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.

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