This poetic, narrative-style musing upon the life of Vincent van Gogh draws on three volumes of his correspondence and his 900 extant paintings. What emerges is the portrait of an artist whose spiritual vision was borne of an agonizingly prolonged experience of the 'dark night of the soul.' Tracing van Gogh's pilgrimage from being an apprentice art dealer to being called to minister, the narrative follows his winding, tortuous path into adulthood as he struggles with family, associates, lovers--and with himself. Constantly evidenced in Vincent's own eloquent words and paintings is his tussle with the mysterious presence and maddening absence of God. 280 pages.
