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A Writer of Our Time
by Joshua Sperling
(Verso, £20)
WHEN John Berger passed away in January last year, all of his obituaries invariably started with a litany of vocations that could be ascribed to him — art critic, essayist, novelist, presenter, poet and still more. In this erudite and engaging biography, Joshua Sperling appraises that extraordinarily eclectic oeuvre in its entirety.
Rather than tracing his career chronologically, the book is structured around the concerns and questions that animated Berger throughout his life, such as the relation of art to revolution and society and the trials of being a committed artist.
Not only does this allow Sperling to show how these concerns overlap in his criticism, fiction writing and other artistic collaborations, it opens them so that they resonate with the present.
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