Goodbye to Berlin
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| Christopher Isherwood |
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| Book written by Christopher Isherwood |
The book is a fantastic read once you get past the first few pages. I began to read and thought, this is very confusing, there are far too many characters and I haven't got a clue what's going on. As I got a little into it they began to unravel and I began to draw close to certain characters like Frl. Schroeder and Sally Bowles (there are many more characters that i also love). I love his style of writing but in particular I loved reading about that era. It was so different to what we know today and I felt intrigued to read more. I have since purchased another of Christopher's books, Mr Norris changes trains, which I plan on reading whilst working on this project. I want to gain more knowledge into as many aspects of his life as I can.
I want to include below peoples reviews on the book and their interpretations on the novel by Isherwood :
1. First published in 1939, Goodbye to Berlin is a brilliant evocation of the decadence and repression, glamour and sleaze of Berlin society in the 1930's - the time when Hitler slowly starts his move to power. It is inhabited by a wealth of characters: the unforgettable and “divinely decadent” Sally Bowles; plump Fräulein Schroeder, Peter and Otto, a gay couple struggling to come to terms with their relationship; and the distinguished and doomed Jewish family, the Landauers.
Goodbye to Berlin has been popularized on stage and screen by Julie Harris in I Am a Camera and Liza Minelli in Cabaret.
2. One of the small pleasures of growing older is that you can re-read your favourite books and, for the most part, they seem fresh and new; one fondly recalls the core story but generally forgets the local colour, the descriptions and prose styling. I was recently reading “Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America” by Christopher Bram; in it he discussed Christopher Isherwood and “Goodbye to Berlin.” Ironically my online book group was reading it at the same time. So, I decided to re-read it for the first time in twenty-five years.
I have always been a vicarious traveller. I’ve been to Italy with James and du Maurier, France with Stein and Baldwin, Spain with Hemingway, China with Pearl Buck, Burma with Orwell, and India with Ackerley and Forster; all memorable trips, but Germany with Isherwood has been a special treat.
I love the interaction of the characters and how Isherwood introduces them to us. I thoroughly enjoyed the milieu of the boarding-house, and the decadence of Berlin circa 1930. Yes, there were Nazis, but their presence added a sense of tension and romance to Isherwood’s grand adventure.
Sally Bowles is an exasperating creature. One loves and loathes her simultaneously. Is she endearing or a nuisance? Both. Is she wicked? No. Self-absorbed? Yes, quite so. One is left with the impression that poor Sally is never going to amount to much as an actress or a singer. She lacks talent, discipline and the requisite commitment to her craft. Instead she seems content to sleep her way to success, only the poor creature hasn’t the good sense to sleep with the appropriate people. She is a good-time girl with delusions of grandeur. It is her imperfections that make her such a memorable character (indeed, actresses as diverse as Julie Harris, Judi Dench, Liza Minnelli and Natasha Richards have played her in dramatizations for stage and screen).
I laughed out loud when Sally commented that her lover's underclothes wear was so old and raggedy that they could have belonged to John the Baptist.
The scenes with Chris, Peter and Otto on the island were truly inspired. Ah, Otto. Who hasn't known an Otto? He's a taker. But then Peter is a user too, isn't he, in his own way? I mean in the end, you get what you pay for. Perhaps if Peter had been more of a man and less of a fishwife...but this was always going to be a short lived relationship.
I found the ending of the "The Nowaks" moving. The images of the patients standing around the bus as it readies for departure are indelibly etched in my mind. Otto really became quite annoying; it’s a wonder he lived passed puberty. I think I could have lived in that house for about an hour.
“The Landauers” section was particularly fine. Natalia is a great character. I loved the scene where Natalia met Sally and they didn’t hit it off – Sally stuck her foot in her mouth after only having said hello. Christopher seems to be the only non-anti Semite he knows. Bernhard is an emotional cripple; manipulative, mysterious and creepy at the same time.
Sally, Otto, Peter, Bernhard…does Christopher seek out neurotic, wayward people because he “likes” them or because as a writer he finds them fascinating?
