Reviews

The Berlin Novels by Christopher Isherwood

categal's review against another edition

5.0

I haven’t finished Goodbye to Berlin because I had to return the copy to the library, but The Last of Mr. Norris was just amazing. Not really like reading at all, more like watching a movie or being in someone’s head outright, just extraordinary. What I found so interesting too was the time and the place: early 1930s Germany, and the rise of Hitler was not so textbook then. Just fascinating to be in the minds of the characters who didn’t know what was going to happen from one day to the next. Hitler winning the election was only a remote possibility in a country in absolute turmoil.
The writing: wow. The subject: endlessly mind boggling. And what’s going on with Mr. Norris? For sure you have met someone like him and will recognize his sketchiness.

sofiwithaphd's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

kurtwombat's review against another edition

4.0

With apologies to the similarly time encapsulating THE SOUND OF MUSIC: How do you solve a problem like Christopher Isherwood? In his rather lengthy introduction to THE BERLIN STORIES, Isherwood admits to having difficulty deciding how to present his myriad recollections of pre-WWII Germany. Initially, he thought one long novel but he struggled to find threads strong enough to hold so many characters and paths together in one story line, so he eventually he broke them down into smaller projects such as the two novellas collected here--allowing his memories to coalesce into clumps largely held together by time and place and little else. Today such a project might more likely be allowed the fluid form of memoir as opposed to being forced into the ill-fitting structure of the novel. How much fun and more natural for the author this would have been is hinted at by his enjoyable introduction. A memoir with literary flourishes would have worked better than several memoir-ish novellas. So all that being said, you may wonder why I gave this ****. Ultimately I have surprised myself. Considering that virtually nothing happens over the course of the two novellas, and at times I found myself clambering for any foothold to hold my interest, a strange thing happened. I became lost amid the squalid tenements, beach resort hotels, and the crowded and just barely kempt boarding houses of Isherwood’s Berlin and became friends with the poor and rich alike and everyone in between striving or falling while walking the streets, drinking in dives or going to parties, bordellos and burlesque joints. THE BERLIN STORIES were like moving into a new neighborhood, the lines between familiar and unfamiliar blur and then vanish until it is like you have always been there and can never imagine forgetting what you have seen. The image of each person is so vividly crafted that many of them remain projected in my mind long after their moments upon the page and I was left wondering what happened next in the life of everyone who passed through the stories. At first it bothered me that so many lives dropped from the authors hands without seeming to go anywhere but I came to accept that as part of the point. While the Nazi’s are barely referenced, it is understood that they are always lurking—an inescapable tragedy that will toss millions of lives into the air let alone the relatively few presented here. Few realize that their lives really aren’t going anywhere despite the mad dash of the every day. As each character fell away from the narrative, I could not help but imagine them kind of freezing in place and awaiting the massive wave of WWII much like the main character of Francois Truffaut’s 400 BLOWS who finally manages to run away to the beach only to find he doesn’t know what to do next. As all these lives mount over the course of the two novellas, the power of expectation increases. What will become of all those characters left standing on the shore waiting for that wave to come for them?

bookishwendy's review against another edition

3.0

This is a slice-of-life collection of Berlin vignettes that are more character studies than stories. The first story "Mr. Norris Changes Trains" is more of a novella at 200 pages and yet...very little happens. One of the more frustrating things about this story and many of the others is that while I can see that the narrator is fascinated with his many subjects (Mr. Norris, Sally Bowles, Otto Nowak, Bernard Landau...) I don't really get why. (With the exception of Sally. I'd read a 200 page story about her.) Norris is frustratingly bland and evasive and rather slimy, yet we spend so much time with him. Much more actual "story" in these stories is revealed through subtext, and the times I managed to pick up the subtext scent were rewarding.

More interesting to me is the fact that I read Berlin Stories shortly after reading [b:Mephisto|223635|Mephisto|Klaus Mann|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348982704s/223635.jpg|216586] by Klaus Mann. They are set in the same place, and probably written around the same time and I started wondering if they hung out together (answer: yes). Interestingly, near the end of "Berlin Diaries" a man referred to only as D. confronts the narrator about about why he doesn't take more action against Nazism, then later is said to have fled to the Netherlands--as did the real Klaus Mann. Isherwood remains the observer and outsider throughout Berlin Stories, while Klaus Mann wields his 1936 Mephisto like a butcher knife. Both are interesting in their diverging--yet weirdly similar--points of view.

franklinroberts12's review against another edition

4.0

The prose is incredible at multiple points, but the various vignettes didn’t hang together well enough for the book to really engage me.

ovidusnaso's review against another edition

funny sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

anniew415's review against another edition

2.0

I'm not sure if I just didn't find it compelling, or if this book is utterly boring. The character studies really led nowhere and didn't really tell a story. I couldn't even finish this one...

robiscuits's review against another edition

4.0

Very well written. I did not like the way in which the author depicted his relationship to the political context of the time. I love Sally Bowles

paulataua's review against another edition

4.0

There is not really much to ‘Berlin Stories’. They are gently written, but they do capture Germany in the nineteen thirties. Sexuality is always there while never really bought to the fore, and the stories unfold against the backdrop of the Nazis rise to power. I am not sure why I found myself savoring them, but I did.

rustbeltjessie's review against another edition

3.0

I wish I could give it 3 1/2 stars. I think the subject matter is fascinating, and it's well-written, but most of it didn't capture my attention. I read the whole thing, but truly, I only cared about Sally Bowles.