404. Goodbye to Berlin

Goodbye to Berlin
Christopher Isherwood
1939
Around 210 pages

I hated the movie Cabaret. Musicals either blow me away, or cause me cringe convulsively, there is no in between. This movie fell into the latter category. Of course, a novel isn't capable of producing the same level of cringe as a musical can, so I found this book to be a marked improvement from the film.

This time, Christopher drops the pretense and gives his main character his name. Christopher is a young English novelist looking to party in Berlin on the eve of Hitler's rise to power. Which is about the worst place I can think of to go looking for a good time, but I don't really enjoy parties in general. At a boarding house, he encounters Sally Bowles, the singer at a seedy cabaret with a colorful sex life.

Oof, stories that feature unsafe abortions really hit me in the ovaries right now. Isherwood did a really good job of depicting a culture that was ripe for catastrophe but I don't feel like anybody was particularly well fleshed out. This might have been intentional, as everybody was playing a role that wasn't truly authentic to their inner selves.

More enjoyable than his previous work, but they are good companion pieces to each other.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

According to literary critics, the character of Sally Bowles in Goodbye to Berlin inspired Truman Capote's Holly Golightly, as Capote was a known fan of his work. 

Isherwood was critical of the movie adaptation, as he believed it negatively portrayed homosexuality. Go ahead Isherwood.

UP NEXT: Coming Up For Air by George Orwell

376. The Last of Mr. Norris

The Last of Mr. Norris
Christopher Isherwood
1935
Around 280 pages

Fellow Potterheads, the long elusive Mr. Norris has finally made an appearance. And he is way kinkier than I thought he would be.

On the way to Germany, William Bradshaw meets Arthur Norris, who carries a suspect passport and wears a wig that has the unfortunate tendency to shift.  As a frequent viewer of Real Housewives, I can sympathize. They strike up a friendship, and William learns some unexpected things about Arthur, like he's a communist and a masochist. 

Apparently, Christopher Isherwood later condemned the work, calling it heartless. Writers are their own worst critics, but I can see where he is coming from, this is not a heart-warming story. To be fair, the setting was Nazi Germany, which isn't a place to seek the good in humanity. I don't think anybody would be as capable of being as aloof as our narrator in those circumstances, but that's always the case with the Dr. John Watson types, who are tasked with dutifully recording the behaviors of eccentrics.

The setting was intriguing and Mr. Norris was certainly memorable. But life is not a Cabaret, so it's not very believable to me.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

The British version is called Mr. Norris Changes Trains. The American version is The Last of Mr. Norris. This is the Philosopher's Stone all over again.

Bradshaw is a stand in for the narrator, and Isherwood changed the character's name in future editions his own. As to why Bradshaw isn't gay even though Isherwood was out, he justified it by saying the reader needed to relate to the narrator. We're all gayer than you give us credit for, Ish. Of course the real reason was he didn't want to cause a scandal.

UP NEXT: Independent People by Halldor Laxness