A review by laurenjpegler
Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
2.0
"Berlin is a skeleton which aches in the cold: it is my own skeleton aching".
Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin is a series of semiautobiographical short stories set in 1930s Berlin. They describe pre-Nazi Germany, the rising communist party and the decadent yet glamour Berlin society.
The first two stories really sucked me in to this narrative; they were glamorous, different, and had The Great Gatsby vibes. The characters and settings were just wonderful - they were so different to me, yet also so real and natural. It's hard to explain, really. But the last three stories fell short; they were often quite boring, uninteresting, and upsetting. The treatment of the Jews by the Nazi soldiers was brutal and real, which was the only element I could praise from these last three stories. Other than that, they had no weight or interest.
When I first started it, I really liked the idea of this book, but after a while, my expectations got the better of me. I think I would have much preferred this to have been written as a full-length novel rather than short stories; I find it hard to connect to these types of narratives, and I think this may be one of the reasons I didn't get on with Goodbye to Berlin.
I'm not too sure - I didn't hate this book by any means, but it just didn't impress me, thus the 2 star rating. I'd recommend it to those who enjoy the interwar years, and its literary offspring, but it just wasn't for me personally.
Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin is a series of semiautobiographical short stories set in 1930s Berlin. They describe pre-Nazi Germany, the rising communist party and the decadent yet glamour Berlin society.
The first two stories really sucked me in to this narrative; they were glamorous, different, and had The Great Gatsby vibes. The characters and settings were just wonderful - they were so different to me, yet also so real and natural. It's hard to explain, really. But the last three stories fell short; they were often quite boring, uninteresting, and upsetting. The treatment of the Jews by the Nazi soldiers was brutal and real, which was the only element I could praise from these last three stories. Other than that, they had no weight or interest.
When I first started it, I really liked the idea of this book, but after a while, my expectations got the better of me. I think I would have much preferred this to have been written as a full-length novel rather than short stories; I find it hard to connect to these types of narratives, and I think this may be one of the reasons I didn't get on with Goodbye to Berlin.
I'm not too sure - I didn't hate this book by any means, but it just didn't impress me, thus the 2 star rating. I'd recommend it to those who enjoy the interwar years, and its literary offspring, but it just wasn't for me personally.