The final diary entries deftly capture the sense of foreboding and dread as Berlin became the epicentre of a political earthquake that precipitated the Second World War. The descriptions of driving through Berlin with the doomed Weimar police chief, the workers taking to the streets singing The International, and the author's smiling reflection in a shop window are the work of writer of genius.
I read this slowly - savoured it - lazed about Frl. Schroeder's listening to the gossip, hoping she'd make me an omelette.
3. Christopher Isherwood lived in Berlin from 1929 to 1933 and kept detailed diaries, from which he created this novel. It's a slow mover, but it has a sense of reality that tells you Isherwood didn't stray too far from his diaries to create it. You see the gradual decline in the fortunes of people of all classes, the undercurrent of growing fear, and the uncertainty about what sort of government will prevail. People tried to go on with life as usual, acclimating so slowly to their future under Hitler that they didn't recognize what they were surrendering.
Particularly chilling is the section at the end called A Berlin Diary, Winter 1932-33. Here Isherwood describes the various incidents that led him to leave Berlin for good. The violence and political unrest became more prevalent, and it was too dangerous to stay. Knowing of the horrors to come, I could not keep the tears from flowing as I read of Isherwood's last morning in Berlin:
"To-day the sun is brilliantly shining; it is quite mild and warm. I go out for my last morning walk, without an overcoat or hat. The sun shines, and Hitler is master of this city."
4. I happened upon Christer Isherwood's 1939 book, "Goodbye to Berlin" on the shelves of The Strand in New York City. George Orwell had endorsed this book with the statement - "Brilliant sketches of a society in decay." This sparked my curiosity to read more about 1930s Berlin, and I now feel tremendously rewarded for having read it.
"Goodbye to Berlin" is technically a fiction novel, but it is a largely autobiographical account, based on the author's diaries while living in Berlin. Isherwood gives us novella-like glimpses into the lives of a variety of characters that he encounters, befriends, lives with and shares moments with during his time in Berlin.
What strikes me about the characters in this book and the lives he describes is how utterly modern 1930s Berlin is - and how similar it is to, say, New York City today. There is Sally - adventurous, independent, proud of her crude sense of humor and her numerous affairs; there are Peter and Otto, the gay couple who can't seem to get along; there is Natalia, always speaking in the repressed, schoolgirlish tone of an overprotected daughter from a patriarchal family ("I do not understand what this modern books mean when they say the mother and father always must have quarrel with the children. You know, it would be impossible that I can have quarrel with my parents. Impossible. Absolutely impossible, because I know that my father and my mother love me. And so they are thinking always not of themselves but of what is for me the best"); there is Otto's mother, surviving with little money and little family support - it is a collage of ordinary Berlin society - each person with his own history, her own sufferings and longings for the future.
Amidst this all, Germany's political situation fraught. Nazi sympathizers are all over town, just as there are communists, gays, Jews and Nazi opposers. Coffee-shop conversations about the political situation are as heated or as mundane as what you might hear in any American city today. Academics and intellectuals feel lightly repressed but they either feel that things will blow over or they are apathetic to attempt bringing any real change.
As the novel progresses, so too does the rise of the Nazis. What happens with Frl. Schroeder is symptomatic of what happens with all of Berlin - "It's no use trying to explain to her, or talking politics. Already she is adapting herself, as she will adapt herself to every new régime. This morning I even heard her talking reverently about 'Der Führer' to the porter's wife. If anybody were to remind her that at the elections last November, she voted communist, she would probably deny it hotly, and in perfect good faith. She is merely acclimatizing herself, in accordance with a natural law, like an animal which changes its coat for the winter. Thousands of people like Frl. Schroeder are acclimatizing themselves. After all, whatever government is in power, they are doomed to live in this town."
This paragraph was important in the parallels it draws to mind with our present time. The idea that entire communities simply acclimatize is a scary one. That's what happens in Orwell's "1984". It's also similar to what Dave Eggers is writing about with regard to social media in "The Circle." When societies suspend rationality and disbelief, when discourse ceases or is supplanted by sound bites, when politics become ideologically driven, the foundation of a civilization weakens and dangerous possibilities suddenly become viable.
