Donna Russo

Donna Russo's "Vincent's Women" offers a captivating exploration of the life and art of Vincent van Gogh, focusing on the profound impact women had on his life.

While the novel is fictional, at its core, it is deeply rooted in historical fact and provides a nuanced understanding of the artist's complex personality and experiences.

The book delves into Van Gogh's relationships with the women who shaped his life, from his mother's enduring grief to his stormy romantic affairs. By focusing on these connections, Russo offers a fresh perspective on his works and the events leading to his tragic end.

As a mental health professional, I found Russo's portrayal of Van Gogh's mental health particularly meaningful. The novel highlights the importance of understanding the individual behind the diagnosis, a perspective that is often overlooked in discussions of mental illness. By exploring Van Gogh's experiences through the lens of his relationships, Russo reminds us that even the most famous artists were human beings with complex emotions and struggles.

For fans of historical fiction, "Vincent's Women" is a must-read. It offers a thought-provoking and emotionally resonant exploration of one of the most iconic figures in art history.
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Vincent’s Women by Donna Russo—an early reader’s review:
I cannot remember the last 1000-page book I finished and wanted to start rereading it immediately!
Researched for three years and relying upon letters to and by the Van Gogh family, this book takes on a weight that reduces most accounts to news reporting. All the people emerge as real, flesh and bone human beings—bloodied, flawed and controlled by social norms. Clearly, Vincent had true demons, but to understand his interactions with others and their influence over him made him a genuinely tragic protagonist in his own story. Ask anyone about Van Gogh and you will probably hear the accepted versions of his never being recognized as a successful painter during his lifetime, of his cutting off his own ear and of his committing suicide, and while this book makes no claims otherwise, it also brings to light facts that might make those assumptions less than iron-clad. It also hints at the reasons why Vincent may have chosen not to implement others in wrongs committed against him: his early exposure to preaching, his unsuccessful attempts to reach his own parishioners, letters where he expressed feelings like those experienced by Jesus at Gethsemane all point to a Christ-like acceptance of carrying the sins of others. There are many ragged, angry people in his story—his mother couldn’t love him, several young women who were willing to try were commanded not to, the staff that worked with him simply could not do enough and Theo, who did all he could, sacrificed his own family to keep Vincent afloat. The narrator, one of Vincent’s women herself, was haunted by his downfall and felt great guilt for the part she played in his tragedy; she made me feel great sympathy for both Vincent and several of the other people in his story.
For anyone even remotely interested in Vincent Van Gogh, this is a very good read!… (more)