G.: A Novel by John Berger - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

Aug 07, 2010 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-read, 20th-century, britain, booker

The curiously-named G. by John Berger won the Booker Prize in 1972 as well as the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Wikipedia has very little to say about the book so although there is a bit of chat about it here on GoodReads I presume that it isn’t widely read and nobody feels confident about writing the definitive entry about it for Wikipedia.

I liked it, and I liked it a lot. It’s unashamedly postmodern, but it’s picaresque which makes it a reading experience somewhat different to other postmo...more The curiously-named G. by John Berger won the Booker Prize in 1972 as well as the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Wikipedia has very little to say about the book so although there is a bit of chat about it here on GoodReads I presume that it isn’t widely read and nobody feels confident about writing the definitive entry about it for Wikipedia.

I liked it, and I liked it a lot. It’s unashamedly postmodern, but it’s picaresque which makes it a reading experience somewhat different to other postmodern books I have read.

The central character is the English-Italian G, and if Berger explained why he doesn’t have a proper name, I missed it. At first I thought it might be an allusion to Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian hero who led the movement to unify Italy, because G (via British Foreign Office machinations) gets mixed up in the irredentist position of Trieste, an Italian seaport that was under the control of Austria at the outbreak of World War I and not formally annexed to Italy until 1920. Following this line of thought I remembered that Giuseppe is an Italian variant of the Hebrew name Joseph (Son of Jacob, the one with the many-coloured coat) because the name means ‘one who enlarges’ – but it all seems a bit tenuous because G is more of a Don Juan than a proper spy. If he was a spy at all. So now I think he’s called G because Berger just wanted him to be enigmatic.

Scholars, I expect, might have a grand old time reading and re-reading this book to unpick its treasures, but general readers are best advised just to ‘go with the flow’ and just read it as it comes. The plot (such as it is) will gradually emerge, and with it will come the sense that the affairs of men which seem of such importance to the people involved are insignificant beside the grand events in history which form a backdrop. While G is philandering with an assortment of other men’s wives, provoking melodramatic revenge by one outraged husband or masterful resignation by another, the aviator Jorge Chavez was redefining the possibilities of flight and the geo-political map of Europe was being redrawn.

To read the rest of this review (and use the links to various historical events) please visit http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/201...(less)

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Apr 03, 2013 Alex Rendall rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I find it very difficult to adequately summarise John Berger’s G. This may partially be due to the difficulty in categorising John Berger, who can at once be described as a painter, art critic, novelist, essayist and sociologist. Berger has contributed much to a number of varied fields and his knowledge of multiple subject areas imbues his work. G. is a sweeping novel that spans genres and at times appears to blur the lines between fiction and fact.

The novel begins in Italy in 1898 and follows t...more I find it very difficult to adequately summarise John Berger’s G. This may partially be due to the difficulty in categorising John Berger, who can at once be described as a painter, art critic, novelist, essayist and sociologist. Berger has contributed much to a number of varied fields and his knowledge of multiple subject areas imbues his work. G. is a sweeping novel that spans genres and at times appears to blur the lines between fiction and fact.

The novel begins in Italy in 1898 and follows the life of the eponymous G. across Europe, as he loves then leaves a succession of women. Written in the picaresque genre (by definition a novel which follows a rakish character in his or her exploits, such as Don Juan or Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders), the narrative at times backs away from G. to focus on the historical or political situation in Europe at the time. Berger also sometimes breaks from the story completely to discuss abstract concepts with the reader, such as the appreciation of the female form or the expression of love. At times he uses ‘I’ to break down the barrier between himself and the reader and bring himself into the tale, rather than being a purely incidental third person narrator. I confess that I found these forays into Berger’s philosophy to be quite distracting from the development of the narrative. Whether Berger intended for this to be the effect is unclear, but I feel that rather than adding an extra layer of meaning to the work this comes across as baffling in its pretentiousness.

This is an accusation that I would level at the novel as a whole. The lack of coherence between these breaks and the central tale render the narrative disjointed and unfocussed. Perhaps if I knew more about artistic theory I might appreciate some of these abstract meditations, but they are incomprehensible to the layman and make the novel seem opaque and inaccessible.

