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Into Their Labours #3
Lillà e Bandiera
Lillà e Bandiera, protagonisti di una tenera e ardente storia d'amore, vivono a Troia, città mitica e immaginaria, sintesi di tutte le metropoli moderne. Luogo di illusioni e promesse - successo, guadagni, progresso, libertà, emancipazione dal lavoro della terra e dall'incubo della fame - Troia appartiene al sud e al nord del mondo, al suo ovest e al suo est: ricca per i ricchi e i potenti, povera e inospitale per i poveri e i ridondanti, segmentata, labirintica, feroce. Discendenti dei contadini e dei montanari che a metà del secolo scorso hanno lasciato il loro luogo d'origine in cerca di lavoro, Lillà e Bandiera sono nostri contemporanei, ma la città-sirena non li prevede e non offre loro sopravvivenza. Lievi come farfalle, abitano per un istante il tempo della Storia e svaniscono trattati come scarti dal sistema, consolati dal loro amore.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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About the author
John Berger
169 books2,660 followersJohn 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
April 24, 2025
This novel, crowning the brilliant Into Their Labours trilogy, is an authentic dusky jewel.
Lilac and Flag is a love story – it is a tale of a deadly love. And it is a bleak urban mystery.
It is a story of those who had abandoned peasant labour and fled country looking for an easy and illusory happiness of cities. And the tale is taking place in some archetypal megalopolis named Troy – a sort of modern sinful Babel.
We can’t choose our true love, our true love chooses us…
In reality, we must pay for our happiness dearly… And we must pay for our unhappiness too.
The hay smelt of how the sky loved the earth.
Lilac and Flag is a love story – it is a tale of a deadly love. And it is a bleak urban mystery.
There is a moment early in the morning before much blood has been spilt, before the pitilessness of the strong has reached its apogee, when the night players are at last asleep and free of their sadness, there is a moment when the new day seems almost innocent.
It is a story of those who had abandoned peasant labour and fled country looking for an easy and illusory happiness of cities. And the tale is taking place in some archetypal megalopolis named Troy – a sort of modern sinful Babel.
From the beginning, men compared women with flowers, and women, enjoying it, encouraged them. They fastened blossoms in their hair, they wore perfumes, they twined leaves, and they displayed themselves.
We can’t choose our true love, our true love chooses us…
Maybe you dream of money. But you never dream of paying! Nobody in the world dreams of paying. This is what makes waking up so terrible. This is what makes waking up worse than hunger.
In reality, we must pay for our happiness dearly… And we must pay for our unhappiness too.
April 30, 2022
METAMORFOSI DI UN IRREGOLARE
”Jonas che avrà 25 anni nel Duemila”, film del 1976 sceneggiato dallo stesso John Berger insieme al regista Alain Tanner.
Questa è una fiaba d’amore: Zsuzsa/Lillà e Sucus/Bandiera si incontrano e si innamorano.
Vivono a Troia, che è il luogo mitico ma anche traffico, caos, tecnologia.
Lei è una ragazza bella e cordiale, lui un ragazzo anarchico come lo si è spesso alla sua età.
Per fare soldi organizzano insieme al fratello di lei un furto di passaporti.
Berger inventa nomi meravigliosi per i suoi personaggi e per i suoi luoghi - sono posti che assomigliano a tutto il mondo e non appartengono a nessuna terra. Mito, epos, amore, di questo sono piene le pagine di questo raro romanzo.
Che meraviglia!
Questo è il volume conclusivo di una trilogia, Into Their Labours, che trattandosi di Berger ha naturalmente compiuta vita a sé. Qui si conclude una lunga ricerca letteraria e critica sulle grandi trasformazioni sociali avvenute in Europa nel secondo dopoguerra.
Sempre dal film di Tanner, del quale per me è anche indimenticabile “Dans la ville blanche” del 1983.
Berger, attraverso la sua consueta pietas, onirico e al contempo preciso come sempre, osserva quelle persone che per necessità economica hanno dovuto lasciare il loro luogo d’origine in cerca di riscatto. S’interroga, senza sentimentalismo o nostalgia, sul tramonto del mondo contadino e artigianale, sulla stanzialità e sulla solidarietà umana, spazzate via dalle grandi migrazioni contemporanee, dagli sradicamenti e inurbamenti selvaggi. La grande città, luogo di promesse e di sogni, rivela il suo volto spietato, mostrandosi terreno di feroce esclusione, là dove si cercava una nuova vita troppo spesso si trovano solo solitudine e morte. Una metafora dei guasti della modernizzazione se mirata al profitto di pochi ma alla sofferenza di molti.
Tilda Swinton intervista John Berger (qui di spalle) nel documentario “The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger” del 2016.
Berger è un autore che aveva ben più di venticinque anni nel Duemila, parafrasando il suo celebre film svizzero-francese, ma sarà eternamente giovane; va assaporato con calma per conservarne il gusto a lungo; è uno che scrive cose importanti, non solo interessanti, come di lui dice Susan Sontag.
C’è qualcosa di magico in questo scrittore, critico d’arte, poeta, sceneggiatore, autore televisivo, motociclista, contadino, viaggiatore, esule, trapiantato, un irregolare a tutto tondo.
Per una frazione di secondo, prima di urlare, lui parve smarrito, completamente perso. E in quel momento lei lo amò come non lo aveva mai amato.
Un disegno di Berger: la sua mano destra disegnata con la sinistra.
”Jonas che avrà 25 anni nel Duemila”, film del 1976 sceneggiato dallo stesso John Berger insieme al regista Alain Tanner.
Questa è una fiaba d’amore: Zsuzsa/Lillà e Sucus/Bandiera si incontrano e si innamorano.
Vivono a Troia, che è il luogo mitico ma anche traffico, caos, tecnologia.
