December 19, 2007
A review of John Berger's Hold Everything Dear
My review of John Berger's new essay collection, Hold Everything Dear: Dispatches on Survival and Resistance (Pantheon), has been published in the Detroit Metro Times. Here is an excerpt:
"Stories are one way of sharing the belief that justice is imminent," writes John Berger in Hold Everything Dear, his new, raggedly uneven collection of recent essays. A humanist concern for justice marks these texts, which range in length from two pages to 20 and are characterized by Berger's messianic sense of conviction. His fervor is inspiring when he bears witness to the perseverance of individuals in battle-scarred lands or dilates on poems, films and photographs. But more often it is off-putting, as he grandiloquently and unmindfully rages against multinational corporations, the current U.S. administration, Israel's occupation of Palestine, and what he calls the delocalization of the entire world.
To read the rest, click here.