I will close this review with a scene Isherwood describes. He witnesses a boxing match where all the boxers are essentially actors performing a role. One boxer is told to win, the other one is told to lose, one is told to look injured, etc. The audience can witness everything that's going on - "The referee… calls for a challenger from the audience. Before any bona fide challenger can reply, another young man, who has been quite openly chatting and joking with the wrestlers, jumps hastily into the ring and strips off his clothes, revealing himself already dressed in shorts and boxer's boots. The referee announces a purse of five marks; and, this time, the Negro is 'knocked out'. The audience took the fights dead seriously, shouting encouragement to the fighters, and even quarreling and betting amongst themselves on the results. Yet nearly all of them had been in the tent as long as I had, and stayed on after I had left. The political moral is certainly depressing: these people could be made to believe in anybody or anything."
This ability to believe "in anybody or anything" creates an environment that power brokers often exploit - whether it's Nazi Germany, "Big Brother" in 1984, the "Dear Leader" in Kim Jong Il's North Korea, or the ominous not-so-fictional world of Dave Eggers where slogans ("All that happens must be known" and "Secrets are lies, sharing is caring, privacy is theft") supplant critical thinking and genuine political discourse. In each case, it is the ordinary citizen that suffers, it is the exploited that become further exploited and it is tacit acceptance by mainstream society which allow civilisations to crumble.
I simply wanted to look at other peoples insights into the book and gain more inspiration of the overall feel I found these reviews very interesting indeed.
Cabaret
After watching the film adaptation of the book 'Goodbye to Berlin', I was left feeling a little confused. The relationship between Sally and Christopher in the film is a love affair, in the book they are just friends so I didn't really understand it. It is noted that Christopher was in fact a gay man and this is what is perceived within the book. The film does allow you to envision the glamour of 1930's Berlin and you do get more of a feel of what it could of actually been like in some of the Cabaret clubs of the time.
Goodbye to Berlin has been popularized on stage and screen by Julie Harris in I Am a Camera and Liza Minelli in Cabaret.
2. One of the small pleasures of growing older is that you can re-read your favourite books and, for the most part, they seem fresh and new; one fondly recalls the core story but generally forgets the local colour, the descriptions and prose styling. I was recently reading “Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America” by Christopher Bram; in it he discussed Christopher Isherwood and “Goodbye to Berlin.” Ironically my online book group was reading it at the same time. So, I decided to re-read it for the first time in twenty-five years.
I have always been a vicarious traveller. I’ve been to Italy with James and du Maurier, France with Stein and Baldwin, Spain with Hemingway, China with Pearl Buck, Burma with Orwell, and India with Ackerley and Forster; all memorable trips, but Germany with Isherwood has been a special treat.
I love the interaction of the characters and how Isherwood introduces them to us. I thoroughly enjoyed the milieu of the boarding-house, and the decadence of Berlin circa 1930. Yes, there were Nazis, but their presence added a sense of tension and romance to Isherwood’s grand adventure.
Sally Bowles is an exasperating creature. One loves and loathes her simultaneously. Is she endearing or a nuisance? Both. Is she wicked? No. Self-absorbed? Yes, quite so. One is left with the impression that poor Sally is never going to amount to much as an actress or a singer. She lacks talent, discipline and the requisite commitment to her craft. Instead she seems content to sleep her way to success, only the poor creature hasn’t the good sense to sleep with the appropriate people. She is a good-time girl with delusions of grandeur. It is her imperfections that make her such a memorable character (indeed, actresses as diverse as Julie Harris, Judi Dench, Liza Minnelli and Natasha Richards have played her in dramatizations for stage and screen).
I laughed out loud when Sally commented that her lover's underclothes wear was so old and raggedy that they could have belonged to John the Baptist.
The scenes with Chris, Peter and Otto on the island were truly inspired. Ah, Otto. Who hasn't known an Otto? He's a taker. But then Peter is a user too, isn't he, in his own way? I mean in the end, you get what you pay for. Perhaps if Peter had been more of a man and less of a fishwife...but this was always going to be a short lived relationship.