Lei è una ragazza bella e cordiale, lui un ragazzo anarchico come lo si è spesso alla sua età.
Per fare soldi organizzano insieme al fratello di lei un furto di passaporti.
Berger inventa nomi meravigliosi per i suoi personaggi e per i suoi luoghi - sono posti che assomigliano a tutto il mondo e non appartengono a nessuna terra. Mito, epos, amore, di questo sono piene le pagine di questo raro romanzo.
Che meraviglia!
Questo è il volume conclusivo di una trilogia, Into Their Labours, che trattandosi di Berger ha naturalmente compiuta vita a sé. Qui si conclude una lunga ricerca letteraria e critica sulle grandi trasformazioni sociali avvenute in Europa nel secondo dopoguerra.
Sempre dal film di Tanner, del quale per me è anche indimenticabile “Dans la ville blanche” del 1983.
Berger, attraverso la sua consueta pietas, onirico e al contempo preciso come sempre, osserva quelle persone che per necessità economica hanno dovuto lasciare il loro luogo d’origine in cerca di riscatto. S’interroga, senza sentimentalismo o nostalgia, sul tramonto del mondo contadino e artigianale, sulla stanzialità e sulla solidarietà umana, spazzate via dalle grandi migrazioni contemporanee, dagli sradicamenti e inurbamenti selvaggi. La grande città, luogo di promesse e di sogni, rivela il suo volto spietato, mostrandosi terreno di feroce esclusione, là dove si cercava una nuova vita troppo spesso si trovano solo solitudine e morte. Una metafora dei guasti della modernizzazione se mirata al profitto di pochi ma alla sofferenza di molti.
Tilda Swinton intervista John Berger (qui di spalle) nel documentario “The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger” del 2016.
Berger è un autore che aveva ben più di venticinque anni nel Duemila, parafrasando il suo celebre film svizzero-francese, ma sarà eternamente giovane; va assaporato con calma per conservarne il gusto a lungo; è uno che scrive cose importanti, non solo interessanti, come di lui dice Susan Sontag.
C’è qualcosa di magico in questo scrittore, critico d’arte, poeta, sceneggiatore, autore televisivo, motociclista, contadino, viaggiatore, esule, trapiantato, un irregolare a tutto tondo.
Per una frazione di secondo, prima di urlare, lui parve smarrito, completamente perso. E in quel momento lei lo amò come non lo aveva mai amato.
Un disegno di Berger: la sua mano destra disegnata con la sinistra.
April 19, 2020
John Berger’ın on yedi yılını verdiği “Onların Emeklerine” üçlemesinin son kitabı Leylak ve Bayrak. Üçleme çağımızdaki değişimin kaçınılmaz bir sonucu olan köylülüğün yok oluşu üzerine yazılmış.
Üç kitapta da göçle şehre gelen, memleketine dönmek istese de bunu yapmak için adım atamayanların öyküleri anlatılır. “Domuz Toprak”ta henüz köyünde olan köylüyü, köyü ve köylülüğü, “Bir Zamanlar Europa’da” ise köyden kente göçü anlatan Berger, “Leylak ve Bayrak”ta kentin yıkıcı gerçekliği karşısında köylünün sürüklendiği varoluş mücadelesini, eski kimliklerine ve kültürlerine veda edişlerini ve yavaş yavaş yokoluşlarını anlatır.
Kısa bir süre önce okuduğum üçlemenin ilk kitabı Domuz Toprak’ta köylülüğün ortadan kalkmasını ironik, biraz öfkeli ama şiirsel ve coşkulu bir anlatımla sunarken Leylak ile Bayrak’ta ise, daha sakin ve duru bir anlatım var ancak daha iç burucu. Domuz Toprak gerçekçi iken Leylak ve Bayrak postmodern dokunmalarla yazılmış.
Anlatıcısı yaşlı bir kadın nedir kimdir belli değil, ama Berger’in esin perisi olduğu kesin. Hikaye içinde yan hikaye onun içinde de hikayecik anlatmak ilginç. John Berger bu, istenirse yüzlerce aforizma çıkarılacak cümlelerin yazarı. Okunmalı bence.
Üç kitapta da göçle şehre gelen, memleketine dönmek istese de bunu yapmak için adım atamayanların öyküleri anlatılır. “Domuz Toprak”ta henüz köyünde olan köylüyü, köyü ve köylülüğü, “Bir Zamanlar Europa’da” ise köyden kente göçü anlatan Berger, “Leylak ve Bayrak”ta kentin yıkıcı gerçekliği karşısında köylünün sürüklendiği varoluş mücadelesini, eski kimliklerine ve kültürlerine veda edişlerini ve yavaş yavaş yokoluşlarını anlatır.
Kısa bir süre önce okuduğum üçlemenin ilk kitabı Domuz Toprak’ta köylülüğün ortadan kalkmasını ironik, biraz öfkeli ama şiirsel ve coşkulu bir anlatımla sunarken Leylak ile Bayrak’ta ise, daha sakin ve duru bir anlatım var ancak daha iç burucu. Domuz Toprak gerçekçi iken Leylak ve Bayrak postmodern dokunmalarla yazılmış.
Anlatıcısı yaşlı bir kadın nedir kimdir belli değil, ama Berger’in esin perisi olduğu kesin. Hikaye içinde yan hikaye onun içinde de hikayecik anlatmak ilginç. John Berger bu, istenirse yüzlerce aforizma çıkarılacak cümlelerin yazarı. Okunmalı bence.
May 1, 2022
„Ljiljak i Steg“ je poslednji deo Berdžerove trilogije „Od tuđeg truda“, čija su prva dva dela zbirke pripovedaka koje nisam čitala. To bi mogao biti jedan od razloga što sam u ovaj roman, moguće pogrešno, učitala priču o smrti i samoći, pa čak i elemetnte SF-a (Ajtmatov fazon), iako bi pre mogla biti antiglobalistička pastorala ili tragična ljubavna priča.
