Released to coincide with the 75th birthday of English writer and
art critic John Berger, the essays in this substantial volume span
an exceptionally broad compass. They represent what editor Dyer
calls in essence 'a vicarious autobiography', reflecting as they do
every aspect of Berger's intellectual life over the past 40-odd
years. Within these pages there are meditations on artists from
Toulouse-Lautrec to Claude Monet, articles on Joyce's Ulysses, and
even an intriguing connection made between Francis Bacon and Walt
Disney; every essay distinguished by Berger's clear, distinct
style, amply bearing witness to Nietzsche's belief that 'Those who
know that they are profound strive for clarity; those who would
like to seem profound strive for obscurity.' Winner of the 1972
Booker Prize for his novel G - about a young man's erotic journey
at the end of the 19th century - Berger is perhaps an undervalued
writer, though he's certainly fortunate here to be championed by
Geoff Dyer, whose acumen and perspicacity provide a stimulating
commentary. Dyer is not alone in his great enthusiasm for Berger's
prose. American Susan Sontag once paid high tribute, commenting:
'In contemporary letters John Berger seems peerless; not since
Lawrence has there been a writer who offers such attentiveness to
the sensual world with responsiveness to the imperatives of
conscience.' Praise indeed. Intended as both a single-volume
edition of his essays to date and simultaneous companion to his
work as a whole, appreciation will depend upon the degree to which
one shares Berger's distinctive outlook, characterized by 'a fierce
political engagement' with everything he discusses. But such
passion and unquenchable intellectual inquiry contains much that is
admirable, and this works well as a comprehensive introduction to a
singular individual. (Kirkus UK)
Booker wining novelist, playwright, essayist, poet and critic -
even admirers rarely know John Berger in all his literary
incarnations. This collection of essays will, for the first time,
take a definitive look at his extraordinary career. Far from being
footnotes to the main body of work Berger's essays are absolutely
central to it. Many of the ideas of the groundbreaking Ways of
Seeing were presented first in essays published in New Society.
Polemical, reflective, radically original, Berger's wide-ranging
essays emphasise the continuities that have underpinned more than
40 years of tireless intellectual inquiry and political engagement.
Viewed chronologically they add up, in fact, to a kind of vicarious
autobiography and a history of our time as refracted through the
prism of art. Edited by Geoff Dyer, and published on the occasion
of his 75th birthday, this is an essential collection by one of the
world's greatest writers.
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