I found the ending of the "The Nowaks" moving. The images of the patients standing around the bus as it readies for departure are indelibly etched in my mind. Otto really became quite annoying; it’s a wonder he lived passed puberty. I think I could have lived in that house for about an hour.
“The Landauers” section was particularly fine. Natalia is a great character. I loved the scene where Natalia met Sally and they didn’t hit it off – Sally stuck her foot in her mouth after only having said hello. Christopher seems to be the only non-anti Semite he knows. Bernhard is an emotional cripple; manipulative, mysterious and creepy at the same time.
Sally, Otto, Peter, Bernhard…does Christopher seek out neurotic, wayward people because he “likes” them or because as a writer he finds them fascinating?
The final diary entries deftly capture the sense of foreboding and dread as Berlin became the epicentre of a political earthquake that precipitated the Second World War. The descriptions of driving through Berlin with the doomed Weimar police chief, the workers taking to the streets singing The International, and the author's smiling reflection in a shop window are the work of writer of genius.
I read this slowly - savoured it - lazed about Frl. Schroeder's listening to the gossip, hoping she'd make me an omelette.
3. Christopher Isherwood lived in Berlin from 1929 to 1933 and kept detailed diaries, from which he created this novel. It's a slow mover, but it has a sense of reality that tells you Isherwood didn't stray too far from his diaries to create it. You see the gradual decline in the fortunes of people of all classes, the undercurrent of growing fear, and the uncertainty about what sort of government will prevail. People tried to go on with life as usual, acclimating so slowly to their future under Hitler that they didn't recognize what they were surrendering.
Particularly chilling is the section at the end called A Berlin Diary, Winter 1932-33. Here Isherwood describes the various incidents that led him to leave Berlin for good. The violence and political unrest became more prevalent, and it was too dangerous to stay. Knowing of the horrors to come, I could not keep the tears from flowing as I read of Isherwood's last morning in Berlin:
"To-day the sun is brilliantly shining; it is quite mild and warm. I go out for my last morning walk, without an overcoat or hat. The sun shines, and Hitler is master of this city."
4. I happened upon Christer Isherwood's 1939 book, "Goodbye to Berlin" on the shelves of The Strand in New York City. George Orwell had endorsed this book with the statement - "Brilliant sketches of a society in decay." This sparked my curiosity to read more about 1930s Berlin, and I now feel tremendously rewarded for having read it.
"Goodbye to Berlin" is technically a fiction novel, but it is a largely autobiographical account, based on the author's diaries while living in Berlin. Isherwood gives us novella-like glimpses into the lives of a variety of characters that he encounters, befriends, lives with and shares moments with during his time in Berlin.
What strikes me about the characters in this book and the lives he describes is how utterly modern 1930s Berlin is - and how similar it is to, say, New York City today. There is Sally - adventurous, independent, proud of her crude sense of humor and her numerous affairs; there are Peter and Otto, the gay couple who can't seem to get along; there is Natalia, always speaking in the repressed, schoolgirlish tone of an overprotected daughter from a patriarchal family ("I do not understand what this modern books mean when they say the mother and father always must have quarrel with the children. You know, it would be impossible that I can have quarrel with my parents. Impossible. Absolutely impossible, because I know that my father and my mother love me. And so they are thinking always not of themselves but of what is for me the best"); there is Otto's mother, surviving with little money and little family support - it is a collage of ordinary Berlin society - each person with his own history, her own sufferings and longings for the future.
Amidst this all, Germany's political situation fraught. Nazi sympathizers are all over town, just as there are communists, gays, Jews and Nazi opposers. Coffee-shop conversations about the political situation are as heated or as mundane as what you might hear in any American city today. Academics and intellectuals feel lightly repressed but they either feel that things will blow over or they are apathetic to attempt bringing any real change.