Other elements of Berger’s story are disappointing. G.’s tale unfolds at unerringly different paces; Berger at times spends pages describing a single afternoon, building up a truly beautiful descriptive picture of a scene, but then spoils it by rushing crucial elements of the story (G.’s death in particular feels like an after-thought that was hurried along in order to meet a publisher’s deadline). The sweeping historical viewpoint, while at times interesting, has a didactic air about it which gives Berger the feel of a lecturer attempting to impose his views on his readers rather than independently presenting the narrative. At times I felt that Berger was attempting to tell me how to think, to convince me that only his world view was the correct one. I didn’t understand elements of what he was trying to say but I am not the type of person who enjoys having views imposed upon me!

G. is not an unsatisfying read. If one ignores the frequent deviations from the plot and takes the story at face value, it is fairly entertaining. I doubt however that this is all that Berger intended for his work and, given the number of awards that it won, I suspect I may have missed something important that critics with greater knowledge than I were able to interpret. I think that it has all the charm of an epic blockbuster movie; it may be massive in scope and may have won lots of plaudits, but I found it impossible to warm to in the same way as other novels. G. is not the kind of book that one can curl up with and enjoy; it sees itself as being far too grand for that.(less)

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Nov 23, 2012 Orsodimondo rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: inglese

CRONACA DI UNA DELUSIONE NON ANNUNCIATA
Il mio interesse per lei è appena inferiore a quello che provo per G. scrive John Berger a pagina 186: ma così non è, di G. gli interessa poco, lo usa più che altro per farci avanzare lungo il suo romanzo.
D’altronde, G. non è particolarmente interessante, tutt’altro, come non lo sono suo padre e sua madre: personaggi abbastanza ordinari che niente hanno da spartire con i protagonisti epici e sovrumani, pur se inseriti negli ultimi gradini della scala socia...more CRONACA DI UNA DELUSIONE NON ANNUNCIATA
Il mio interesse per lei è appena inferiore a quello che provo per G. scrive John Berger a pagina 186: ma così non è, di G. gli interessa poco, lo usa più che altro per farci avanzare lungo il suo romanzo.
D’altronde, G. non è particolarmente interessante, tutt’altro, come non lo sono suo padre e sua madre: personaggi abbastanza ordinari che niente hanno da spartire con i protagonisti epici e sovrumani, pur se inseriti negli ultimi gradini della scala sociale, presenti nelle altre opere narrative di Berger.
Il passaggio dalla prima alla terza persona è uno stile già presente altrove in Berger: qui assume però caratteristiche diverse, perché l’io è proprio il narratore, lo scrittore, non il protagonista - si tratta di un parlare in prima persona verboso e prolisso, che si spinge finanche a indirizzarsi direttamente al lettore.
Probabilmente perché dietro quest’opera c’è una precisa tesi filosofico-politica da dimostrare che Berger non riesce proprio a camuffare, se mai ci prova.

G. non ha una visione della vita, al contrario del suo vigoroso creatore: se ne va per il mondo, sfiorando momenti storici di notevole importanza - presente, ma mai partecipe.
Anzi, dimostra un notevole disinteresse per quello che gli succede intorno.
La sua molla è il desiderio sessuale, l’attrazione per l’altro sesso.
Ma anche nel corso delle sue avventure amoroso-erotiche, Berger è così poco stimolato dal suo personaggio centrale, da immergersi piuttosto nell’anima e assumere il punto di vista delle donne ‘conquistate’, siano esse l’indimenticabile Beatrice, la zia che inizia il giovane nipote (il sogno di tutti noi maschietti?), la cameriera Leonie, Mathilde, Madame Camille Hennequin... In pratica, la storia di questo novello Don Giovanni viene raccontata dal punto di vista delle persone sedotte, invece che del seduttore. Non perché Berger veda nelle sedotte delle vittime, fortunatamente, non ci sono né vittime né eroi negli incontri a due di questo romanzo.

La mia impressione è che questo romanzo, peraltro il più fortunato nella carriera letteraria di John Berger, premiato col prestigioso Booker Prize, sia più vicino alla sua produzione saggistica che narrativa: se non altro tutte le volte che l’autore sale in cattedra, sceglie di spiegare e di motivare, di insegnare. Il che in un saggio è comprensibilissimo, nella narrativa invece...

