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4.0 out of 5 stars
Social History as Fiction, Jan 22 2002
This book is part of trilogy - Pig Earth, In Europa, Lilac and Flag - depicting the erosion of traditional peasant culture and the incorporation of the children of the peasantry into modern urban life. Taken together, these books comprise a kind of fictionalized sociology of modernization. Each of these books describes a different aspect of this process. The first book, Pig Earth, describes the traditional life of poor French peasants from the Savoy region. Pig Earth is a series of stories and poems showing the seasonal routine of labor, the close relationship of other aspects of peasant life to seasonal labors, and relatively closed nature of these communities. The latter is shown to have both positive and negative aspects, a combination of social solidarity and insularity. The second book, In Europa, is a series of stories showing the penetration of modern industrial civilization into the life of the peasantry and recounts some of the costs, and benefits, of this process. The last book, Lilac and Flag, is set in a mythical city, called Troy, which has aspects of many modern cities. Lilac and Flag describes the life of a young couple, the descendents of poor peasants, who now live a marginal existence in the metropolis of Troy. Overall, this is a successful set of books. Berger is a very talented writer and this set of books gives a vivid sense of the important transition from peasant life on the land to modern industrial civilization. Berger's attempt to depict this important social process is really admirable. The books do vary somewhat in quality. In Europa is probably the best, containing a number of powerful stories, with Pig Earth coming a close second. Lilac and Flag is probably the least effective. The style, presumably a correlate of the urban setting, is distinctly different and the plot has surreal elements. I suspect that Lilac and Flag will strike many readers as relatively familiar and conventional where the contents of Pig Earth and In Europa are relatively novel. If I were to read just one of these books, I would pick In Europa. It is important to realize that Berger is describing the tail of a process with roots in the Renaissance and that accelerated tremendously in the 19th century. The traditional life described in Pig Earth is actually a life that has been greatly affected by industrial civilization. Many men in the community described by Berger participate in seasonal labor in large cities, there is compulsory primary education, and the local church has a strong influence. Other aspects of the modern world intrude themselves. These include military service, railroads and it is likely that farm products are produced for an international market. In the early or even mid-19th century, a community like this would have been completely geographically isolated, illiterate, and probably would speak a language distinct from French. There are some other fine books devoted to this topic. Eugen Weber's excellent Peasants into Frenchman is a very interesting and readable social history of the impact of the modern world on the French peasantry. A detailed view of French peasant life can be found in Pierre Helias The Horse of Pride, a combined ethnography and memoir about a Breton peasant community written by a scholar who was the son of Breton peasants.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
15 Year Writing Odyssey, April 26 2001
"Pig Earth", by John Berger is the first of 3 books written over a fifteen-year period that taken together form the trilogy, "Into Their Labours". The setting for the first volume is a small village in the French Alps containing a collection of stories about the traditional life of peasants in their village. The books taken together offer a sweeping view of what has happened to this group of people, and as the Author notes, with small changes in detail these stories could be of peasants and their economy anywhere in the world.The, "economy", of the peasant is the keystone not only of their monetary well being, it also is the foundation that supports their culture, their way of life. It is the means by which they are able to stay away from the cities and there industrialization, the village maintains the individual, the city destroys him or her. This first book shows the life of the Alpine Village intact even as it foreshadows its demise. There are great ranges of stories that cover daily life, the 24-hour a day commitment that their lives require, and in the end a three-part story that illustrates what will be the downfall of the village. This three-part story is particularly fascinating for the Village disciplines one of its own that they have labeled with a superstitious moniker. When they carry out her isolation from the Village, she adapts, embraces ways different from those who have scorned her, and in the end the destruction of the Alpine Village and its way of life is gone, and those who live there do not yet realize it. This book is an interesting hybrid that includes poetry interspersed among the traditional prose of a novel. I am not a reader of poetry so the only compliment I can pay this portion of Mr. Berger's work, is that I enjoyed it. He placed and wrote the poems in such a manner that they read without breaking the cadence of the larger work. This work contains an element that the Author notes is a relic of the Nineteenth Century, even as he mourns the passing of the practice. In a section named, "Historical Afterword", the Author explains his book. What he says about his book I will leave to those who choose to read this man's work. However his Philosophy on what books have become is interesting and very accurate in my estimation as well. Many I know will find what he says offensive as they read that of which he speaks. He talks of how it is assumed that literature has elevated itself into pure art, however he believes it has degenerated into pure entertainment. Of one example he gives, is his feeling that Authors who believe their work of imagination to be all that a reader needs. He finds this attitude insulting to the, "dignity of the reader, the experience communicated, and the writer". He follows this with an essay on his book, which is brilliant, demonstrates the talent of this man not only as a writer but also as a pure thinker. If he had a bookstore I believe I would like it. Of course it would be small and would contain only books worth the time they take to read, and the expense they are to the reader. Some may find this statement arrogant, but for those whom do, I suggest you read his thoughts as many times as it takes to agree with his idea. For all this man advocates is quality work and Authors that respect their readers. This trilogy took 15 years to accomplish and it has been awarded appropriately. Even while writing this he penned other works that won The Booker Award amongst others. This man is one of the great Authors living today; however if 15 years for three slender volumes seems absurd then try the alternative, alphabet books. A is for atrocious, B is for botched, C is for contrived, through Z is for zero, representing value received.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
An unsentimental work of great beauty, Oct 29 2000
I approached this book, knowing that John Berger was a Marxist, with the fear that I would be treated to pages of dogma about how the realities of modern capitolism were destroying the pre-industrial arcadia of provincial France. Luckily, he is much more subtle than this. He doesn't rant about the value of the peasant world; he simply gets it across exactly the way it is. I never for a second felt that he was romanticizing the lives of the residents. And while the prose is beautiful, Berger never poeticizes the reality of peasant life - slaughtering animals, finding water pipes, getting goats to breed (notice the decidedly un-romanticized title); he allows us, however, to see why these tasks have their own beauty, their own value.It is ironic that a book so anchored in realism should have its greatest success with a work of fantasy: the stories that make up The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol are all masterpieces, and allow Pig Earth to be more than just a lovely work of journalism. The only thing I felt detracted from the coherence and overall quality of the book was the poetry. Berger is a fine poet, but not a great one; he is, however, a great writer of prose. I was generally much more impressed with the stories than the poetry, and didn't think many of the poems were of enough merit to be included. The sadness one feels at the close of this book is an earned sadness. What I mean by this is that Berger succesfully makes one feel, without saying a single word about it, that it is truly a shame that this world will probably not exist for much longer, that farming will probably done by a few people who will be pushing buttons on machines instead of living the traditional life of a peasant. Obviously, this is inevitable, but this book is a worthwhile reminder that progress comes at a cost, as well as being a wonderful read.
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