Goodbye to Berlin (1939)

It is what it is - and what makes it bearable is Isherwood being your calm companion. ( )

Creepy in it's historical position, you want to be there because he writes so clearly but then something happens and you remember where he is and you don't. ( )

I read this on my recent trip to Berlin-- a vivid snapshot of fascinating and very human people about to be cast into hell. The ghost of Isherwood's Berlin is still very present in the city-- it seemed to me the place had a vibrant will of its own and has survived the perverse inventions of 20th century history to become itself once again. ( )

I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book, but whatever it was it didn't quite deliver. Christopher seemed too detached, even for a camera lense. Nazism is something that seems very much at the back of his thoughts, the lives of his characters of more interest. The book is much better towards the end, possibly because the changing environment has finally encroached on Christopher's bubble of frivolty, especially with the uglinss of violence towards the Jewish community. I found the portion of the book that focused on Bernhard Landauer incredibly sad, but even then it's hard to get a sense of Christopher's emotions.

The most interesting part of the book for me was Christopher watching a fixed boxing match. For the most part, Christopher's emotions are very elusive and it's hard to get a handle on him, but this little bit hinted at the author not being entirely immune to his surroundings.

The audience took the fights dead seriously, shouting encouragement to the fighters, and even quarrelling and betting amongst themselves on the results. Yet nearly all of them had been in the tent as long as I had, and stayed on after I had left. The political moral is certainly depressing: these people could be made to believe anything.

Not a great book, but an interesting reading experience. ( )

Isherwood has been highly recommended as a writer of stories set in the 190s in Berlin. Unfortunately, his prose in this book is very dated [book was written in the late '30s].

In any event a good read offering a view of early '30s Berlin just as Hitler was coming to power. ( )