Christopher and His Kind (1976)

My favorite memoirs are the ones in which the writer is able to distinguish himself in the present from the character he is writing about in his past. The best example I’ve found of this is Christopher Isherwood’s terrific Christopher and His Kind, a memoir of the famous English novelist’s indolent youth in Berlin between 1929 and 1939. This decade covers the period in Isherwood’s life when he was making his name as a novelist and playwright, meeting the eccentric and bohemian characters he immortalized in his Berlin Stories (later transformed into I am a Camera and Caberet), and indulging in the vibrant life of a gay sex tourist, all as the shadow of Nazism was falling over his adopted home.

Isherwood’s memoir is written with a frankness that is brisk and refreshing even now, where it must have been positively scandalous on its publication in 1976. The great tension between the experiences of young Christopher (Isherwood writes him in the third person) and the greater knowledge of the narrator (written in the first person) makes an otherwise delightful expat narrative into a brilliant examination of memory, maturity and regret. ( )

An excellent autobiography of the years 1929 to 1939, best read in close conjunction with his major books from this period, especially the Berlin books. Although it is written in a strange third person style, to highlight that the Christopher of the autobiography is not the same as the author of the autobiography, it is very informative and gossipy too. He also tries to be objectively critical, where he considers necessary, of his younger self.
The book encourages you to go and read his other books from this period, as it sounds as if they will be as fun as this too. ( )

Excellent autobiography of Isherwood, much of it written in the third person. Good history of the times (the 30's) and the gay and literary milieux. More interesting than Isherwood's fiction, by a long shot. ( )

A wonderful biography of Isherwood. ( )