by W. Somerset Maugham
He was a stock broker, and a good husband with a lovely wife and beautiful kids. He turned 40. He abandoned his family to become an artist. His art works were strange, other-worldly and eventually recognized as the touches of a genius.
Maugham must have been fascinated and puzzled by the incredible life story of Gauguin. To comprehend, he recreated a fictional version of him. The moon and sixpence is really a rational depiction of pure artistic temperament, as exemplified by the reclusive artist. Having made myself fairly familiar with the biographical facts before hand, I did not find Maugham's portrait to coincide with my own impression of Gauguin. I even liked "the real thing" better. However, I was not at all disappointed with the book. Maugham was a very good story teller and able to make his thoughts and reasoning interesting by vivid characters and plausible plots. And his appreciation of art and artists is genuine and touching.
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