Letters from A to X - John Berger

I wanted to put my hand on a letter and draw its outline to send you. Sometime after - whenever it was - I came across a book which explained how to draw hands and I opened it, turning page after page. And I decided to buy it. It was like the story of our life. All stories are also the stories of hands - picking up, balancing, pointing, joining, kneading, threading, caressing, abandoned in sleep, cutting, eating, wiping, playing music, scratching, grasping, peeling, clenching, pulling a trigger, folding. On each page of the book there are careful drawings of hands performing a different action. So I'm going to copy one.

I'm writing to you.

Now I look down at my hands that want to touch you and they seem obsolete because they haven't touched you for so long.

I think it would be impossible to not love a John Berger book. From A to X is like a rich desert that hits your mouth causing you to pause and say "Oh my!" I finished it, after a slow devour, and wanted to immediately read it again.

The book is written as a story in letters from a lover to her amour in prison. Inventively composed, it not only includes the letters, but is also interspersed with tidbits of philosophy. "The universe resembles a brain, not a machine. Life is a story being told now. The first reality is story. This is what being a mechanic taught me."

This is a book to savor. Berger is one of the finest living writers. The book is a tour de force of fine writing and expounds a world view of people versus the machine.