Izvesno je upitanju perifraza o sindromu propasti evropske (seoske) idile u megalopolisima, a to je polje dovoljno blagodarno da je pitanje za čitaoca šta će s njega probrati.
Džon Berdžer je pre svega nežno biće, a pozivom slikar, te piše u nežnim, živo jasnim i lakim slikama, vodeći računa da čitalac stalno bude zaokupljen i da mu je lako, pa da ne stiže da zameri piscu što sve vreme drnda kompas, ne dozvoljavajući da se nazre pravac kojim se sve ovo kreće. To radi imenima i toponimima (šef gradilišta je Katon, a betondžija Murat, Sukusova majka je Vislava, a ljubavnica Žuža (koja bi mogla biti i lepa Helena), metropola se zove Troja, sa trgom Aleksanderplac zvučnim ko kod Deblina, železničkom stanicom Budimpešta i predgrađem Pacovsko brdo), presecanjem narativa kao s neba komentarima neke sveprisutne ženske osobe koja, izgleda, dolazi iz gnomske prošlosti, noar detektivskim romanom i još gomilom lebdećih elemenata i implikacija kojima je teško odrediti čak i vreme. Nešto, recimo, između Vong Karvaja i Objave broja 49, samo jasnije predočeno, a teže svodljivo i uhvatljivo, pa je sasvim normalno da unutra prepoznate pola svetske književnosti, Zebaldov manir, Roselinija ili svoju komšinicu medicinsku sestru. Možda vizura bude sasvim drugačija u kontekstu čitave trilogije.
Odavno nisam čitala nešto ovako otvoreno i lepo.
U veoma lepom prevodu Slavice Miletić.
Izvesno je upitanju perifraza o sindromu propasti evropske (seoske) idile u megalopolisima, a to je polje dovoljno blagodarno da je pitanje za čitaoca šta će s njega probrati.
Džon Berdžer je pre svega nežno biće, a pozivom slikar, te piše u nežnim, živo jasnim i lakim slikama, vodeći računa da čitalac stalno bude zaokupljen i da mu je lako, pa da ne stiže da zameri piscu što sve vreme drnda kompas, ne dozvoljavajući da se nazre pravac kojim se sve ovo kreće. To radi imenima i toponimima (šef gradilišta je Katon, a betondžija Murat, Sukusova majka je Vislava, a ljubavnica Žuža (koja bi mogla biti i lepa Helena), metropola se zove Troja, sa trgom Aleksanderplac zvučnim ko kod Deblina, železničkom stanicom Budimpešta i predgrađem Pacovsko brdo), presecanjem narativa kao s neba komentarima neke sveprisutne ženske osobe koja, izgleda, dolazi iz gnomske prošlosti, noar detektivskim romanom i još gomilom lebdećih elemenata i implikacija kojima je teško odrediti čak i vreme. Nešto, recimo, između Vong Karvaja i Objave broja 49, samo jasnije predočeno, a teže svodljivo i uhvatljivo, pa je sasvim normalno da unutra prepoznate pola svetske književnosti, Zebaldov manir, Roselinija ili svoju komšinicu medicinsku sestru. Možda vizura bude sasvim drugačija u kontekstu čitave trilogije.
Odavno nisam čitala nešto ovako otvoreno i lepo.
U veoma lepom prevodu Slavice Miletić.
March 1, 2022
‘Hepimiz geri dönmek isteriz… bir an olsun, şöyle bir etrafa bakmak için. Ama yok, bir şey aramak için aslında. Kaybolmuş bir şeyi. Sanırız ki onu bulursak mutlu öleceğiz. Benim bildiğim, kimse mutlu ölmüyor.’
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Onların Emeklerine üçlemesinin son kitabı Leylak ve Bayrak. Artık şehire hapsolmuş insanları görüyoruz, geldikleri here dönmek istiyorlar. Çünkü o kocaman şehirler yutuyor onları. İşsizlik, yolsuzluk, uyuşturucu, yoksulluk yutuyor onları.
Dönebilecekleri köyleri kaldı mı sahi? O berrak dereler, gür ağaçlar, ciğerlerine doldurdukları temiz hava? Hem oldukları şehir bir bataklık değil mi? Gittikçe daha da gömüldükleri..
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John Berger üçlemenin sonunda sanki tüm anlattığı karakterleri, mekanları, kokuları, sesleri bir araya topluyor. Üç kitabın ardından ise okuyucuda kalan şu oluyor: Gitme arzusu, renklere, saflığa ve enginliğe..
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İyi ki peşi sıra okudum üç eseri de çünkü araya zaman koysaydım kopacak ve yeniden bağlanamayacaktım bu kitaplara.
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‘Okumanızı çok isterim’ önerisi olsun 🙏🏻
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Çeviride Murat Belge ve Taciser Belge her alıyor. Kapak resmi ise Jean-François Millet’den ‘Kuş Yuvacıları’~
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Onların Emeklerine üçlemesinin son kitabı Leylak ve Bayrak. Artık şehire hapsolmuş insanları görüyoruz, geldikleri here dönmek istiyorlar. Çünkü o kocaman şehirler yutuyor onları. İşsizlik, yolsuzluk, uyuşturucu, yoksulluk yutuyor onları.
Dönebilecekleri köyleri kaldı mı sahi? O berrak dereler, gür ağaçlar, ciğerlerine doldurdukları temiz hava? Hem oldukları şehir bir bataklık değil mi? Gittikçe daha da gömüldükleri..
.
John Berger üçlemenin sonunda sanki tüm anlattığı karakterleri, mekanları, kokuları, sesleri bir araya topluyor. Üç kitabın ardından ise okuyucuda kalan şu oluyor: Gitme arzusu, renklere, saflığa ve enginliğe..