Quanto mi sono mancate le geografie aperte, sognate, reinventate che ho finora trovato nei libri di Berger! Quanto mi è mancato il suo asciutto lirismo! Se mi fossi avvicinato a Berger attraverso questo libro, avrei abbandonato il libro e perso per sempre la meraviglia del mondo bergeriano.
Fortunatamente, per me, prima sono venuti capolavori come “Da A a X”, “Festa di nozze”, splendidi libri come “Lillà e Bandiera”, “Qui, dove ci incontriamo”, “E i nostri volti, amore mio, leggeri come foto”.
Ah, che brutta delusione, signor Berger! Più che possibile che io non l’abbia capita questa volta, che il limite sia tutto mio. Ma le assicuro che la pesantezza e fatica della lettura, la totale mancanza di coinvolgimento e interesse sono dati concreti. Il fatto che quest'opera anticipi di parecchio le sue altre da me molto amate credo voglia dire qualcosa.

PS
Continuo a riflettere su questo libro, la delusione brucia parecchio, ero convinto mi sarebbe piaciuto moltissimo. E invece...
Lo definiscono il romanzo più sperimentale di Berger: magari lo è pure, ma dovrebbero aggiungere anche il più datato. Sembra un po' di trovarsi davanti a una messa in scena del Living Theatre, a quell'epoca sconvolgenti.
Appunto: a quell'epoca. "G" mi ha fatto l'effetto di alcuni film di Godard, di tutti quelli da una certa data in poi (sicuramente, almeno dagli anni Ottanta in poi): datati, prolissi, cervellotici, cattedratici.
Dimenticavo: complimenti a John Berger per come conosce la storia d'Italia. Mirabile davvero.(less)

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Apr 27, 2012 Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Like what I said in my review of Zamyatin's "We," I believe I've found a fair explanation of why the books included in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die made it on the list, and this I found in another listing, the 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die where the Introduction explained the choices by these justifications:

1. the painting (book) is interesting because of its subject matter;
2. the painting (book) is interesting because of the way it is written; and
3. the painting (boo...more

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Feb 02, 2012 Courtney H. rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bookers

Ah, my first non-5-star (I'm incredibly lazy with rankings). G. isn't quite so far down my list of enjoyable books as to be a 1-star (Hi, Atonement! Hope you get along with Tess of D'Ubervilles, you're the only ones down there), but I really did not like this book. Which is a shame, because I actually really love John Berger; I love Pig Earth and Once in Europa. But G. was vastly different and vastly inferior. Perhaps I'm just a stick-in-the-mud and couldn't grasp/appreciate the experimental sty...more Ah, my first non-5-star (I'm incredibly lazy with rankings). G. isn't quite so far down my list of enjoyable books as to be a 1-star (Hi, Atonement! Hope you get along with Tess of D'Ubervilles, you're the only ones down there), but I really did not like this book. Which is a shame, because I actually really love John Berger; I love Pig Earth and Once in Europa. But G. was vastly different and vastly inferior. Perhaps I'm just a stick-in-the-mud and couldn't grasp/appreciate the experimental style of G. But mostly I think that it was less experimental and more . . . not good.
First, it is really sexist. Now, I was expecting sexism; this prize started in England in the 1970s, so I wasn't exactly expecting cutting-edge equality on that front. I figured there would be a lot of great male characters and a lot of not-so-great female characters for the first 10-20 years of that prize, at least. But while it is true that most of the Bookers are about men until you get to Hotel du Lac (don't make me count Heat and Dust, please, I couldn't stand that book and that protagonist was dreadful and flat), G. was really the first one that seemed straight-up sexist. I suppose that's part of the book's narrator, a wealthy vagabond who starts having his eyes opened by class consciousness. But G. really sees women as things to sleep with without consequence, and when that gets shoved down your throat repeatedly enough you start to forget that it is just supposed to be the narrator and not see it seeping into the worldview of the book itself. So that gets dull.
And honestly, the path of the story, the awakening of a member of the upperclass (and the consequences of that awakening), is an interesting. Berger is clearly a gifted writer. Some parts of the novel still stick with me (his treatment of the airplane trip), which reflects that even in a book I did not like, his gift and his ability to twist political thought into actual literature (as opposed to being a pamphlet dressed up as fiction -- not that there's anything wrong with that). His writing can be humorous too, and the end of G. in particular is darkly comic. But I think the so-called experimental style gets in the way of the novel's purpose. Sometimes, a straight-up sentence accomplishes more than a fractured one.
Maybe one day I'll read this again with more patience and be more equipped to roll my eyes at the 1972 method of dealing with gender. Til then, I won't recommend that you not read G., but I'll give you about 100 other books to read first. Not least of which is his Into Their Labors trilogy (honestly, how did G. win but those did not?). (less)

