The Foot of Clive

by John Berger

In the centre of a 1960s hospital ward sits a curtained-off bed, guarded by a policeman. In it lies a murderer, hidden from view and likely to die before he can be hanged for his crime. In the closed, regimented society of the ward, his invisible presence fractures and rebuilds the way the other patients see the world. In the face of someone who has shattered all social covenants, life can no longer continue according to the rules. Upturning conventions from morality to masculinity to class to prejudice, The Foot of Clive is a masterclass on humanity from the Booker Prize-winning author of G.

Genres: Fiction

185 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

John Peter Berger was an English art critic, novelist, painter and author. His novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to a BBC series, is often used as a college text.

Later he was self exiled to continental Europe, living between the french Alps in summer and the suburbs of Paris in winter. Since then, his production has increased considerably, including a variety of genres, from novel to social essay, or poetry. One of the most common themes that appears on his books is the dialectics established between modernity and memory and loss,

Another of his most remarkable works has been the trilogy titled Into Their Labours, that includes the books Pig Earth (1979), Once In Europa (1983) Lilac And Flag (1990). With those books, Berger makes a meditation about the way of the peasant, that changes one poverty for another in the city. This theme is also observed in his novel King, but there his focus is more in the rural diaspora and the bitter side of the urban way of life.

Reviews

[Argos · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Berger’in ikinci romanıymış, ancak ilginç tarzını ilk kitaplarında oturtmuş, “Clive Koğuşu”nda onun mükemmel betimlemelerini, uzun karakter tahlillerini, zıtlıkları (zengin-fakir, modern-dindar, genç-yaşlı) hikaye kahramanları üstünden vermesini hemen görüyorsunuz. 1950’li yıllarda İngiliz toplumunun bir portresini koğuştaki altı hasta ile anlatıyor ki bu hastalar yukarıda bahsettiğim zıtlıklara sahipler.

Roman sadece bir koğuştakiler ile sınırlı olsa da bu altı hastanın hayatları, birbirleri hakkında düşündükleri, topluma bakışları ile kalabalık bir roman kahramanlarından oluşuyor gibi. Berger usta kalemine bir dokunuş ile romanın kahramanı olmayan ama hikayeye yön veren bir katili koğuşa yatırarak öyküyü psikolojik ve sosyolojik bir temel üzerine oturtmuş. Eğer psikolojik karakter tahlilleri ve toplumsal sosyal eleştirileri okumayı sevmiyorsanız okumanızı önermem, ancak H. Berger’i tanımak istiyorsanız iyi bir fırsat olabilir.

Bu arada birkaç kitabını hatırlatmakta yarar var; Kıymetini Bil Herşeyin, Domuz Toprak, Leylak ve Bayrak, Bir Zamanlar Europa’da, Sanatla Direniş, Yedinci Adam, Hoşbeş, Sanat ve Devrim, O Ana Adanmış, Düğüne, Talihli Bir Adam, Hayvanlara Niçin Bakarız ve tabii ki Görme Biçimleri.

[Mark Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clive is the name of a room in an NHS hospital in post-war England.

In the room are a group of men with various ailments, from a road traffic accident to a lost hand.

Everything is ordinary - they bicker, joke, discuss work and politics, until a convicted criminal enters the ward and everything goes to pot.

Took me a while to finish this, but Berger is a brilliant writer, captures the ordinary perfectly. Worth a read.

[notgettingenough · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be strictly honest, I am probably only giving this 5 stars to bump it up. It does not compute with me that it's only a tad over 3 stars on average.

A few comments here.

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

HOUSEKEEPING 2025

Oh, Berger: you wonderful creature. You and Bowles live in the same cell of my heart, still afoot and afield in North Africa and carousing like two drunk, cultured magi. No, I don't remember a fucking word of this, but, shhhhhhhh—I'll be here in the morning. I'll be here for a while.

[Valentina Salvatierra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but not amazing. This novel is a fairly interesting snapshot of post-WWII England, as represented by a sub-section of a shared hospital room in the National Health Service. The room itself explains the novel's title, as it's the "foot" (lower section) of a hospital room named after a British military officer Robert Clive who, as my edition's footnote told me, played a role in setting up the structure of Britain's colonial domination in India.

The fact that the space, "Clive", becomes a character is one of the most captivating things in this book. Other spaces outside the room also have their characters, and help to construct an image of a lacklustre, bombarded, weary country. The narration takes us through the inner and shared lives of various patients in Clive. It orbits around the housing, in the foot of Clive, of a man accused of murdering a policeman. However, this man is only an excuse to observe the various reactions of the men around him: a privileged adolescent, a seemingly self-assured young professional, a mischievous old drunk, a pious and judgemental crank, a solid working-class father, and a tragicomical Italian trying to communicate and get back to Italy, to his wife and newborn child.

Not much seems to happen externally; rather, the novel is centred on each of these patient's lived experience of the hospital, as well as some delirious flashbacks and imaginings. The way each man reacts to their own illness, the degree to which their physical illness is wound up with their mental unrest as well as the space they share, is at the core of the novel. It makes for fairly dense reading at times, but it also has flashes of humor and insight into English culture. I'm not sure, however, if its social commentary has aged very well. I actually read a recent Spanish translation by an Argentine press and I'm not sure it's of much interest beyond the academic, and as part of John Berger's wider oeuvre I suppose (which I'm not familiar with).

