"Unremittingly humane": High praise for John Berger from the New Statesman and Times Literary Supplement

A Painter of Our Time and Corker's Freedom, two beautiful new editions of two of John Berger's early novels, gain praise and admiration from the New Statesman and Times Literary Supplement.

Max Saunders, reviewing for the the Times Literary Supplement, remarks "these reissues are a welcome reminder of the seriousness and versatility of Berger's contribution to British post-war fiction."

Visit the Times Literary Supplement to read the review in full.

Michael Sayeau observes in the New Statesman that  "Verso has done the world, and especially British literature, a great service in republishing two of John Berger's early novels." He concludes "Berger's republished works underscore that it is still very much possible, even long after the heyday of literary modernism has passed, to be formally adventurous and deeply readable, sharply critical of the status quo and unremittingly humane - all at the same time."

Of A Painter of Our Time, Sayeau writes:

Berger's character's ruminations on the relationship between left-wing politics and beauty seem as pertinent as ever, and transform this book into an entrancing narrative version of the primary preoccupations of the author in the guise we are more familiar with today - the politically minded explicator of fine art.

On Corker's Freedom he comments:

In a sort of bleakly mirrored version of the relationship between Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus in Joyce's Ulysses, Corker's Freedom chronicles the attempts by a cast of characters to transcend the quotidian banality of modern urban life - its clerical jobs, its cramped living conditions, its sexual and ethical hang-ups.

Visit the New Statesman to read the review in full.

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