.
İyi ki peşi sıra okudum üç eseri de çünkü araya zaman koysaydım kopacak ve yeniden bağlanamayacaktım bu kitaplara.
.
‘Okumanızı çok isterim’ önerisi olsun 🙏🏻
.
Çeviride Murat Belge ve Taciser Belge her alıyor. Kapak resmi ise Jean-François Millet’den ‘Kuş Yuvacıları’~
October 5, 2023
Taken independently, the three novels that compose Berger’s Labours trilogy are both greater and less than the sum of their parts. This last, Lilac, is one helluva misstep for me, but, taken within the larger framework of the Bergerian superverse, admirable-to-incandescent at various points.
Pig Earth is a masterpiece, no exaggerations given. It creates, through prose and poetry, a mythical-actual Alpine Europa—call it Agrarian Chic. Berger, noted pinko Commie bastard, doesn’t pretend the communal life is utopian, rather, that the blood one gets on their hands (or hooves or wings) is done so with the responsibility of cognition. If you are ok with throwing the bolt through the heifer brain, then you have to do it yourself (and take an ax to it; peel off its subcutaneous bag of fat; lop off the head and, from in it, the tongue): at this level, a cow-knocker is a responsibility to both one’s own sanctity to living as well as honoring, inasmuch is possible, that which died so that you may live. The squeamish would starve and freeze and die high in the Western Alps if they did not use every bit of death. It’s depressing to read over and over, but I imagine it bests being a cow. Once in Europa is the mid-pitch between the poles, ostensibly ‘now,’ while it seems there may still be some chance at saving the planet. It meets the first novel in the baseness of its indifference toward all life.
Berger just goes a bit batshit in this last book by practicing the worst science, Science Fiction. What’s with these old as Moses white motherfuckers from the post-precious Modernist school (and several generations from any ear to any ground) that told them that talking ‘street’ and exercising their CyberPunk 2000 itches would good art-a-be-a-making’? No! DeLillo can’t rap, Berger can’t say “lettuce” for money and portend the near-near future to be any stray scene from Surf Nazis Must Die with protags named, well, Flag. Or, fucking Zsuzsa!
First 2 are pretty much perfect; last just shows how much so. For Berger was never nearly as much about words as he was ideas, and the girding one here “Is like the road sign pointing straight to Satan’s cage.”
And it is all so unutterably sad. That’s what makes the oceans.
Pig Earth is a masterpiece, no exaggerations given. It creates, through prose and poetry, a mythical-actual Alpine Europa—call it Agrarian Chic. Berger, noted pinko Commie bastard, doesn’t pretend the communal life is utopian, rather, that the blood one gets on their hands (or hooves or wings) is done so with the responsibility of cognition. If you are ok with throwing the bolt through the heifer brain, then you have to do it yourself (and take an ax to it; peel off its subcutaneous bag of fat; lop off the head and, from in it, the tongue): at this level, a cow-knocker is a responsibility to both one’s own sanctity to living as well as honoring, inasmuch is possible, that which died so that you may live. The squeamish would starve and freeze and die high in the Western Alps if they did not use every bit of death. It’s depressing to read over and over, but I imagine it bests being a cow. Once in Europa is the mid-pitch between the poles, ostensibly ‘now,’ while it seems there may still be some chance at saving the planet. It meets the first novel in the baseness of its indifference toward all life.
Berger just goes a bit batshit in this last book by practicing the worst science, Science Fiction. What’s with these old as Moses white motherfuckers from the post-precious Modernist school (and several generations from any ear to any ground) that told them that talking ‘street’ and exercising their CyberPunk 2000 itches would good art-a-be-a-making’? No! DeLillo can’t rap, Berger can’t say “lettuce” for money and portend the near-near future to be any stray scene from Surf Nazis Must Die with protags named, well, Flag. Or, fucking Zsuzsa!
First 2 are pretty much perfect; last just shows how much so. For Berger was never nearly as much about words as he was ideas, and the girding one here “Is like the road sign pointing straight to Satan’s cage.”
And it is all so unutterably sad. That’s what makes the oceans.
May 11, 2013
The heart of Berger's amazing life and literary project. Berger, a Booker Prize-winner and well-known left-wing art critic, left London in 1975 and made a new home in a peasant community in rural France, allowing his writing style to change (I would say develop) based on what he learned there. He wanted to know what the world was losing, or at least what Europe, that part of Europe was losing, in the processes of globalization and urbanization, the separating of the lower classes from a relationship with agriculture, animals, nature, locality, etc, that seemed to him, and to me, all of our umbilical cord (perhaps via "the pastoral" for higher/urban classes) to a stable reference for what-it-is-to-be-human. He explored rural/pastoral life in earlier books (Once In Europa and Pig Earth); here he writes about migrants to the city, conscripts in the new consumer culture.
It's a sci-fi book, partly narrated by a grandmother back in the ancestral village. If this sounds preposterous or cloying, fine, take it or leave it. I find Berger trustworthy and sincere. Dramatic tension is not his strong suit, which is fine with me, though it may be a problem for others. His strength is conception, evocation, and, again, sincerity. The choices are right. The allegory is right. The decisions not to go too far into allegory are right. It is the work of a gifted imagination harnessed by a powerful commitment. Berger isn't just a great writer, and this isn't just a great book. He's a hero, and this is his great labor.
From Frank Kermode's review in the LRB: "Readers are required to be as serious as writers – more precisely, as this writer, who, unlike some remarkable writers, is also a serious man."
It's a sci-fi book, partly narrated by a grandmother back in the ancestral village. If this sounds preposterous or cloying, fine, take it or leave it. I find Berger trustworthy and sincere. Dramatic tension is not his strong suit, which is fine with me, though it may be a problem for others. His strength is conception, evocation, and, again, sincerity. The choices are right. The allegory is right. The decisions not to go too far into allegory are right. It is the work of a gifted imagination harnessed by a powerful commitment. Berger isn't just a great writer, and this isn't just a great book. He's a hero, and this is his great labor.
