To the Wedding: Amazon.ca: John Berger, Alexandra Fuller: Books

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With the sensuous eye and profound sense of history that have made him one of the most acclaimed living novelists, John Berger, author of G., tells the story of a wedding that takes place in a Europe that is approaching the end of the century, a place where everything has changed - and not even the certainties of love are exempt. This is Berger's fin de siecle , a transcendent celebration of passion at the end of our millennium. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Ritual and myth; technology and science; history, both natural and human?each plays a crucial supporting role in this novel about a Franco-Italian railwayman, a Czech engineer, their un-selfpitying HIV-positive daughter and the Italian street vendor who determines to marry her. Among the many beauties of this highly original work?which matches Berger's Into Their Labours trilogy in sweep and power?are its command of the various cultures and settings depicted and the way its voices filter through the central narrative presence, a blind Greek peddler of religious artifacts. Berger's gift for the succinctly rendered incident or detail?heightened in the context of the daughter's impending death?lends the tale both eventful density and narrative lightness, speeding it across the post-Cold War Europe that is the story's true love object, toward the moving and bittersweet scenes of the denouement. With its muted despair over our recent cultural and political failings ("Mankind has lost its nerve") and its tender and determined celebration of its characters in spite of it, Berger's latest work speaks uniquely to the present.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews

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4.8 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)

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2.0 out of 5 stars Sorry but I disagree..., July 1 2002

By

Leigh Munro - See all my reviews

This review is from: To the Wedding (Paperback)

I am going to be the lone voice in the wilderness... I could not get into this book, could not make it past the first thirty pages. The narrative voice rambles from first person to third person, often it is not clear what is going on... I think this is a challenging book and most certainly is not a novel for somebody who is looking for a light read.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Life changing, Jan 28 2002

By

Erin (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To the Wedding (Paperback)

This book is both beautiful and devestating. It is lyric and direct. Heart wrneching and hopeful. This book is contradictory and yet realistic in its contradictions. This book absolutely changed the way I read, and I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Pull out the kleenex, though.

A friend of mine recommended this book to me in 1996. In the past six years I have come back to it time and again for its sheer beauty. This is not one to miss.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Unconditional, Feb 23 2001

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taking a rest - See all my reviews

This review is from: To the Wedding (Paperback)

There is an event in this book that demonstrates the wonderful manner that John Berger consistently illuminates his readers, and his characters. The task in and of itself is of no great note; a small boat is guided from the shore to a small island. Gino who is taking his reluctant fiancé on the trip guides the boat. Ninon is not concerned about the trip rather Gino's insistence that they marry. The trip to the island is accomplished in several steps to allow for currents both known and unpredictable. When the crossing is accomplished and Ninon continues to question the point of the exercise, Gino explains it has nothing to do with the island as a destination, but the trip that illustrates, "how we're going to live".

The couple decides to marry but before they do human weakness steps in and irrevocably alters the future they had planed. Neither conventional wisdom nor anyone who knows either member of the couple believes the wedding should take place. The bride to be is amongst those who wish to see the union forever cancelled. Gino is the only person willing to see through what his love for this woman has become for him, a commitment without condition.

The Author surrounds this couple with all the variants of marriage. He includes the innocent moments that lead to the first shared intimacies, and he has the unions that have failed to overcome the difficulties they encountered. Throughout this process he forces the reader to make some difficult observations either personally or through a given character they may identify with. The Wedding that is supposed to take place is like a vortex drawing all the participants and observers to the main event, the core. When all the players have made their own journeys, Gino is no longer the odd man out. He has come to define an ideal; he has always known what is right and what the consequences would be.

A cynic might question Gino based upon the issue of time, however this would be an error. Time firstly is an artificial human construct, and even if used as a measure we know nothing about its allotment to each of us, not what will transpire during our portion. Gino does not suffer from the arrogance of presumption of time and its length. And the Author John Berger must understand this as well, for no one could communicate this more clearly, and with the contemporary relevance than he does, if it wasn't his own philosophy as well.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars a life enhancing book
It has now been several years since I read this book, and it still haunts me with its beauty and wisdom. Read more

Published on Mar 5 2000 by Robert Spencer

5.0 out of 5 stars A tender masterpiece
Better known as a latter day Marxist art critic, Berger has always balanced a social conscience with an extraordinary eye for the beautiful. Read more

Published on Jan 23 2000 by tksc