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Jul 22, 2009 Michael rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book ended up really getting on my nerves, so that I couldn't finish it. Which is too bad, because I was really getting to love Berger at his best (see my review of And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos) and he basically laid it on so thick here that now I know I'll have a harder time stomaching his style even in cases when it's much more artfully applied. This book won the Booker Prize in '72, so I was especially disappointed. He comes off more or less as a twat with some grand theory a...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Shaula rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The language in which this book is written is gorgeous, no question. And the philosophical flights are thought-provoking, if sometimes obscure. But the title character, G., is ... what? A sociopath? A nymphomaniac? He pursues women whom he claims to love (frequently on no stronger a basis than first sight), indifferent to the chaos he causes in their lives.

Initially, his tendency to admire in his inamoratas features that might otherwise be unattractive gave the impression that he was drawn to th...more The language in which this book is written is gorgeous, no question. And the philosophical flights are thought-provoking, if sometimes obscure. But the title character, G., is ... what? A sociopath? A nymphomaniac? He pursues women whom he claims to love (frequently on no stronger a basis than first sight), indifferent to the chaos he causes in their lives.

Initially, his tendency to admire in his inamoratas features that might otherwise be unattractive gave the impression that he was drawn to their inner beauties. This book begins as though it is about the attractiveness of being desired for one's true self. But as it progressed I came to realize that only the women are the objects of this realization that they are innately desirable; G. is already wholly aware of his value and ultimately (if not always immediately) desired as a result. These women are simply waiting to be awakened by his admiration for their broad foreheads, greasy hair, or bony elbows. It is a paean to his marvelous self-awareness.

Perhaps by placing the stories of G.'s love affairs cheek by jowl with the wonders and horrors of the early 20th century Berger intends to make a statement, but I fail to comprehend what it might be. There is a beautiful and insightful passage about women viewing themselves as though they are agents for the owners of their persons (the owners being father, husband and children, primarily) but the connection between those musings and the relationship to which it is supposed to relate is never established. There is a bald statement that he demands of this particular lover that she be entirely herself without reference to any other relationship in her life, but it is never demonstrated. Next thing we know, they have had their brief affair and he contemplates seducing her closest friend so there is no mistake about the longevity of their association. Baffling and incomplete.

What I find even more puzzling is G.'s transformation from a determined wanderer - he had motivation, even if it was motivation to remain a stranger - to a piece of driftwood floating in an existentialist funk to whatever end was destined for him.

I am glad to have read this book and will carry with me a number of its beautiful passages and interesting ideas, but I don't have any desire to read it again.(less)

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Dec 12, 2010 Liviu rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mainstream, read_2010, review_fbc

G is a very interesting but somewhat strange novel; well deserving of the Booker it won for beautiful prose and some great paragraphs about relationships - among the best introspective descriptions of people in a romantic and erotic context and not only I've read.

The structure in paragraphs linked in a whole as well as the authorial insertion about this or that works well despite the seeming scattering in the beginning.

G the main hero is a mystery almost to the end and he is reflected through wo...more G is a very interesting but somewhat strange novel; well deserving of the Booker it won for beautiful prose and some great paragraphs about relationships - among the best introspective descriptions of people in a romantic and erotic context and not only I've read.

The structure in paragraphs linked in a whole as well as the authorial insertion about this or that works well despite the seeming scattering in the beginning.

G the main hero is a mystery almost to the end and he is reflected through women and violent events he is mostly a bystander until they engulf him

Highly recommended

FBC Rv:

INTRODUCTION: Sometime ago I stumbled by chance upon a remark that "G" by John Berger is the strangest book to have won the Man Booker prize (in 1972), not to speak of the author's acceptance speech that became notorious. I was curious and after I checked and liked the excerpt from "Amazon read inside" above, I finally got the book.

"Winner of Britain's prestigious Booker Prize, John Berger's "G". relates the story of a young man forging an energetic sexual career in Europe during the early years of this century. Berger sets his novel against the turbulent backdrop of Garibaldi and the failed revolution of Milanese workers in 1898, the Boer War, and the first flight across the Alps, making "G". a brilliant novel about the search for intimacy in history's private moments."

ANALYSIS: As storyline goes, G is a modern interpretation of the classical Don Juan story but from the perspective of several of the women involved. G. himself - the illegitimate son of a rich but strange English girl and a conventional Italian businessman - is seen through the eyes of the women, the narrator who inserts his comments here and there and only sometimes directly, this last especially in the midst of violent events at which he is essentially a bystander until they engulf him.

