|
"Heroes of Zero Ambition" John Pikoulis on
the lonely courage of the stories of Ron Berry. Was there ever such a
working-class writer as Ron Berry? He resists all hope of amelioration and
treats all reformist politics with a cynicism born of the belief that there
exists a 'raw economic gospel of Us and Them' which no one can destroy. 'We
inherit chaos,' as one of his characters says in the long awaited Collected
Stories. 'It's unconditional.' The upshot is a form of economic determinism as
pure as could be imagined, that the best you can do is to scrape a living
for yourself. Since the odds are stacked against you, you will need to pit your
wits against your enemies. Nothing else matters than this hand-to-mouth battle
for existence.
His heroes, men of 'zero ambition', are employed as
carpenters, miners, soldiers, factory workers, Merchant Navy firemen or
butcher's delivery men (nearly all occupations Berry was employed in),
footloose individuals...
Next >>
|
 |