Irving Stone (1903–1989)

I am in a grudge battle to the death with Freud.
I am determined to finish this damned book if it kills me - but at this stage I’m unsure which way it will go.

The whole thing feels like Stone got his hands on every single document Freud ever wrote - every letter, every grocery list, every restaurant review - and was determined to shoehorn every single one of them into this book in the name of accuracy.
So by a third of the way through, Freud still isn’t practicing psychology he’s just show more going on and on about how lovely the architecture in Vienna is and how much he hates being poor and wants to be married already.

I’m beginning to wonder if the book itself is not some kind of psychological experiment in resilience of the human spirit.

You picked it up because you wanted to learn about the earliest theories on sexual perversions, paraphilias, etc and the views on hysteria. Wanted to hear from Freud how he defined the Oedipus complex.
You’re now halfway through and he’s only just starting to consider human sexuality as a subject.

You know more about the layout of Vienna than you ever wanted to. You are more familiar with the internal structure of Viennese apartments than you anticipated being. You know more about how Viennese food compares to German fare than can ever be useful.

What IS this book?! show less

Veličanstvena priča o žestokoj borbi čoveka čija strast prema umetnosti i životu nikada nije posustajala, poput svetionika koji mu je davao snagu i hrabrost i u najtežim trenucima, oblikujući svaki aspekt njegovog postojanja. Drugu polovinu devetnaestog veka obeležio je najveći procvat umetnosti još od renesanse, a Pariz je bio umetnička prestonica sa svojom Akademijom lepih umetnosti, ateljeima i kafeima u kojima su se okupljali umetnici tog vremena. Među onima koji su show more pristigli u ovaj grad bio je i Kamij Pisaro, sin uspešnog biznismena sa ostrva Sent Tomas na Malim Antilima. Kada se vratio u Francusku nakon dvogodišnje slikarske ekspedicije po Venecueli, njegovi roditelji su verovali da je napokon rešio da se skrasi i nađe ’pristojan posao’. Ipak, u mladom Kamiju je gorela snažna žudnja da slika, i on odlučuje da se bez kompromisa posveti platnu i bojama. Još jedno remek-delo Irvinga Stouna, knjiga o rađanju impresionizma, o životu Kamija Pisaroa: o njegovoj umetnosti, porodici koja ga je odbacila zbog njegovih izbora, danima provedenim u slikanju u prirodi, nevoljama, bedi i tek ponekim trenucima bezbrižnosti, ali i o velikoj ljubavi prema jednoj ženi uprkos strogim društvenim konvencijama. show less

Immense in scope but eminently readable, Stone's 500-page behemoth tells the story of the settling of North America's far west -- those lands which eventually became California, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada.

Stone sometimes veers perilously close to jingoism here, and manages to overlook the reality that all the land "settled" in the book was actually stolen from its original inhabitants (sometimes being passed through Spanish and Mexican hands on its way to becoming part of the United States). show more He virtually ignores the contributions made by the women who faced the same hardships as their husbands (only "backwards and in high heels", so to speak ... actually barefoot and pregnant much of the time). His cast is overwhelmingly white, male, and Protestant (with a considerable side trip through Latter-Day Saint territory). Still, he manages to cover an immense geographical area, a half-century time span, and hits the high spots of early exploration, westward expansion, half a dozen gold and silver rushes, the voraciousness of the railroads, and the often-bloody battle over religious freedom.

Readers who grew up or have spent much time in the American West will recognize many of the names of people and places here: Kit Carson, George Fremont, John Sutter, Leland Stanford, Brigham Young and more struggle and brawl and not infrequently scheme to acquire, settle, and control vast stretches of territory and breathtaking riches for the nation or for themselves.

And contemporary readers who've never heard of the Mountain Meadows Massacre or the Donner Party or the Big Four Railroad Barons will have no problem at all recognizing the political chicanery and good-old-boys croneyism that continue to infect the body politic. The mountains may have been matched, but the back room remains to be conquered. show less

"It is a pity that, as one gradually gains experience, one gradually loses one's youth. If that were not so, life would be too good."

- Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
Antwerp, 14 February 1886

I have avoided this book for years as I felt a compilation of one side of one set of correspondence (with his brother Theo) and calling it an "autobiography" was a transparent marketing move to capitalize on the success of Lust for Life. Well, even if that is true, this is a moving show more epistolary self-portrait. Like many artist biographies, the self-sacrifice of anonymity and privation seem de rigeur for the development of peak potential. Such self-imposed hardship can be destabilizing and Vincent does not find brothels, smoking, and drinking enough to balance groveling to his family for support and understanding. This is something really affecting and pitiful how Vincent's too desperate and eager slips into adoration leave him bereft of the meaningful human companionship he seeks adding to a life increasingly punctuated with physical and psychotic breakdowns culminating in this last pained letter dated two days before his suicide of 29 July 1890.

I was surprised to learn of the extreme piety and strenuous efforts to get officially behind the pulpit that is a recurring theme of the first third of the book, and another source of dissatisfaction for this most self-critical of individuals. show less