Hypnotic and quite un-intelligible either by the men in his circle who mostly dislike and even hate him, or by the women who are mostly fascinated despite themselves, G remains a mystery to the end with his actions confounding everyone expectations. The book is worth reading for this unexpected moments, though of course it has more strengths. The prose is just beautiful and on many occasions mesmerizing and the introspective descriptions of people in a romantic and erotic context are among the best I've ever read.

"G" focuses on several key moments: Garibaldi's Italian saga and the early years of the modern Italian state are interlinked with G's conception and childhood, The Boer War coincides with G's sexual awakening, a 1910 aviation first with some of G's conquests as a young man and the Great War with G's apotheosis so to speak... G himself looks for the strange, in women and events, so for example one of his "conquests" is interesting for him only as long as her husband is threatening to shoot him...

The novel has an unusual structure with paragraphs linked in a whole as well as authorial insertions about this or that; overall the structure works well despite the seeming scattering in places, though it requires constant attention to detail. The combination of personal and historical, story and authorial musings give the novel its "interesting-ness" flavor that I appreciate a lot and I am highly recommending it for a very rewarding and entertaining reading experience.(less)

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Feb 13, 2012 Samantha rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: booker-prize

For me, this book's greatest strength lies in Berger's imagery. He takes the simplest moments and gestures--the tilt of a head, the way a hand lays against a thigh--and creates images of astounding beauty.

Second to Berger's ability to draw images is his grasp of the meta-fictional voice. So many authors, in attempting to write meta-fiction, over-write. Berger's meta-fiction felt very natural. It not only occured in a very organic way within the narrative, it also complimented the themes of the...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Paul rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: english-novels

Won the Booker prize in the early 70s (not necessarily an auspicious start) and by John Berger; I really wanted to like this. It is the story of G, son of an Italian merchant and his mistress and takes place in before and during the first world war. It is a post-modern novel and its structure isn't conventional. G is essentially a hedonist, a Don Juan (or possibly Casanova) figure. Parts of this are beautifully written, especially the descriptions relating to the early aviators.
G inherits his f...more

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Dec 06, 2011 Geraldine rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oh dear.what were the judges thinking in awarding this book the Booker prize in 1972. Trying to prove how intellectual and cutting edge they are. Disjointed, filled with characters who have few redeeming characteristics, and generally a book to plough through. Occasionally Berger puts the reader in a comfortable place in the story of G growing up, the story of Chavez and the mountains and the Hartmanns, but the authors comments throughout book, the philosophical ramblings etc. what a chore.
Think...more

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Nov 09, 2010 Eddie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

One of the truly great novels that I have ever read. A study of upper middle class morals and politics at the end of the 19th century and up to WW1. Ostensibly a narrative about G, the son of a Livorno fruit grower. Berger's discussions of sexual and physical intimacy are carefully interwoven with the lives of these middle classes. Motivations are carefully examined as the book moves on through the years. Near the novel's end, G realizes that he is overwhelmed by multitudes of memories from his...more

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Oct 21, 2012 Mita rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fotocopie

