[.ca] The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr. Norris/Goodbye to Berlin (ISBN 0811200701)

From Amazon.com:
Christopher Isherwood was a diverse writer whose accomplishments included The Mortmere Stories (Edward Upward Series), A Single Man and a translation of The Song of God (Bhagavad Gita). But many critics hailed The Berlin Stories, the reissue of two of his best novels, as his finest. In the book, a man named Christopher Isherwood, who is and is not the author, writes a story of exile, combining the best of Isherwood's real life with the best of the life he imagined.

The bohemia of Berlin before the Nazi menace:
Between 1929 and 1933 Isherwood lived in Berlin and, after returning in London, he wrote the novel and the autobiographical sketches that make up this volume. Just how autobiographical these stories might be is left to the reader's imagination, of course, but they seemed to be based on German eccentrics whom the author knew and whom the reader will be unable to forget. The novel that opens the book, "The Last of Mr. Norris" (published in 1935 in England as "Mr. Norris Changes Trains"), is a somewhat comic portrayal of a bumbling, vain double agent who wears an ill-fitting wig and operates in the sleazy underworld contested by Communist idealists and Nazi thugs. The narrator, William Bradshaw, is a British expatriate tutoring English to young Germans in Berlin--someone, in other words, a lot like Isherwood himself. He encounters Norris on a train, and they initiate an often bizarre, always uneasy, on-again, off-again friendship that propels them through drunken nights in sleazy pubs and dangerous rendezvous at Swiss ski resorts. In the second half of the book, "Goodbye to Berlin" (published in 1939), Isherwood drops the alter-ego and presents himself as the narrator. Character sketches alternate with "diary entries" and feature an overlapping cast, and some of the minor figures from "Mr. Norris" make important cameos. The most famous story is "Sally Bowles," which later became John Van Druten's play "I Am a Camera" and inspired the musical "Cabaret." Equally notable, however, is the homoerotic "On Ruegen Island (Summer 1931)," which recounts Isherwood living in a lakeside cabin with the effete, insecure Peter and the athletic, sexually ambivalent Otto, whose Nordic beauty seems transmigrated from an Aryan Youth poster. Otto appears again in a subsequent section called "The Nowaks," about Isherwood's schizophrenic life while sharing a crowded attic apartment with Otto's dysfunctional family. The final sketch, "The Landauers," concerns Bernhard, the presumed heir of a wealthy Jewish family who operate a Berlin department store. Bernhard's airy cynicism and adopted Eastern spiritualism thwart his business sense and ill-prepare him for the political dangers overtaking the country. Both "Mr. Norris" and "Goodbye to Berlin" share a comic esprit eventually overwhelmed by the gravity of the Nazi menace. Together, these stories are an ode to the carefree bohemians, flappers, intellectuals, and misfits who enlivened Berlin before they were swept away by Hitler and his bullying monsters.

The Inspiration for "Cabaret":
Willkommen! Bien venu! Welcome! This book chronicles the experiences of a young American in pre-Nazi Germany. The changing "winds" are seen everywhere, at first subtly, then with brutal realization. Much of the story is an embellishment of true events, although the action is completely plausible and thus has all the elements of a true biography. Anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing the spellbinding stage version or the brilliant film "Cabaret" would appreciate this book as the "beginning of it all". Not much could be improved on with the stage play or the film, and this book certainly deserves equal priases. Five stars!*****

Good and Evil in the Wind:
I don_t know what to make of this book. It_s a bit of a bore. This is due in part to the lack of a smooth narrative flow and its inexorable amount of difficult passages the reader must drudge through. Instead of being a pleasure to read it becomes a task. The book entices you with its characters but then makes you suffer to find fruition. It is still interesting however.

For a foreigner German politics are very complicated:
The black and white design of the New Directions Book is very fine. When Isherwood returned to Berlin in the fifties, it came to him that he had been heartless and youthful when the stories were written. THE LAST OF MR. NORRIS is dedicated to W.H. Auden. Berlin is mysterious, vibrant, and dangerous. The writing is first rate. The narrator, a stand-in for the author, is youthful and untried. It is noticed that Mr Norris has a wig. There is a story going around that Norris is some kind of a cheap crook. He did spend eighteen months at Wormwood Scrubbs. Arthur Norris is a communist. He receives a notice from the political police. He is questioned about his business activities in Berlin. The narrator, William Bradshaw, gives English lessons. Other characters are Otto, Anni, Bayer, and Helen Pratt who seems to be a forthright sort. Arthur Norris's roommate is Schmidt, and then there is William's landlady, Frl. Schroeder. Norris turns up missing and William receives a letter from him from Prague and another from Paris. Berlin is in a state of unrest and William returns to England. When he returns Norris is staying at Frl. Schroeder's and several adventures ensue involving travel and deception on Norris's part. When last heard of, Norris is in Brazil. GOODBYE TO BERLIN starts with I am a camera, passive observation. The narrator here has the author's name, Herr Issyvoo. As everyone knows, this work portrays Berlin nightlife and the inimitable Isherwood creation, Sally Bowles. Sally sings badly. She seems to know everyone in the place, the place being the Lady Windermere, a bar. Sally moves to Frl. Schroeder's. She has an abortion and Christopher leaves town for a bit, realizing that he has not managed to get any writing done. Returning several month later he finds that Sally no longer lives at Frl. Schroeder's establishment. The narrator spends time with Otto and Peter. Peter is a student of psychology. Christopher moves in with the Nowak family, the family of Otto. When Frau Nowak is to go to a sanitorium, he moves out. Later he visits the sanitorium with Otto. Finally he becomes acquainted with Natalia Landauer and her family and her cousin Bernhard. In May Isherwood leaves Berlin for the last time. The book retains its interest and its freshness. It is our good fortune, and possibly was Isherwood's tragedy, that he attained such mastery so early in his career as a novelist.

A Lost World:
I read this book, cover-to-cover, about four times in a row. While it certainly has its humour and a certain amount of irreverance and parody, it is a book which captures an age, an epoch, and a culture that was completely destroyed shortly afterwards, and the sense of spiralling into doom is apparent. It is interesting to see how it was not just Berlin, and the way of life there which was on a precipice, but also the English life with which Isherwood had grown up. The style is quite dry, but it captures the characters so well, that I felt that I knew them, or at least wanted to know them and be part of their world. Definitely one of my top books of the year.