Reviews

• Gives an insight into pre WW II Berlin. Lots of atmosphere. Very quirky. Loved it. A totally good read .

• One of the small pleasures of growing older is that you can re-read your favourite books and, for the most part, they seem fresh and new; one fondly recalls the core story but generally forgets the local colour, the descriptions and prose styling. I was recently reading "Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America" by Christopher Bram; in it he discussed Christopher Isherwood and "Goodbye to Berlin." Ironically my online book group was reading it at the same time. So, I decided to re-read it for the first time in twenty-five years. I have always been a vicarious traveller. I've been to Italy with James and du Maurier, France with Stein and Baldwin, Spain with Hemingway, China with Pearl Buck, Burma with Orwell, and India with Ackerley and Forster; all memorable trips, but Germany with Isherwood has been a special treat. I love the interaction of the characters and how Isherwood introduces them to us. I thoroughly enjoyed the milieu of the boarding-house, and the decadence of Berlin circa 1930. Yes, there were Nazis, but their presence added a sense of tension and romance to Isherwood's grand adventure. Sally Bowles is an exasperating creature. One loves and loathes her simultaneously. Is she endearing or a nuisance? Both. Is she wicked? No. Self-absorbed? Yes, quite so. One is left with the impression that poor Sally is never going to amount to much as an actress or a singer. She lacks talent, discipline and the requisite commitment to her craft. Instead she seems content to sleep her way to success, only the poor creature hasn't the good sense to sleep with the appropriate people. She is a good-time girl with delusions of grandeur. It is her imperfections that make her such a memorable character (indeed, actresses as diverse as Julie Harris, Judi Dench, Liza Minnelli and Natasha Richards have played her in dramatizations for stage and screen). I laughed out loud when Sally commented that her lover's underclothes wear was so old and raggedy that they could have belonged to John the Baptist. The scenes with Chris, Peter and Otto on the island were truly inspired. Ah, Otto. Who hasn't known an Otto? He's a taker. But then Peter is a user too, isn't he, in his own way? I mean in the end, you get what you pay for. Perhaps if Peter had been more of a man and less of a fishwife...but this was always going to be a short lived relationship. I found the ending of the "The Nowaks" moving. The images of the patients standing around the bus as it readies for departure are indelibly etched in my mind. Otto really became quite annoying; it's a wonder he lived passed puberty. I think I could have lived in that house for about an hour. "The Landauers" section was particularly fine. Natalia is a great character. I loved the scene where Natalia met Sally and they didn't hit it off - Sally stuck her foot in her mouth after only having said hello. Christopher seems to be the only non-anti Semite he knows. Bernhard is an emotional cripple; manipulative, mysterious and creepy at the same time. Sally, Otto, Peter, Bernhard...does Christopher seek out neurotic, wayward people because he "likes" them or because as a writer he finds them fascinating? The final diary entries deftly capture the sense of foreboding and dread as Berlin became the epicentre of a political earthquake that precipitated the Second World War. The descriptions of driving through Berlin with the doomed Weimar police chief, the workers taking to the streets singing The International, and the author's smiling reflection in a shop window are the work of writer of genius. I read this slowly - savoured it - lazed about Frl. Schroeder's listening to the gossip, hoping she'd make me an omelette.

• As yet unread.

• I'll make this a short review because I mostly agree with the other 4 & 5 star reviewers. I really enjoyed this book, I haven't seen Caberet so I had no expectations while reading it. what I was looking for was a first hand account of Berlin in the 30s. Weimar Berlin is very interesting and I have a particular fascination with the modern incarnation of the city, but in order to know a place well one needs to get a feel for the history of that place. Isherwood was actually in Berlin in 1929 and spent a lot of time there, and although this book is fictional, I suspect that it is very largely based on real experiences. I read on wikipedia that "In 1931 he met Jean Ross the inspiration for his fictional character, Sally Bowles." I LOVE Sally Bowles, I can relate to this section of the book well, because I know someone very like her. I was grinning inanely through most of that chapter. I got EXACTLY what I was looking for with this book. He created a very vivid picture of 30's Berlin and I found it very easy to read. He is not overly descriptive with little details about how the city looks etc but he conveys the tone of the city through it's people, who were very vivid in my mind.

• I enjoyed it quite a bit, even tough some characters are more endearing than others. Overall a good read, but I'd not call it his best work. A single man is way better.

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