"… un piccolo piccione vanitoso"
Il regalo di un’amica.
Mi è stato proposto come un libro sperimentale, ma pieno di stimoli e non c’è dubbio che lo sia realmente.
Non è sicuramente un romanzo lineare, perché la narrazione prosegue frammentata, slegata. Non racconta una storia nella sua interezza, ma momenti, immagini, alternando racconto, analisi psicologiche, storiche e sociali, stimoli sensoriali.
Ci sono dei passaggi che sembrano svilupparsi come il concertato di un’opera lirica.
E’ un libro c...more "… un piccolo piccione vanitoso"
Il regalo di un’amica.
Mi è stato proposto come un libro sperimentale, ma pieno di stimoli e non c’è dubbio che lo sia realmente.
Non è sicuramente un romanzo lineare, perché la narrazione prosegue frammentata, slegata. Non racconta una storia nella sua interezza, ma momenti, immagini, alternando racconto, analisi psicologiche, storiche e sociali, stimoli sensoriali.
Ci sono dei passaggi che sembrano svilupparsi come il concertato di un’opera lirica.
E’ un libro che parla ai sensi. La cura che Berger pone nel descrivere tutti gli aspetti sensoriali delle esperienze è particolarissima. Le sensazioni tattili, i suoni, i profumi, le immagini, i sapori, tutto ciò che colpisce i sensi è analizzato minuziosamente.
E nonostante lo stile slegato, la frammentarietà del racconto, o forse proprio per questo, è un romanzo che finisce per prenderti profondamente, affascinandoti, ma soprattutto emozionandoti.
Ogni paragrafo se pur breve stimola la curiosità del successivo, il bisogno di sapere cosa ci sarà “dietro l’angolo”.
Il protagonista, uno dei personaggi più particolari che mi sia mai capitato di incontrare nei libri, è “un piccolo piccione vanitoso” come lo definisce un amico, che passa attraverso la vita e la storia e sembra quasi non curarsi di ciò che lo circonda, concentrando il suo interesse unicamente sulla donna e la seduzione. E' pervaso da una sensualità istintiva ereditata dalla madre e assimilata con il latte materno: “A Parigi Laura offre il seno al suo bimbo neonato. E' come se il latte che sgorga da lei fosse il mercurio di uno strano specchio. E nello specchio il bambino è parte del suo corpo, ogni parte di lei si raddoppia”. Pratica la seduzione con studio e metodo, come una scienza applicata e i suoi atti risultano quasi esperimenti scientifici. E paradossalmente le donne vivono tutto questo come una sorta di emancipazione. La resa è per loro un atto compiuto per libera scelta e non perché dovuto in base ad un diritto stabilito. Lui non ha diritti su di loro, sono loro a darsi e questo sembra farle sentire libere.
Ed è un crescendo continuo, fino al finale… emozionante.
La consapevolezza della realtà, della storia, dei conflitti sociali, del tempo, tutte quelle pulsioni che durante la vita avevano attratto e respinto G, affascinandolo e spaventandolo nel contempo e finendo per sfiorarlo solamente, finiscono per abbattersi su di lui come una Nemesi e lui se ne lascia travolgere.
Bellissimo, veramente, una sorpresa emozionante.
Grazie Sandra!(less)

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Dec 04, 2012 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Reading G. made me nostalgic for my college lit courses on postmodernism. So much material to sift through--I got the distinct impression that Berger was larding up the symbolism sometimes just for the heck of it. Though nostalgic, I'm reminded why reading some mid-century English & American novels is such a chore. I do respect the resistance to the conventional story form, but the alternatives always seem so contrived, outside of a few notable exceptions (Woolf comes to mind).

Still, G. has...more

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Feb 28, 2012 T.J. Beitelman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So I sent somebody, a writer (a better writer than me, in fact), an email not too long ago about how I was loving this book by John Berger called G. And she wrote back and asked me what I loved about it. So I responded, but this same email also included an attachment of some of my own work, and I felt like I needed to preface my work with, you know, my doubts about whether or not it cohered, arrived, whatever.

Anyway: this was the prefatory stuff, about my work:

I do think it does *something* (
...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Katy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: booker-prize-winners

Six books in and I've just discovered this series from The Guardian on looking back at the Booker Prize winners.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/books...

Of G., they say that "[it] is worth reading just for its vertiginous description of the first crossing of the Alps by plane, its crushing examples of the first world war's futile slaughter and a barnstorming rendition of the Milan riots of 1898. The latter scene culminates in a suave refusal to finish describing the slaughter because stopping wh...more

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Nov 12, 2008 Sarah Blackman rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am in the slow process of reading this one, but slow because I have so many other things going on, not because it is not holding my interest. The line "Imagine putting your hand into a glove whose exterior surface is continuous with all other substances," has changed the way I am currently thinking about my body.

Hmmm. It stayed slow. I was involved in both story and philosophy until about two-thirds of the way through the book when instead of sticking to what I had come be identify as a sort o...more

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Apr 25, 2009 Melody rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Melody by: Brian Johnson

Shelves: third-thursday-bookgroup

An enjoyable enough book with a quirky way of both presenting the story (through some unidentified narrator) and telling the story (shifting back and forth between what G (the protagonist) is thinking and what the narrator is observing). It is set in pre-World War I Europe and is the story of a serial lover who may or may not be involved in the resistance, but probably is not – more than likely he is simply trying to add another man’s wife to his list of conquests and cares nothing for the polit...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Christoph Fischer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"G." by John Berger might have just been a case of the wrong time and wrong expectations for the book. I love historical novels and the setting and the time of Italy between 1848 and 1918 was a temptation in itself. I just could not get into it and I did not feel I learned that much either.
There are some witty observations, clever dialogue and much more to make this far from flawed but I must admit I did not get drawn into it.

