Dougald, I definitely want to read Berger but don’t quite know where to start. What do you suggest as an accessible entry point for an American who has never read him?
The book that opened the door for me was The Shape of a Pocket, which is a set of essays (of a storytelling kind) that brings in the local, the artistic and the political threads within Berger's later writing. The novel that I absolutely fell in love with is To The Wedding. There's a short, beautiful, mysterious book called And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief As Photos which is somewhere between an essay and a love letter. Then to learn more of him, Here Is Where We Meet, which is his most autobiographical novel (and hard to call a novel in any ordinary sense), a series of encounters with ghosts from different chapters of his life in different cities across Europe. So I would pick whichever of those catches your imagination and start from there.
Thank you Dougald. This is a lovely portrayal of a man I never met but who offered me a storyline that made sense in my confused and out-of-place life.
So much here that resonates. And finding "less destructive modes of expression than the culture of performative indignation" feels even more essential than in 2017. Yes, his kindness shone through the writing. I am so excited at the prospect of re-acquainting myself with it.
Dougald, I definitely want to read Berger but don’t quite know where to start. What do you suggest as an accessible entry point for an American who has never read him?
The book that opened the door for me was The Shape of a Pocket, which is a set of essays (of a storytelling kind) that brings in the local, the artistic and the political threads within Berger's later writing. The novel that I absolutely fell in love with is To The Wedding. There's a short, beautiful, mysterious book called And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief As Photos which is somewhere between an essay and a love letter. Then to learn more of him, Here Is Where We Meet, which is his most autobiographical novel (and hard to call a novel in any ordinary sense), a series of encounters with ghosts from different chapters of his life in different cities across Europe. So I would pick whichever of those catches your imagination and start from there.
Thanks. I will see which ones I can lay my hands on.
Thanks for asking! (was also gonna ask where to start)
I feel as if you have told me in this post about an author who is going to change my life for the better. Thank you.
This is great—very suggestive for me.
Thank you Dougald. This is a lovely portrayal of a man I never met but who offered me a storyline that made sense in my confused and out-of-place life.
So much here that resonates. And finding "less destructive modes of expression than the culture of performative indignation" feels even more essential than in 2017. Yes, his kindness shone through the writing. I am so excited at the prospect of re-acquainting myself with it.