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A review by readsforlove
Vincent: A Graphic Biography by Simon Elliott
2.0
Whew, do I have some thoughts. To start, this was formatted more like a picture book than a graphic novel. The art style itself was not for me; it would have been cool if it had mimicked Vincent's own style, but it was instead lots of flat colors with no shading or lighting effects, rather odd perspectives, and oddly drawn people. One could argue that this is "experimental" and parallels one of the themes of the biography but it just looked poorly done. There was also some info conveyed in art but not in text that I severely felt needed clarification. Like pages 30-31 with Vincent and Eugenie. (Art looks pretty problematic and I am not a fan of biographies that refuse to acknowledge a person's wrongs in life, especially if it is going to allude to them. Just spell it out!)
Which leads to the whole framing of this story. It's told through Jo's point of view, who was Vincent's sister in law. I don't really understand why this decision was made, as it caused the whole narrative to be quite biased in Vincent's favor. Again, I am of the sentiment that history should be conveyed as objectively as possible, especially with such famous people as Vincent Van Gogh. We don't need to glorify his life or garner sympathy for his memory--that memory is doing just fine. I would have appreciated a more honest and objective depiction of his life and works rather than the weird fiction of claiming Jo's voice. (This narrative choice might have made sense if this were a graphic novel adaption of her own words regarding Van Gogh, but the while the credits mention online archives of her diaries, nothing is directly cited throughout the entire novel so that it's impossible to know what is actually her voice shining through, and what is fiction from the author.)
As much as I wanted to feel sorry for him, I kind of hated him by the middle of the novel and then was just ready for the story to be over by the end. His entitlement and lack of consideration for other people was boggling and infuriating, and I imagine led to the worsening of his mental illness. Again, if this had been told more objectively, this would have been a unique opporunity to showcase the history of how mental health has been treated and the flaws in that treatment, and how doctors just throw around treatments when they don't understand the actual issues. There's just ... sooo much they could have done there. But NO.
Anyway. Thus ends my mild rant.
Thank you to NetGalley for the free review copy.
Which leads to the whole framing of this story. It's told through Jo's point of view, who was Vincent's sister in law. I don't really understand why this decision was made, as it caused the whole narrative to be quite biased in Vincent's favor. Again, I am of the sentiment that history should be conveyed as objectively as possible, especially with such famous people as Vincent Van Gogh. We don't need to glorify his life or garner sympathy for his memory--that memory is doing just fine. I would have appreciated a more honest and objective depiction of his life and works rather than the weird fiction of claiming Jo's voice. (This narrative choice might have made sense if this were a graphic novel adaption of her own words regarding Van Gogh, but the while the credits mention online archives of her diaries, nothing is directly cited throughout the entire novel so that it's impossible to know what is actually her voice shining through, and what is fiction from the author.)
As much as I wanted to feel sorry for him, I kind of hated him by the middle of the novel and then was just ready for the story to be over by the end. His entitlement and lack of consideration for other people was boggling and infuriating, and I imagine led to the worsening of his mental illness. Again, if this had been told more objectively, this would have been a unique opporunity to showcase the history of how mental health has been treated and the flaws in that treatment, and how doctors just throw around treatments when they don't understand the actual issues. There's just ... sooo much they could have done there. But NO.
Anyway. Thus ends my mild rant.
Thank you to NetGalley for the free review copy.