This is a really straightforward biography, which I enjoyed. I appreciated that the author said up front that he would not be embellishing or casting VVG in this light or that, as a madman, or as a tortured artist, or in any other such speculative or poetic lens. The fact that this book communicates, as clearly as possible, the bare facts of Vincent's life and how those facts may have informed his painterly life made it a nice, straightforward read.