Hold Everything Dear: Dispatches on Survival and Resistance and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more

Kindle Edition
 
   
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Hold Everything Dear: Dispatches on Survival and Resistance
 
 
Start reading Hold Everything Dear: Dispatches on Survival and Resistance on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Hold Everything Dear: Dispatches on Survival and Resistance [Hardcover]

John Berger (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)


Available from these sellers.


Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition --  
Hardcover --  
Paperback $11.11  

Book Description

September 11, 2007
John Berger occupies a unique position in the international cultural landscape: artist, filmmaker, poet, philosopher, novelist, essayist, he is also a deeply thoughtful political activist. In Hold Everything Dear, he artistry and activism mesh in an attempt to make sense of the world as we have come to know it during the past six years.

Berger analyzes the nature of terrorism and the profound despair that gives rise to it. He writes about the homelessness of millions across the globe who have been forced by poverty and war into lives as refugees. He discusses Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Serbia, Bosnia, China, Indonesia--anyplace the power of corporations, the military, or paramilitary elements is being exercised, depriving ordinary citizens of autonomy or livelihoods or the most basic of freedoms.

Singularly lucid and bold, Hold Everything Dear fully acknowledges the depth of suffering occurring around the world and suggests ideas and action that might finally help bring it to an end. From one of the most widely admired, articulate, and impassioned writers of our time, this is a powerful collections of essays that holds a starkly reflective mirror up to post-9/11 realities.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Berger's concentrated essays deal with the essentials: how we sustain ourselves, who has power, and how we are altering nature. For Berger, a Booker Prize winner, painter, philosopher, critic, and activist, the act of seeing––that is, looking at the world intently and inquisitively––is a form of empathy. He practices this art with particular intent in these provocative, gracefully composed post-9/11 dispatches. Especially attuned to the paradoxes of terrorism and the unremitting, bloody complexities of the Middle East, Berger attempts to fathom the mind of a suicide martyr and express the despair of Palestinians. Seeking revelation in art, he turns to the poet Nazim Hikmet, the painter Francis Bacon, and the composer Antonín Dvorák.Berger suspects that the world has "always been pitiless." But after reflecting on our obsession with profit and our proclivity for war, he concludes, "Today's pitilessness is perhaps more unremitting, pervasive and continuous. It spares neither the planet itself, nor anyone living on it anywhere." Compassionate and tender in his vision of our endangered world, Berger has seen much and felt more. Seaman, Donna

Review

"John Berger writes about what is important, not just interesting. In contemporary English letters he seems to me peerless; not since D. H. Lawrence has there been a writer who offers such attentiveness to the sensual world with responsiveness to the imperatives of conscience."
--Susan Sontag

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Pantheon (September 11, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0375425098
  • ISBN-13: 978-0375425097
  • Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.8 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,220,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Berger was born in London in 1926. He is well known for his novels and stories as well as for his works of nonfiction, including several volumes of art criticism. His first novel, A Painter of Our Time, was published in 1958, and since then his books have included the novel G., which won the Booker Prize in 1972. In 1962 he left Britain permanently, and he lives in a small village in the French Alps.

 

Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Embrace Berger Too, November 23, 2007
By 
R. J MOSS (Alice Springs, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Hold Everything Dear: Dispatches on Survival and Resistance (Hardcover)
One of the wisest voices of our time, John Berger, has pieced together 17 thoughts or, 'dispatches'(with its military connotations) about the post 9/11 environment which we now, all share. For most of his long life, Berger has sided with the powerless and dispossessed, even taking the step of quitting a high profile career in London, where he seemed to be at the cutting edge of art criticism with his ground-breaking,'Ways of Seeing' made for BBC T.V and never out of print in book form.He relocated in a peasant village in rural France, to immerse himself in what would form the subject of some of his most compelling writing.There has been no diminishing of power in his thought or eloquence as he gains his senior years. The Palestine issue, in particular, gets coverage. And he returne to the pitiless paintings of Francis Bacon for what I suspect will be his final published view of him. And there is a re-contexturalising of the great Piero Pasolini; Berger having just watched his 'La Rabbia'(how and where can I ever get to see this?). I guess, I wish the collection had more in it. But what is there is potent, direct and as usual, poetic. Which leads me to its title; not one of John's pieces, but the publication in its opening pages of a very beautiful poem by one, Gareth Evans. Have a squizz! For more on art visit>rodmoss.com
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars good but enigmatic, October 10, 2007
By 
Georgia (Atlanta, Georgia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hold Everything Dear: Dispatches on Survival and Resistance (Hardcover)
I love reading John Berger. He is an original thinker.
I don't always agree with his point of view but I love to read it.
This book was very moving at times but also very enigmatic. I think
that Mr. Berger is such a sensitive man that art criticism offers a safer space,
than political discourse,to provide a more succinct point of view.
I felt when reading his book the human tragedy that is going on
now in the middle east is so hard to believe even when one is a witness to it.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best writers of his generation, December 5, 2010
By 
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
A must read! Each essay is packed with such eloquence and depth that it is hard not to reread them several times, as one would do with poetry, just to make sure the full intent of the author is grasped.

This is a must for lovers of contemporary literature, devotees of current events and modern political thought.

A beautiful piece of literature.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews



Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums



So You'd Like to...


Create a guide


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject