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34th out of 46 books
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G.
In this luminous novel -- winner of Britain's prestigious Booker Prize -- John Berger relates the story of "G.," a young man forging an energetic sexual career in Europe during the early years of this century. With profound compassion, Berger explores the hearts and minds of both men and women, and what happens during sex, to reveal the conditions of the Don Juan's success...more
Paperback, 336 pages
Published
July 13th 2011
by Vintage
(first published 1972)
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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 differe...more
I liked it, and I liked it a lot. It’s unashamedly postmodern, but it’s picaresque which makes it a reading experience somewhat differe...more
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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
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 ...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...more
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...more
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.
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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
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/booksblo...
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 sla...more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblo...
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 sla...more
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 b...more
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 b...more
Melody
rated it
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review of another edition
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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 poli...more
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.
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.
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.
Eli Greenlaw
rated it
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.
Cheer...more
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.
Cheer...more
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
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.
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
This little red book is the Communist manifesto. Perhaps a little outdated, but passionately written. I struggled with the fragmented style and er.. pictures, but I like this sense of humour.
It was an interesting book but I did find it difficult to connect with G, as a character he seemed very two dimensional.
I found this hard going to be honest, I could not warm to any of the characters, it may be a Booker winner but it was not vastly enjoyable.
A difficult favorite since high school. I haven't re-read this in a while but I love it.
amazing. Berger comes through time and time again.
Just started G, one that's long been on my list. I love anything by John Berger, but G is really captivating me at the moment. Fun fact: Berger won the Booker Prize for this novel in 1972, and, having learned that the Booker family earned its money from its Carribean slave plantations, he lambasted them in his acceptance speech and then donated half of theprize money to the Black Panthers. Ha!
Jen
marked it as to-read
Booker Prize 1972
An unmistakable Berger-crafted thing; beautiful, sad and quirky. Not his best work overall to my taste though - his short prose is infinitely better (and yes, this is coming from me, a classic novel reader). Or maybe what I really mean to say is, his later prose is better, this being one his earlier works.
In any event, I applaud the 1972 Booker prize committee. I don't think a book so, um, different could have won today.
In any event, I applaud the 1972 Booker prize committee. I don't think a book so, um, different could have won today.
Do you think that any of the other books submitted for the 1972 Booker Prize had little drawings in them, drawings not unlike those in bathroom stalls?
Do you think Berger won because of his little drawings, drawings not unlike those in bathroom stalls?
I do.
Also, OK, for his rapturous language, his Calvino-like lightness, his very modern, semi-intrusive narrator, and his evocation of character in quick but never crude lines.
Do you think Berger won because of his little drawings, drawings not unlike those in bathroom stalls?
I do.
Also, OK, for his rapturous language, his Calvino-like lightness, his very modern, semi-intrusive narrator, and his evocation of character in quick but never crude lines.
About three chapters into this book I was thinking, this is pretty good but too bad it was so poorly translated. Then I realized the book was published in England and I was reading it in its native tongue. Still, the writing isn't terrible, just perhaps unclear. The book was a bit depressing and full of historical references that I know nothing about - but all-in-all it did have some merit.
I had never heard of this book, or its author. One day I saw it lying out on a stoop (no I didn't steal it - that is the book exchange of Brooklyn), and since I was looking at a long subway ride I picked it up. Ah the game of chance can be so fun when you win.
you can have it. it's dumb. i hated it. what the hell? and the guy won the booker prize? did it just go directly over my head> maybe. it's still a bad book. on to bigger and better ones.
Bill
added it
This book was so slow moving and hard to understand that I quit reading it. I held on longer than I should...probably a third of the way....and I never figured out who or what "G" was!
Nobody that I know who has read this book enjoyed it but funnily I really liked it. It wasn't a page turner by any means but I felt it contained something special.
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John Peter Berger is an English art critic, novelist, painter and author. His novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to a BBC series, is often used as a college text.
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