The Van Gogh Woman

By: Debby Beece

Narrated by: Tessa Flannery, Woody Fu

It is 1887 in Amsterdam, and Johanna Bonger wants to do something different with her life than teaching, translating languages, and managing the back office of her father’s business. She fears she will spend the rest of her days growing old, lonely, and bitter. But all of that is about to change when she is introduced to Theo van Gogh.

When Theo sweeps Johanna off her feet with his cosmopolitan Parisian lifestyle, she eventually agrees to be his wife. After she enters the avant-garde world of art and modernism in France, she soon comes in contact with his troubled brother, Vincent, who resents her new place in his family. Johanna believes Theo needs to stop spending so much time and resources supporting his struggling artist brother whose mental instability continually sabotages his big ideas and career. When tragedy strikes, Johanna realizes her place in both Theo’s and Vincent’s lives, making decisions that forever transform the art world and turn her into the most important woman the art world ever forgot.

The Van Gogh Woman is a captivating story of love, passion, and genius as a woman saves Vincent van Gogh from obscurity and brings his art to the world."

©2022 Deborah P Beece (P)2022 Deborah P Beece

This one was rough

I know this is historical fiction, but this story is so incredibly far from what actually happened. It was really hard to listen to. Jo van Gogh is actually an incredibly strong, resilient woman who introduced Vincent’s art to the world. This book continuously made her sound like a victim to me. I constantly wondered if this author even bothered to read about the people she was writing about at all. I love historical fiction but this one landed more in the realm of fantasy to me. If you really don’t care about the van Gogh, family story and are just here for a good tale, I’m sure this book will be fine for you. If you’re looking for historical fiction that somewhat aligns to the truth and has some fun while doing so, this is not the book for you.