![]() ![]() When the weather was fine, and I hadn’t any lessons to give, we strolled as far as the Wittenbergplatz and sat on a bench in the sunshine, discussing the people who went past. “Curled up on the sofa in the big dingy room, she smoked, drank Prairie Oysters, talked endlessly of the future. There’s no strong plot to speak of but, as with the cast of irrepressible and amoral characters, all can be forgiven: The other character of note is Berlin, which this book is really about. There are also warring lovers Peter and Otto, and Otto’s family, the Nowaks. Principally there’s Sally Bowles, the temptress and con-artist later immortalised in Cabaret. The author leads the reader on a thoroughly entertaining tour through the seedier side of a particularly decadent time in that city’s history. Goodbye to Berlin contains a set of short stories about Isherwood’s time there. Mostly this is thanks to a cast of upperclass spendthrifts and well-spoken scoundrels. Norris Changes Trains, this is another semi-autobiographical account of Isherwood’s experiences in pre-war Berlin. This results in a rather haunting end to the book, though the way there is scandalous and sharp-tongued. ![]() In fact, the characters and scenes Isherwood describes are so vibrant it’s easy to forget his world is on the brink of WWII. The Berlin of Isherwood’s semi-autobiographical novel is shabby but chic, crumbling yet highly colourful. ![]() ![]() First published in 1939, Goodbye to Berlin takes place in the city’s more colourful quarters just as Hitler comes to power. ![]()
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