From Frank Kermode's review in the LRB: "Readers are required to be as serious as writers – more precisely, as this writer, who, unlike some remarkable writers, is also a serious man."
August 16, 2021
Deel drie uit 'De vrucht van hun arbeid' is een apotheose in romanvorm van het opmerkelijke, warme portret dat John Berger schetst van het verdwijnende boerenleven in Europa tijdens het laatste kwart van de 20ste eeuw.
In deel 1 - een fascinerende en beklijvende mengvorm van verhalen, gedichten en essays - portretteerde Berger het kleine boerenleven aan de voet van de alpen. In deel 2 - een wat traditionelere verhalenbundel - kregen we liefdesverhalen tegen die achtergrond en deel 3 werd een roman waarin de volgende generatie zichzelf (vruchteloos) een weg probeert te banen in het stadsleven, aangezien de boerenstiel ten dode opgeschreven is.
Soekoes en Zjoezja stammen beide af van kleine, traditionele boerengezinnen en zoeken hun weg in het genadeloze stadsleven, waar de "namen van de doden sneller vergeten zijn", in tegenstelling tot het platteland, waar "hun naamloze herinnering voort leeft in het beloop van een weg (...) of de kromming van een muurtje".
Kleine misdaad, liefde, arbeiders die zich staande proberen te houden tegenover onrechtvaardige voormannen en verzengende hartstocht: Berger neemt zijn lezers mee in een beklijvend verhaal met veel vaart, symboliek die niet nodeloos gewichtig is en een onontkoombare tragiek.
Het platteland, waarvan de geschiedenis en traditie zijn tentakels blijft uitslaan tot in de verzengende stad en tot in de harten en de zielen van de personages die van hun afkomst doordrongen blijven en de stad zijn indrukwekkend door elkaar gevlochten in dit zinderende slotdeel.
Straffe trilogie en een indrukwekkend tijdsdocument: uniek, hartverwarmend, aangrijpend en vol licht melancholisch mededogen.
In deel 1 - een fascinerende en beklijvende mengvorm van verhalen, gedichten en essays - portretteerde Berger het kleine boerenleven aan de voet van de alpen. In deel 2 - een wat traditionelere verhalenbundel - kregen we liefdesverhalen tegen die achtergrond en deel 3 werd een roman waarin de volgende generatie zichzelf (vruchteloos) een weg probeert te banen in het stadsleven, aangezien de boerenstiel ten dode opgeschreven is.
Soekoes en Zjoezja stammen beide af van kleine, traditionele boerengezinnen en zoeken hun weg in het genadeloze stadsleven, waar de "namen van de doden sneller vergeten zijn", in tegenstelling tot het platteland, waar "hun naamloze herinnering voort leeft in het beloop van een weg (...) of de kromming van een muurtje".
Kleine misdaad, liefde, arbeiders die zich staande proberen te houden tegenover onrechtvaardige voormannen en verzengende hartstocht: Berger neemt zijn lezers mee in een beklijvend verhaal met veel vaart, symboliek die niet nodeloos gewichtig is en een onontkoombare tragiek.
Het platteland, waarvan de geschiedenis en traditie zijn tentakels blijft uitslaan tot in de verzengende stad en tot in de harten en de zielen van de personages die van hun afkomst doordrongen blijven en de stad zijn indrukwekkend door elkaar gevlochten in dit zinderende slotdeel.
Straffe trilogie en een indrukwekkend tijdsdocument: uniek, hartverwarmend, aangrijpend en vol licht melancholisch mededogen.
April 3, 2025
Berger'in köylü-işçi, köy-şehir geçişliliği üzerine sonsuz bir deneyim ve gözleme sahip olduğunu bilenler için tanıdık bir eser.
Domuz Toprak'ta köylünün hakikatini, gündelik sıkıntısını, köy-merkez çatışmasını, köylünün yarına dair endişesini ve umudunu, ölüme dair makus sonunu ortaya koyan Berger, Leylak ve Bayrak'ta köyün ve şehrin üretim ilişkilerinden doğan dilsel ve mekânsal ayrışmanın, geçiş çatışmasının getirdiği yeni hayat tarzının sahici örneklerini Leylak ve Bayrak'ın -rüyalı ve şiirsel bir anlatıma da kayan- yer yer tutkulu, kederli ve içten ilişkisinde canlandırıyor.
"Gökyüzünde bir Tanrı gibi çalışıyorsun ve istikbalin yok."
daha ne denebilir ki, farkımız var mı?
"Yoksulluk, yitirme, acı, tutku, zaman ya da para gözlerinde iz bırakmıştır, ellerinde, ağzında, kollarını tutuşunda ve ayaklarını yanyana getirişinde, ama sanırım bütün bunlar ruhunu değiştirmemiştir; bu dünyada oynamak için hala inanabilir ve başkalarını da inandırabilir ki o kendisidir bu dünyanın merkezi, mükafatı ve sermayesi ve muhtemelen haklıdır da."
Domuz Toprak'ta köylünün hakikatini, gündelik sıkıntısını, köy-merkez çatışmasını, köylünün yarına dair endişesini ve umudunu, ölüme dair makus sonunu ortaya koyan Berger, Leylak ve Bayrak'ta köyün ve şehrin üretim ilişkilerinden doğan dilsel ve mekânsal ayrışmanın, geçiş çatışmasının getirdiği yeni hayat tarzının sahici örneklerini Leylak ve Bayrak'ın -rüyalı ve şiirsel bir anlatıma da kayan- yer yer tutkulu, kederli ve içten ilişkisinde canlandırıyor.
