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A review by teresatumminello
The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr Norris & Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
4.0
The Last of Mr. Norris (1935): 3 stars
Goodbye to Berlin (1939): 4.5 stars
I started this book before the events at Charlottesville; unfortunately, it proved timely. Based on his own experiences living in pre-WWII Berlin, Isherwood writes of the Nazis being talked of, even laughed at, at first; and by the book's end of their stalking the streets and terrorizing Jewish citizens, the police powerless to do anything about it. For the most part, though, that’s ‘just’ the background and atmosphere: character (in both senses of the word) is foremost in both of these works. Yet it’s because of what’s going on in the ‘background’ that the characters achieve their importance as they live their lives under, and in spite of, an increasing atmosphere of menace.
Your response to Isherwood’s characters will vary depending on your tolerance for ‘characters’, i.e. eccentrics, for lack of a better word. Mr. Norris of the first novella is not the kind of character I warm to, though perhaps it is more that this is an earlier work than the other, and with the latter Isherwood found his voice. In the second work, a collection of pieces that nevertheless make a coherent whole, the character of Sally Bowles is a revelation (she is not Liza Minnelli at all) and I was dismayed when her section ended—not to worry, she makes one more appearance. The other characters may not be as memorable as Sally (though all Isherwood's female characters are remarkable), but they and their stories are all part of the stage upon which Isherwood always gives himself a minor role.
The author’s preface tells of his first visit to Berlin since before the war, after the success of the Broadway play I Am a Camera, which was adapted from his story "Sally Bowles" and starred Julie Harris (whom he thought was more Sally than the ‘real’ Sally). During this 1952 visit, he hears the war stories of his indomitable former landlady, sees the places he’d lived in and hopes someone will, one day, write the story of the ‘new’ Berlin.
Goodbye to Berlin (1939): 4.5 stars
I started this book before the events at Charlottesville; unfortunately, it proved timely. Based on his own experiences living in pre-WWII Berlin, Isherwood writes of the Nazis being talked of, even laughed at, at first; and by the book's end of their stalking the streets and terrorizing Jewish citizens, the police powerless to do anything about it. For the most part, though, that’s ‘just’ the background and atmosphere: character (in both senses of the word) is foremost in both of these works. Yet it’s because of what’s going on in the ‘background’ that the characters achieve their importance as they live their lives under, and in spite of, an increasing atmosphere of menace.
Your response to Isherwood’s characters will vary depending on your tolerance for ‘characters’, i.e. eccentrics, for lack of a better word. Mr. Norris of the first novella is not the kind of character I warm to, though perhaps it is more that this is an earlier work than the other, and with the latter Isherwood found his voice. In the second work, a collection of pieces that nevertheless make a coherent whole, the character of Sally Bowles is a revelation (she is not Liza Minnelli at all) and I was dismayed when her section ended—not to worry, she makes one more appearance. The other characters may not be as memorable as Sally (though all Isherwood's female characters are remarkable), but they and their stories are all part of the stage upon which Isherwood always gives himself a minor role.
The author’s preface tells of his first visit to Berlin since before the war, after the success of the Broadway play I Am a Camera, which was adapted from his story "Sally Bowles" and starred Julie Harris (whom he thought was more Sally than the ‘real’ Sally). During this 1952 visit, he hears the war stories of his indomitable former landlady, sees the places he’d lived in and hopes someone will, one day, write the story of the ‘new’ Berlin.