Corker's Freedom

by John Berger

First published thirty years ago, John Berger's tender and bittersweet novel is a book of dreams of freedom and romance, dreams that intoxicate and redeem, dreams that have the power to exalt their dreamers or dash them against hard truth.
It is the unforgettable, often comical portrait of a dreamer, one William Corker, the genteel proprietor of a London employment agency, who, in his sixty-third year, has just moved out of the house he shared with his overbearing sister. As Corker takes his first steps into a life of passions, Berger creates a character of astonishing depth and liveliness—a man whose fantasies and ambitions are at once splendid and tragic.

Genres: Fiction, British Literature

254 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

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

[Owen Hatherley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A not entirely successful but impressively odd little experimental kitchen sink South London novel that feels more like the outline to a lost Lindsay Anderson film than anything else by JB, though the preoccupations are there, just about.

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books ever. The story is very simple, but the language Berger uses to tell it is amazing.

[M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first blush this heart-piercing novel put me in mind of Thoreau’s phrase “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” The protagonist, William Corker, is a pitiable bachelor in his early 60s whose small life is controlled by his domineering invalid sister Irene. Corker’s greatest wish is to move out of the house he shares with Irene to live on his own and do as he pleases, even if this means moving into the empty space above his office, surrounded by the heavy wood furniture and carpets of his deceased parents.

The pathos of Corker’s existence is magnified by the presence of his 18-year-old clerk Alec, a tall young man in the bloom of youth. Where the grey-haired Corker is fussy, awkward, and penny-punching, Alec basks in the afterglow of his first carnal encounter with his girlfriend Jackie. Life has bypassed one man and stretches out expectantly before the other.

But Corker doesn’t succumb to desperation. He takes concrete steps to get out from under Irene’s thumb, enlisting Alec to help him a clear the upstairs space, piling up the heavy furniture in a corner to fashion a room of his own. And he invites Alec, Jackie, and some assorted locals to his weekly public talk in a church hall. The bulk of the novel is taken up with recounting, in excruciating and somewhat tedious detail, Corker’s lecture on Vienna’s wonders, complete with a slideshow of his photographs from an earlier visit. Berger brilliantly juxtaposes two points of view: Corker as he views himself, eruditely expounding on lofty themes of European architecture and history, and Corker as seen by others, as an unhinged eccentric edging toward madness.

What makes Corker a tragic figure is that just as he takes first steps toward self-actualization, he’s foiled by circumstances that pitilessly knock him far down the social scale. Berger maintains a supremely cool tone in relating Corker’s humiliating comedown. He shows brilliantly how Corker is undefeated. In a final scene almost unbearable in its sadness, we see Corker snatching small (albeit unethical) pleasures from a life that from the outside appears an unmitigated failure.

[Michael Bradshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed it, I thought it gripping. It's written very differently from most novels I've read. Snatches of thought are interspersed between the dialogue, often from different characters. The first part of the book makes you work hard but I enjoy that. The plot was unpredictable.

[Rachel Kowal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, this book is pretty disjointed, and it took me much longer to get through it than it should have. But I'm feeling generous. Berger is doing some interesting things here stylistically, and there is joy in these pages amidst the dark undertones. Read pages 83-133. I'd read him again, though the second half of this book dragged on for far too long.

[Marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned that I am glad I do not have to look for a job as a housekeeper in London in the 60s.

[Rowena · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing was great as expected; can't quite remember details of the plot, but this was a good read.