Customer Reviews

Here Is Where We Meet: A Story of Crossing Paths

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John, the narrator, meets his mother in Lisbon 15 years after her death and a place she never went to when alive. John then meets up in a number of places all over Europe with people from his past but who are now dead. The meetings are all very realistic and the dead characters interact in a very realistic and "alive" manner. While each chapter has a separate tale the constant figure of the narrator holds the common thread. I much preferred this book to Roth's Everyman as it looked on death in a positive way and unlike Roth's bitter narrator, John here recalled everything in an uplifting and poignant manner. There is an interlude in the middle of the book where Berger uses his literary skills to conjure up wonderful descriptions of several types of fruit. The longest chapter at the end, finds John in a small Polish village making sorrel soup for a newly-wed couple and beautifully brings the book to a conclusion like the reaffirmation of life. This is a subtle book and lacking in plot and action but for me an enjoyable reading experience.