"Gökyüzünde bir Tanrı gibi çalışıyorsun ve istikbalin yok."
daha ne denebilir ki, farkımız var mı?
"Yoksulluk, yitirme, acı, tutku, zaman ya da para gözlerinde iz bırakmıştır, ellerinde, ağzında, kollarını tutuşunda ve ayaklarını yanyana getirişinde, ama sanırım bütün bunlar ruhunu değiştirmemiştir; bu dünyada oynamak için hala inanabilir ve başkalarını da inandırabilir ki o kendisidir bu dünyanın merkezi, mükafatı ve sermayesi ve muhtemelen haklıdır da."
December 28, 2020
John Berger. How is it that, without ever having met someone, you can viscerally miss their presence - the knowledge that they exist in the world and are contributing to its understanding and amelioration in a way that no one else can? A literary titan, Berger here concludes his "Into Their Labours" trilogy that began in the rustic pastoralism and ends here with the degradations of slum-expansive urban modernity. Unlike the previous two volumes of Eliot-esque narrative fragments in the trilogy, here Berger traces straight lineaments with a single narrative about tragic lovers.
Why tragedy? Because the alternatives are precious and few. If there can be no looking backward, there must be a reckoning with the present which, as various characters intimate, is historic despite seeming to lie dead in the waters of time. Banks are being built, schemes are being run, and lives are carved out in the pathos of extra-capitalist exploitation, and the city - Troy - is all of Europe: Alexanderplatz, Greeks and Turks, French and Italian, all fermenting with only the dream of mobility and the strong likelihood of ending in flames. A loose fuse might lead to an explosion; one might never see one's family - one's home - again.
None of this has aged poorly. Berger's careful prose is keen to the ground and turns up with it the violence that is part of the world, but it is never in the casual mode lazily content to épater la bourgeoisie , though it may have some of the same effect. Instead, he is careful and scrupulous, allowing characters verity within their own moral worlds. The effect is one of historical imagination: powerful and moving.
Why tragedy? Because the alternatives are precious and few. If there can be no looking backward, there must be a reckoning with the present which, as various characters intimate, is historic despite seeming to lie dead in the waters of time. Banks are being built, schemes are being run, and lives are carved out in the pathos of extra-capitalist exploitation, and the city - Troy - is all of Europe: Alexanderplatz, Greeks and Turks, French and Italian, all fermenting with only the dream of mobility and the strong likelihood of ending in flames. A loose fuse might lead to an explosion; one might never see one's family - one's home - again.
None of this has aged poorly. Berger's careful prose is keen to the ground and turns up with it the violence that is part of the world, but it is never in the casual mode lazily content to épater la bourgeoisie , though it may have some of the same effect. Instead, he is careful and scrupulous, allowing characters verity within their own moral worlds. The effect is one of historical imagination: powerful and moving.
May 31, 2021
Fasciname da lectura o feito de que por un momento deixamos os nosos ollos para coller prestados os de alguén. Cos seus esculcamos o mundo e meterse nos de Berger é un pracer en si mesmo.
Lila e Flag é un peche/abertura incrible cunha prosa única, sinxela e potente, redonda en todos os aspectos. Cando pensas que nada podía superar a Porca Terra, ven Berger e di: "no lo creo mi ciela"
O certo é que o final xérame dúbidas, pero aínda así, paréceme un libro incríble.
Lila e Flag é un peche/abertura incrible cunha prosa única, sinxela e potente, redonda en todos os aspectos. Cando pensas que nada podía superar a Porca Terra, ven Berger e di: "no lo creo mi ciela"
O certo é que o final xérame dúbidas, pero aínda así, paréceme un libro incríble.
June 5, 2018
One of those strange books that seems like a play or a dream but somehow you keep reading, even though you don't totally get it. It didn't help that many years have passed since I read the first 2 books in the trilogy. It reminded me of a Jeannette Winterson book in some ways, or maybe Ursula Le Guin. A hint of Ben Okri's The Famished Road but of course, Berger's book came first.
January 11, 2026
Every John Berger book, to me, is clarifying, though I never know in advance exactly what a given book will clarify. His way of seeing, of engaging, of relaying the intimate details of people's lives and their interdependence is singular, deeply attentive to the rhythms, pains, and pangs of living.
This was not my favorite of the Into Their Labours trilogy, but the writing is gorgeous nonetheless. Berger's narrators frame their stories with striking empathy and an added layer of humanity, and I enjoyed the inclusion of the nameless narrator here, at once removed from and deeply enmeshed in the events depicted. And while this book as a whole did not reach these heights, the penultimate passage on the ship may be one of my favorite pieces of Berger's fiction.
As always, the small moments, characters, inner monologues shine. A favorite:
"Nothing is more improbable, he would have told Sucus, than the way we walk. I've learnt this, now that I'm a cripple. The foot moves with great independence and yet is helpless alone. One leg goes as far as it can, then, almost immediately, it has to stop, it has to wait for its partner to relieve it [...] Forgotten knees--the most ignored part of the body until they hurt or refuse to flex--forgotten knees flexing, legs bravely striding out, waiting for relief, striding out again, waiting, striding out--and this every two seconds in order to move a body, step by step, across the earth [...] Sit with me, you'll learn how the feet of a mother running after her child, smack the ground. How the feet of old men implore the tarmac. How the feet of the hungry shuffle. How porters' feet move slowly to earn their living. The poor use their toes, the rich don't. Hands are continually feeling for other hands. But the foot is singleminded, obstinate, dumb, attentive to only one thing--the arrival and passing of its partner. Like this mankind goes forward..."
This was not my favorite of the Into Their Labours trilogy, but the writing is gorgeous nonetheless. Berger's narrators frame their stories with striking empathy and an added layer of humanity, and I enjoyed the inclusion of the nameless narrator here, at once removed from and deeply enmeshed in the events depicted. And while this book as a whole did not reach these heights, the penultimate passage on the ship may be one of my favorite pieces of Berger's fiction.