[Nick Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Berger has a clear authorial voice. It is a voice that explains, the voice of a teacher and it is one I can hear, the authorial voice sounds the same as Berger’s speaking voice. It is a voice I like for its clarity, but I’m uncertain that it is the voice of a novelist. I don’t know if I want everything to be completely clear in a fiction. The Foot of Clive was Berger’s first novel and he plays around with the form more than I expect from a British novelist of the time. On the whole, British writers liked characters and realism, but no fancy stuff. And I don’t think The Foot of Clive quite works: it is interesting rather than successful. Divided into 5 parts, I thought the two first long parts were the more successful – and they take up about two thirds of the book. In the first part we are introduced to a series of characters sharing the foot of a hospital ward, the Clive ward. Although all men, they are a diverse bunch, different ages and from different social backgrounds, with different attitudes to life. They are symbolic figures representing the nation: contrasting figures brought together. The second part brings a disruption. A new patient arrives, a murderer. He is kept behind a screen and isn’t really a character, rather he is a presence, one that the other characters respond to. All this works in a general ‘realist’ way, but there is something about the tone I feel strange, a certain distance – maybe it is just that the author’s voice sounds pedantic. The third part, however, is more experimental in form. It is made up of a series of conversations, but they are largely in dialogue form, i.e., we just get what they say. They are strange dreamlike conversations that seem to abandon realist conventions. If the previous part had shown the characters being shaken up, their complacencies challenged, this section gives voice to their inner turmoil. It feels as though it is the pivotal part of the novel, but I found it unsatisfactory, the form overwhelming the purpose…and maybe I found the purpose uncertain. Maybe it was that Berger’s authorial voice which always sounds so clear, suddenly felt a little confused, uncertain what it was doing. The final two short parts return the characters to their normal lives, first with the ward, then leaving the hospital. As with other John Berger fiction I’ve read, The Book of Clive is “interesting”, but I’m not sure it really worked.

[Evan Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Things don’t really happen in this book. A style of writing that I’m not accustomed to, and that I’m not sure I really respond to.

[kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

i am going to be thinking about this book for a long time , and also as a result contemplating life and how i live it.
i would love to be able to write like Berger.

[Lynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have given a one star because although well written, I really didn't have a clue what was going on. I gave it until p130 before giving up.

[seray · Rating 2 out of 5]

"ken kısa süre içinde türkiye'ye gitmeyi umuyordu. hayat sürekli aynı yerde kalınamayacak kadar kısaydı" bizim türkiyemiz neresi acaba

john berger sevdiğim bi yazar, birçok kitabını okudum, mektuplar kitabı beni nerdeyse değiştirdi, bu da asenamın kitaplığından sabah 8 buçuk sularında metroda okumak için ödünç aldım ama fıs çıktı. çok bağlamsız, okuması da zor, biraz sıkıcı. 114-121 sayfalarından etkilendim. diyaloglar halinde, biraz da tiyatro sahnesi gibi canlandı gözümde, kitap benim için bu aralıktan ibaret. utanç romanından öğrendim köpeklerin kolonyal anlamını, burda da ona dair bi şey vardı, daha iyi anladım

iki yıldız, yani siz okumayın, ben sizin yerinize okudum kitabı

[Jack Allsopp · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful exploration of national identity, class, and masculinity in post-war Britain. I particularly enjoyed Berger's experimental, stream-of-consciousness style.

[Adna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shit couldn’t tell you a think about it

[Lauren (Pip) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Amelie · Rating 4 out of 5]

No Plot, Only Questions for Life

[Aurora_can_read · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

Weird interesting writing style, short enough for it to not become too much

Plot got weirder towards the end

[Bhadra Poornima · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like I was taking part in a philosophical blunt rotation.

[Sun · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Foot of Clive" is like something I've never read before, from the writing style to the story to the characters' interactions, it's a lot, but it's also interesting. The back and forth between the Clive situation and conversations, and the characters' backstories and/or flashbacks, it resembles the viewing of a show. It does make it a sort of difficult read, because it gets confusing, nevertheless, it develops several fascinating stories and lives.
To be honest it was a tad hard to catch up with all the specific characters, it was indeed my fault for not paying attention to their descriptions, but still - and also with the random flashbacks of certain characters, it was a mess but an interesting one. The actual intent of the story is intriguing, mainly the characters’ interactions and conversations, the way they look upon each other, to feel pity, and disgust, and hope, and hate, and love.
Even though it settles on a post-war England, the actual subject isn’t much touched on, besides that one character’s wound background, so it wasn’t too mad of a bother.

Anyways, couldn’t tell you much about it, not terrible but not a masterpiece either, it’s a tad over okay.

[Krisi Koleva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice and easy to read (just don't stop and restart like I did, take 3 hours and just read it because otherwise you forget the characters). Extra points for characters reminding me of Steinbeck's 'Mack and the Boys' of Cannery Row! Wholesome