An intellectual biography of radical English writer and art critic John Berger. Examines his key work from the end of the Second World War to his death in 2017, in the context of at least the major features of his life, if not really the nitty-gritty details, and of the broader political and intellectual culture. Not sure why exactly I was drawn to read this – I’ve seen Berger cited in things I’ve read, but I knew almost nothing about him and have never read any of his work. I also don’t know much about art, and have no intention of doing the volume of reading on the topic that would be required to change that in any substantial way. Nonetheless, it’s a book I’ve had my eye on for a couple of years, and I’m glad I read it. It provides, for one thing, an entry into aspects of the history of the left in the second half of the 20th century, and I’m always up for reading about that. As well, while I have spent relatively little time reading and thinking about visual art specifically, Berger wrestled with questions of culture and radical politics in a way relevant far beyond that, including – both through the content of his work, but also the example of it – with respect to writing, which is something I have spent rather more time contemplating. I didn’t pick it up with this in mind but, as I think I mentioned in a social media post recently, a possible future project when I’m done my current book would involve exploring what it means to do politically useful writing and creative and intellectual work in this moment, and this book certainly got my brain churning when it comes to such questions. Anyway, I have no basis to judge how well or poorly this book treats Berger’s life or his work, but I learned from it, it was interesting, and it made me think things, so I think it was time well spent.
Originally posted by Scott on Goodreads.