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Oct 13, 2010 Maia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 60s-70s, prizes-booker

I just remembered this novel again, thinking about the Booker Prize (it won in 1972), because of how experimental and sort of 1960s 'psychodelic and surreal'. It deals with the feelings post-WW1 of a caddish guy, how he begins to see the and understand the world more clearly afterwards, a world where WWI is clearly a definite demarcation line. I remember that it impressed me at the time, though the writing wasn't 'my thing' at all.

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Sep 20, 2009 Jenny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: booker-winners-and-listed, read09

This was one of the easier Booker prize winners to read, despite (or maybe because of) its disjointed style. The protagonist is interesting but I almost feel like the author connects the reader to him much better when he is a child than when he is an adult. There are interesting statements made on relationships, some silly and unnecessary drawings, and set before WWI in Europe.

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Aug 16, 2009 Kirstie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's really been too long since I've read this one...it's complicated, rich in terms of texture, and it's ideas in terms of the exploration of relationships, even feminism, are the most forefront in my mind as I recall it. However, it's a complex book deserving of more of a description and I have read too many books inbetween then and now to not get some details mixed up.

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Jan 16, 2013 Frederik Verrote rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Annoying to find out that you got irritated by the more contemplative essay- like parts and clearly preferred the more dramatic chapters. It gives you the feeling that you're probably not intellectually sophisticated enough to savour this pm novel. I was really touched by Bergers collection of stories Here is where we meet, but this one was a bit lost upon me.

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Jul 06, 2012 Alan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

from my 1985 notebook - alternately fascinated and irritated by its philosophical/political meandering interrupting the narrative. Far from seamless. But, interesting, as they say. Good on desire, sex, how things are perceived - with all our attendant ideas, thoughts, preconceptions and misconceptions.

(like Ways of Seeing then).

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Feb 23, 2009 Eli Greenlaw rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People who love highly descriptive language

Recommended to Eli by: Staff of Elliot Bay Book Company in Seattle

I just finished this book and already I'm dying to read it again.

I think it's best enjoyed in small doses. In any number of places he lulls you to sleep with some pretty boring text, then he gets 'inspired' or something and begins to rattle off some of the most beautifully worded and descriptive language I've ever heard.

I need to write more, to give some examples, but I have to head off to work! I will be updating this review within the next few days.

Cheers!

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Dec 04, 2007 Andy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A truly weird book. Combines the history of the late 19th and early 20th century - specifically, Italy and the Balkans, and the working class and nationalist politics that would help lead to the War - with one man's sexual conquests, not to mention numerous philosophical asides by Berger on topics ranging from death to art to sex. It doesn't quite all hang together, its more of a mosaic of ideas, but fascinating ones at that. Definitely the weirdest book to win the Booker - capped off by Berger'...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Poupeh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Berger weaves the same philosophical contemplations of his essays into the fiction that is on its own woven around non-fictional historical events. Musings about the mind and the body of a Don Juan from childhood to his adult life that is on the brink of war... intense passages force you to stop from time to time, to digest before you move on to the next...

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Feb 07, 2011 Virginia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: difficult, british, fiction

Fascinating, difficult. Haven't read many novels with illustrated examples of sexual acts. I was infatuated with the person who first mentioned this author to me. So I found this book, devoured it, and of course read things into it to cushion my hurt feelings. 'Twas ever thus.

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Jan 21, 2011 Leonie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This poor old battered copy didn't survive it's final reading and I was literally throwing the pages away as I read them. It took me such a long time to read because the story was circuitous and 'psychedelic' meaning that it was incomprehensible and disjointed at times. I found it difficult to remember which protagonists were which and how they related to each other. The weaving of real life events into the narrative only served to confuse me more as I kept querying whether something was fact or...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Allison rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This is the first Booker Prize winner that I have really, really not enjoyed. In places the prose was beautiful but everything important about this book - its historical setting, its protagonist, all of the sex - struck me as so vapid and flat that I almost just gave up 2/3 of the way through from not caring. I'm told there's a larger point here, and critics bestowed such superlative adjectives on it, but it did absolutely nothing for me.
And to think that this book beat out The Chant of Jimmie B...more

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G.: A Novel

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