As always, the small moments, characters, inner monologues shine. A favorite:
"Nothing is more improbable, he would have told Sucus, than the way we walk. I've learnt this, now that I'm a cripple. The foot moves with great independence and yet is helpless alone. One leg goes as far as it can, then, almost immediately, it has to stop, it has to wait for its partner to relieve it [...] Forgotten knees--the most ignored part of the body until they hurt or refuse to flex--forgotten knees flexing, legs bravely striding out, waiting for relief, striding out again, waiting, striding out--and this every two seconds in order to move a body, step by step, across the earth [...] Sit with me, you'll learn how the feet of a mother running after her child, smack the ground. How the feet of old men implore the tarmac. How the feet of the hungry shuffle. How porters' feet move slowly to earn their living. The poor use their toes, the rich don't. Hands are continually feeling for other hands. But the foot is singleminded, obstinate, dumb, attentive to only one thing--the arrival and passing of its partner. Like this mankind goes forward..."
July 14, 2020
ceo jun i ovo pola jula čitam berdžera, i ova knjiga mi je posebno bila zanimljiva jer mi deluje kao neka verzija chungking express-a, a svi znamo koliko ja volim taj film. i chungking je film o gradu, i ovo su proče o gradu. uz sve to, u oba slučaja ima "igre" pozicija iz kojih se pripoveda, i ima i tog zagonetnog, mističnog, kriminalističkog vajba. kod berdžera se kradu pasoši, kao što se kod wong kar waija diluje droga. uz to, oba primera su pored toga i priče o ljubavi, tako da ovo svakako ulazi na moju listu ponovnog paralelnog filmskog čitanja (tj. uz ponovno gledanje filma) pa se možda nekad odvažim da sva svoja zapažanja i paralele pretvorim u nešto smisleno napisano. do tad, samo beleške ovde ovako nabacane, i malo sređenije u tefteru sa maslačcima
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February 26, 2021I wanted to like this brief trilogy a bit more than I did. I still think Berger is pretty cool tho.
April 7, 2022
**2.5
Had occasionally interesting things to say but def the weakest of the three books to me. I way preferred the vignette style & more grounded/earthy subject matter of the first two. But maybe I just identify with cows and French peasants that like to drink moonshine than with tragic beautiful young people in love
Had occasionally interesting things to say but def the weakest of the three books to me. I way preferred the vignette style & more grounded/earthy subject matter of the first two. But maybe I just identify with cows and French peasants that like to drink moonshine than with tragic beautiful young people in love
May 1, 2025
A satisfying end to the into their labours trilogy.
I’m left wanting more of John Berger’s writing. Reading these books feels like cutting through warm butter. Even the sometimes more poetic sides of the prose are very digestible while maintaining elegance.
While this was a satisfying story on its own, having read Pig Earth and Once in Europa does lend a weight of history to this tale. The callbacks and subject matter do lean on the works before it.
I must admit that I prefer the short stories and Pig Earth remains above the rest, but there’s certainly no harm to more of a good thing.
I’m left wanting more of John Berger’s writing. Reading these books feels like cutting through warm butter. Even the sometimes more poetic sides of the prose are very digestible while maintaining elegance.
While this was a satisfying story on its own, having read Pig Earth and Once in Europa does lend a weight of history to this tale. The callbacks and subject matter do lean on the works before it.
I must admit that I prefer the short stories and Pig Earth remains above the rest, but there’s certainly no harm to more of a good thing.
January 25, 2020
JB quien contaba nuestras vidas. Prosa poética muy poderosa, talvez no te guste el final pero eso lo salva de escribir nada más. Hay algo más.
March 13, 2017
This is the last book in Berger's trilogy, Into Their Labours, which begins with Pig Earth and the peasants of an alpine villager and moves on through Once in Europa and the dislocations of modernization. Here we have arrived in a mythical but all-too-familiar megalopolis called Troy where the main characters struggle to survive on the fringes of late stage capitalist extremes. Berger was a genius at telling a story that is both deeply grounded in the material qualities of everyday life and suffused with pathos.
A simple example, as one of the main characters begins a new job:
"Sucus spat on his palms and shovelled again. The task came to his aid. Tasks do this sometimes. They lift the shovel, loosen the earth, hold the nail straight, direct the axe, balance the load across the shoulders. Above all, they make themselves look small. They cease to be gigantic. They divide themselves up. Each time you straighten your back and take a breath, another small part of the task has been accomplished.
"Finally the noon whistle sounded."
A beautiful book with much to say about the moment in which we find ourselves.
A simple example, as one of the main characters begins a new job:
"Sucus spat on his palms and shovelled again. The task came to his aid. Tasks do this sometimes. They lift the shovel, loosen the earth, hold the nail straight, direct the axe, balance the load across the shoulders. Above all, they make themselves look small. They cease to be gigantic. They divide themselves up. Each time you straighten your back and take a breath, another small part of the task has been accomplished.
"Finally the noon whistle sounded."
A beautiful book with much to say about the moment in which we find ourselves.
March 20, 2021
Tuve que esperar un poco para escribir esto. El libro me dejó flotando.
Lila y Flag es el tercer tomo que cierra la trilogía de sus fatigas.
En los dos primeros se narran historias de gente que sobrevive en el campo, a la hambruna , la soledad y el frío, y debido a esto, los más jóvenes sueñan con mudarse, o se terminan mudando a la ciudad.
En este último tomo, se ven los lamentos de aquellos que viven en la ciudad, y que sueñan con volver al pueblo, pero no pueden.
Con este último libro, Berger nos dice: no hay forma de escapar, no hay forma de ser feliz.
