

Lust for life vincent van gogh book