From one of the most impassioned of writers of our time, this powerful collection of essays offers a stark portrait of post-9/11 realities. John Be...
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Nov 25, 2007
Bob
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Berger's introspection, as I have come to expect, is spot on. His writing is sure of itself; comfortable enough, and I think this is key, to avoid hysterical realism and leave the text room to breathe.
I take issue with this wonderful little book only insofar as his politics are, at times, not quite so sophisticated: "Many fear that before long, US military forces will be launching the 'preventive' war against Iraq so that the US oil corporations can lay their hands on further and More...
I take issue with this wonderful little book only insofar as his politics are, at times, not quite so sophisticated: "Many fear that before long, US military forces will be launching the 'preventive' war against Iraq so that the US oil corporations can lay their hands on further and More...
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Jan 03, 2008
Robertisenberg
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What an odd little volume -- essays, prose-poems, modest reportage, you name it, all signifying the end of freedom and justice. For years, I have treasured my edition of "Ways of Seeing," which was such an essential introduction to art and its social context. Berger reminds me of Chatwin, the way he combines an appreciation for art with anthropological curiosity and gutsy travel to dangerous lands. But "Hold Everything Dear" is particularly scattered; he leapfrogs from topic
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Aug 19, 2008
I think, though I'm probably wrong, this is a mediation on freedom. It's the more lucid and realistic novel I've read of Berger's (though I've only read one other , which is probably my favorite book ever). His landscape isn't much sullied, or gloified, by the unconcious. This is how the realist poet should write; it attempts to understand the sadness and sometimes desperate empathy people usually keep hidden without talking about it directly. Isn't that the job of a minimalist, mostly because i
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Dec 20, 2008
Travis
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"There are seven levels of despair -- one for each day of the week -- which lead, for some of the more courageous, to the revelation that to offer one's life in contesting the forces which have pushed the world to where it is, is the only way of invoking an all, which is larger than that of the despair."
Feb 17, 2009
Richard
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Essays. A radical view of the world post 9/11. Extremely intelligent and thought provoking. A very good look at life on the ground in Palestine - disturbing to say the least, with a lot more detail than any of us get from the newspapers. Should piss a lot of people off.
Jan 10, 2009
Rachel
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In this collection of essays written post-9/11, Berger again manages to lucidly describe the world and relationships around us. Easy to pick up after being put down for a while, Berger's prose continued to give me pause.
Feb 02, 2009
William
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I have loved reading much of John Berger's work but this one was tough. It just didn't connect. The writing is personal to the point of being not understandable. Three stars is generous.
Nov 10, 2007
A poet translates the newspaper, taking the imediate explosions and sifting through them to find terrible urgent beauty. The book begins with an invocation to the dead, and they remain present throught the journey to fear, despair and desire. After examining the terrible kinds of survival that is to left to people who have lost everything and still live, Berger brings us to desire and its ability to create another world, a chance for something to work right, to give a reprieve from pain, even if
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Dec 03, 2011
Kait
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Elliptical thought poems on the nature of surviving and coping. I find this volume more rewarding to reference and skim than to read as a whole.
Apr 06, 2009
Rick
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Humans live in two time-scales at once -- the biological timescale of their bodies and the timescale of their consciousness.
Gorgeous.
Gorgeous.
Mar 31, 2009
Gabe
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Great essays on a variety of subjects including politics, art, artists and more.
Jan 17, 2012
Brigette
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More wonderful essays from one of my favorite art and politics writers.
Mar 10, 2010
Tiffany
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Have to say I enjoyed the movie more than the book on thi one. I like a happier ending and this wasn't what I liked. The book was a fast read and good romance but I am all about the ending and this didn't do it for me.
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Oct 24, 2011
Catherine
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Berger is phenomenal. In reading Linda Green's recent (2011) article "The Nobodies," where she quotes Berger, I was reminded of his clarity and compassion. One passage reads: "Month by month, millions leave their homelands. They leave because there is nothing there, except their *everything,* which does not offer enough to feed their children. Once it did. This is the poverty of the new capitalism." (p. 120) Hold everything dear.
Mar 23, 2008
Michael
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i derived immense pleasure from reading this thin volume. it's a mediation on suffering, hope, despair, the beauty of the eye, the dead and the living. i think susan sontag says it best, "not since d. h. lawrence has there been a writer who offers such attentiveness to the sensual world with responsiveness to the imperatives of consciousness." these post 9/11 vignettes generate thought and wonder and feeling.
May 03, 2008
Bethany
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I read this immediately after watching the beloved POTUS stumble through his final SOTU, and it gave be a slim reassurance that the world may not be totally without hope, and that the little moments actually add up to something.
Preface poem was breath taking.
And this "averaging of book ratings" is way off (and silly)if this little gem only gets a 3.79...was everyone else reading the same book?
Preface poem was breath taking.
And this "averaging of book ratings" is way off (and silly)if this little gem only gets a 3.79...was everyone else reading the same book?
Jul 01, 2011
Tommy
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A great short read dealing with the issues of daily life for Palestians, what breeds terrorism, class warfare, and the current political power structure. This is more a collection of short essays and thoughts from Berger that has the feel of reading through a writers notebook of personal thoughts than an actual published work.
I will definitely read more by Berger and hope others do too.
I will definitely read more by Berger and hope others do too.
Jan 11, 2008
Amelia
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Good to read slowly, when you are over-schock/awed, like when the news tells you that hundreds of thousands of women are suffering from obstetric fistula and expelled from their homes by their own families, and then that terrorist groups are using mentally handicapped people as suicide bombers.
Jan 04, 2008
Jordan
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Fantastic. This is the first John Berger I've read: a series of essays both oblique and intense that speak of war and bare life in its face.
Aug 12, 2008
Fergus
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A sometimes elegant book with a strong undercurrent of sentimentality.
Impossible not to feel sad for the wrong reasons.
Impossible not to feel sad for the wrong reasons.
Mar 16, 2008
Sarah
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The essay "Stones" about the oppression of the Palestinians is the best I've ever read on this subject...
Feb 10, 2012
Feb 10, 2012
Feb 08, 2012