Lila y Flag es el tercer tomo que cierra la trilogía de sus fatigas.
En los dos primeros se narran historias de gente que sobrevive en el campo, a la hambruna , la soledad y el frío, y debido a esto, los más jóvenes sueñan con mudarse, o se terminan mudando a la ciudad.
En este último tomo, se ven los lamentos de aquellos que viven en la ciudad, y que sueñan con volver al pueblo, pero no pueden.
Con este último libro, Berger nos dice: no hay forma de escapar, no hay forma de ser feliz.
September 16, 2018
Avrupa'da köyden şehire yerleşen insanların arayış ve kayboluş öyküsü. Acı, suç, ihanetle örülmüş yaşamlar ve aynı zamanda saf hayallerle bir gün köyüne kavuşma umudu içinde çaresizce kıvranan insanlar, kaybolmuş yaşamlar. John Berger in o kadar kuvvetli bir anlatımı ve tasvir gücü var ki, romanı sahneleriyle beraber yaşayıp, hayalinizde dramatize edebiliyorsunuz. Yazarın akıl dolu kelime oyunlarıyla büyülü bir roman. Bir ressamın yazdığı romandan beklendiği gibi... #johnberger #leylakvebayrak
December 28, 2019
Reading this felt like swimming
February 27, 2021
Una tragedia griega.
March 10, 2024
John Berger was a great storyteller. ‘Lilac and Flag’ is the third part of his masterful ‘Into Their Labours’ trilogy. Each of the volumes stand alone as tales of love and loss, and reflections on the human condition but together these three books deliver a narrative on modern western society.
Following the first two volumes, ‘Pig Earth’ and ‘Once In Europa’, ‘Lilac & Flag’ moves from rural France to a mythical city, Troy, that represents any or every city in Europe. This continues to evoke the visceral experience of rural living, and gradual depopulation with the loss of a way of life in the post WWII era but the characters are now divorced from direct access to resources, and must try to survive in a money economy that is geared to keep them in want.
Life is privatised as people are taken from mutual cooperation and become commodities with only their labour and/or bodies to sell. To quote Rebecca Solnit; “unbridled individualism is a modern growth” (A Paradise Built in Hell). Corporations have become the robber barons of the modern age with the creation of an elite protected by rules and laws that are enforced by the state.
Published in 1990, Lilac and Flag foretells the inevitability of societal collapse brought on by the neoliberal experiment of the last 50 years. Neoliberals are social only by strategy, not by nature, as they prize a dog-eat-dog view of society and hail those individuals that take advantage. The worship of manna leads to alienation and a longing to return to a frugal existence.
Following the first two volumes, ‘Pig Earth’ and ‘Once In Europa’, ‘Lilac & Flag’ moves from rural France to a mythical city, Troy, that represents any or every city in Europe. This continues to evoke the visceral experience of rural living, and gradual depopulation with the loss of a way of life in the post WWII era but the characters are now divorced from direct access to resources, and must try to survive in a money economy that is geared to keep them in want.
Life is privatised as people are taken from mutual cooperation and become commodities with only their labour and/or bodies to sell. To quote Rebecca Solnit; “unbridled individualism is a modern growth” (A Paradise Built in Hell). Corporations have become the robber barons of the modern age with the creation of an elite protected by rules and laws that are enforced by the state.
Published in 1990, Lilac and Flag foretells the inevitability of societal collapse brought on by the neoliberal experiment of the last 50 years. Neoliberals are social only by strategy, not by nature, as they prize a dog-eat-dog view of society and hail those individuals that take advantage. The worship of manna leads to alienation and a longing to return to a frugal existence.
January 27, 2022
Un libro hermoso y duro. Quizás el más difícil de leer de la trilogía "De sus fatigas" de la que forma parte. Es increíble como 30 años después de haberse escrito y a un océano de distancia, Berger puede describir la marginalidad y la dura existencia de los exiliados internos del capitalismo, esos expulsados de los pequeños poblados rurales a las grandes cuidades.
Es uno de esos libros (junto a "Puerca Tierra" y "Una vez en Europa") que quedan en la cabeza al finalizarse, recordando sus descripciones y personajes; pero sobre todo, que nos hace pensar en nuestra propia historia, y hacia donde vamos. Muy recomendable volver a leer la explicación de Puerca Tierra al finalizar la trilogía.
Es uno de esos libros (junto a "Puerca Tierra" y "Una vez en Europa") que quedan en la cabeza al finalizarse, recordando sus descripciones y personajes; pero sobre todo, que nos hace pensar en nuestra propia historia, y hacia donde vamos. Muy recomendable volver a leer la explicación de Puerca Tierra al finalizar la trilogía.
July 14, 2023
Para mí, el más flojo de la trilogía y es que se aleja bastante de la vida campesina. No comprendo el capricho del autor, que por otra parte escribe bastante bien para hacer lioso la historia. Empezando por no saber en ningún modo donde se desarrolla la acción, ya que escoges barrios de París, Hamburgo y ciudades norteamericanas. Únele a eso que a veces usa francos franceses como zloty polacos. A pesar de todo se deja leer
September 29, 2024
“The heart begins to beat thirty days after conception, when it is only the size of a breadcrumb. The first beat, coming from nothing, is oure gift. The first beat makes another death, before or after many passions, inevitable."
February 14, 2019
Libro terriblemente poético.
May 17, 2021
Mi favorito de la trilogía
Toca esperar que a la biblio llegue el resto de libros traducidos porque primero muerta que leyendo un coso en catalán
Meep
Toca esperar que a la biblio llegue el resto de libros traducidos porque primero muerta que leyendo un coso en catalán
Meep
April 6, 2024
àlainn. a bheireadh sàsachadh, bròn, is gach faireachdainn. agus aithrisean. tha thu toilichte a bhith beò le JB
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