As the novel progresses, so too does the rise of the Nazis. What happens with Frl. Schroeder is symptomatic of what happens with all of Berlin - "It's no use trying to explain to her, or talking politics. Already she is adapting herself, as she will adapt herself to every new régime. This morning I even heard her talking reverently about 'Der Führer' to the porter's wife. If anybody were to remind her that at the elections last November, she voted communist, she would probably deny it hotly, and in perfect good faith. She is merely acclimatizing herself, in accordance with a natural law, like an animal which changes its coat for the winter. Thousands of people like Frl. Schroeder are acclimatizing themselves. After all, whatever government is in power, they are doomed to live in this town."
This paragraph was important in the parallels it draws to mind with our present time. The idea that entire communities simply acclimatize is a scary one. That's what happens in Orwell's "1984". It's also similar to what Dave Eggers is writing about with regard to social media in "The Circle." When societies suspend rationality and disbelief, when discourse ceases or is supplanted by sound bites, when politics become ideologically driven, the foundation of a civilization weakens and dangerous possibilities suddenly become viable.
I will close this review with a scene Isherwood describes. He witnesses a boxing match where all the boxers are essentially actors performing a role. One boxer is told to win, the other one is told to lose, one is told to look injured, etc. The audience can witness everything that's going on - "The referee… calls for a challenger from the audience. Before any bona fide challenger can reply, another young man, who has been quite openly chatting and joking with the wrestlers, jumps hastily into the ring and strips off his clothes, revealing himself already dressed in shorts and boxer's boots. The referee announces a purse of five marks; and, this time, the Negro is 'knocked out'. The audience took the fights dead seriously, shouting encouragement to the fighters, and even quarreling and betting amongst themselves on the results. Yet nearly all of them had been in the tent as long as I had, and stayed on after I had left. The political moral is certainly depressing: these people could be made to believe in anybody or anything."
This ability to believe "in anybody or anything" creates an environment that power brokers often exploit - whether it's Nazi Germany, "Big Brother" in 1984, the "Dear Leader" in Kim Jong Il's North Korea, or the ominous not-so-fictional world of Dave Eggers where slogans ("All that happens must be known" and "Secrets are lies, sharing is caring, privacy is theft") supplant critical thinking and genuine political discourse. In each case, it is the ordinary citizen that suffers, it is the exploited that become further exploited and it is tacit acceptance by mainstream society which allow civilisations to crumble.
I simply wanted to look at other peoples insights into the book and gain more inspiration of the overall feel I found these reviews very interesting indeed.
Cabaret
 |
| Cabaret film |
 |
| Cabaret film |
 |
| Cabaret film |
 |
| Cabaret film |
After watching the film adaptation of the book 'Goodbye to Berlin', I was left feeling a little confused. The relationship between Sally and Christopher in the film is a love affair, in the book they are just friends so I didn't really understand it. It is noted that Christopher was in fact a gay man and this is what is perceived within the book. The film does allow you to envision the glamour of 1930's Berlin and you do get more of a feel of what it could of actually been like in some of the Cabaret clubs of the time.
Cambridge University student Brian Roberts arrives in Berlin in 1931 to complete his German studies. Without much money, he plans on making a living teaching English while living in an inexpensive rooming house, where he befriends another of the tenants, American Sally Bowles. She is outwardly a flamboyant, perpetually happy person who works as a singer at the decadent Kit Kat Klub, a cabaret styled venue. Sally's outward façade is matched by that of the Klub, overseen by the omnipresent Master of Ceremonies. Sally draws Brian into her world, and initially wants him to be one of her many lovers, until she learns that he is a homosexual, albeit a celibate one. Among their other friends are his students, the poor Fritz Wendel, who wants to be a gigolo to live a comfortable life, and the straight-laced and beautiful Natalia Landauer, a Jewish heiress. Fritz initially sees Natalia as his money ticket, but eventually falls for her. However Natalia is suspect of his motives and cannot overcome their religious differences. Also into Sally and Brian's life comes the wealthy Baron Maximilian von Heune, who has the same outlook on life as Sally, but who has the money to support it. Max is willing to lavish his new friends with gifts and his favors. Around them all is the Nazi uprising, to which they seem to pay little attention or care. But they ultimately learn that life in all its good and particularly bad continues to happen to them and around them.
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