The book is entitled; The Secret Life Of Sunflowers: A gripping, inspiring novel based on the true story of Johanna Bonger, Vincent Van Gogh’s sister in law.
I read the Kindle ebook version as I love to poke words and search items in the text for further insight into so many topics. Here is a brief synopsis quoted from the Amazon Book search;
“When Hollywood auctioneer Emsley Wilson finds her famous grandmother’s diary while cleaning out her New York brownstone, the pages are full of surprises. The first surprise is, the diary isn’t her grandmother’s. It belongs to Johanna Bonger, Vincent van Gogh’s sister-in-law. Johanna inherited Vincent van Gogh’s paintings. They were all she had, and they weren’t worth anything. She was a 28 year old widow with a baby in the 1800s, without any means of supporting herself, living in Paris where she barely spoke the language. Yet she managed to introduce Vincent’s legacy to the world. The inspiration couldn’t come at a better time for Emsley. With her business failing, an unexpected love turning up in her life, and family secrets unraveling, can she find answers in the past?”
You will meet many characters in the Van Gogh family and other picturesque characters. It was hard to put the book down.
I experienced the 2022 traveling Van Gogh wall high experience shown in over 40 U.S. Cities, housed in large video adapted warehouses, in immersive, surround video/sound extravaganzas? This project enlightened many generations beyond his years and surrounded you with this famous artist’s work, innovative brush stroke style and brings glory to Johanna and her quest to show the work to the world.
The story of Vincent Van Gogh as we all learned in art history courses present VG as highly reclusive, lacking in self confidence, tending toward frequent bouts of insanity and of course, learning that in a rage, he cut off of his ear and of his eventual suicide. It is all quite a dramatic story visualized through the now famous painting of his bedroom and other famous and innovative works of art. His road to fame was not easy and not anything this shy and timid artist would have pursued. In this novelized tale, we meet many family members and other characters that add to this visually rich book. Author Marta Molar is a dedicated biographer, obsessed (20 years or more) in researching and telling the story of his sister-in-law Johanna. in the early 1890’s and her struggle to alert the art world of this great body of work. The chapters in the book are intertwined with Emsley, woman in the 1990’s finding a “green Diary” of her recording Jo’s pursuit to the end.
I am so glad to be back to posting blogs after a long hiatus and a long history of postings. I started messages in a Minute posting on Mondays (mostly) because I was born on a Monday, a Monday child is obsessive. Please to to cgstudio.net to read the blog and I enjoy having feedback about books or any other topic that I may share.