An Extraordinary Portrait Of Weimar Berlin!, 17 Mar 2005
"I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking," wrote Christopher Isherwood, at the beginning of "Goodbye to Berlin." "Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed." In the six portraits of Weimar Berlin that comprise "Goodbye To Berlin," Isherwood chronicles his life among the demimonde in this gloriously decadent capital city. He lived there, off and on, between 1929 and 1933. These marvelous stories are a fusion of fact and fiction. With each tale, and the passing of time, the sense of foreboding and the author's prophetic imagery intensifies, as Germany prepares to embrace Adolph Hitler.

Berlin was still a charming city of broad avenues, parks and cafés during this period. It was also a grotesque metropolis of night-people, visionaries, political fanatics - a place filled with intrigue, where vice and virtue were found in abundance - more of the former than the latter. 1930s Berlin was a powerful city of mobs and millionaires. And it was one huge salon, a center of European intellectual life where the arts and sciences flourished. This is the scene which provides a backdrop for Isherwood's stories.

The six "Goodbye To Berlin" stories form a relatively continuous narrative. In "A Berlin Diary - Autumn 1930," Isherwood introduces the reader to his landlady, the infamous Fraulein Schroeder, "Schroederschen," who calls him Herr Issyvoo. She is able to recite a history of her former lodgers by looking at the spots, stains and spillages left behind on her furniture, carpets and linens. Fellow flatmates include: Frl. Kost, a young woman, plump, blonde and pretty, who makes a living at the world's oldest profession - extremely upscale, of course; Bobby, who is a mixer at a west-end bar called the Troika, has adopted an English Christian name because they are all the rage; a commercial traveler, who is out most of the time, lives in the tiny attic which Frl. Schroeder refers to as the Swedish Pavilion; and Frl. Mayr, with her enormous arms, bull-dog jaw and coarse string-colored hair, is a music hall singer - the best in all of Germany, Schroeder assures with pride.

"Sally Bowles" certainly is divine decadence, and her antics make for a wonderful story. I had a difficult time keeping the image of Liza Minnelli singing "Cabaret" out of my mind, however. I must say though, after reading about Isherwood's Sally, I have to laud Ms. Minnelli on her performance. Her characterization is indeed recognizable in this Ms. Bowles.

"On Ruegen Island - Summer 1931" describes the author's holiday and the two characters he becomes involved with at a summer resort, Otto Nowak and Peter Wilkinson. Otto is a working class German youth, who uses his attractiveness to freeload off of men and women alike, rather than earn an honest wage. Peter Wilkinson, an Englishman living in Berlin, is extremely neurotic and very attached to Otto, although the two quarrel and bicker constantly.

"The Nowaks," Otto, (of Ruegen Island), and his immediate family, take Isherwood in as a lodger. As money becomes more difficult to come by and the effects of hyperinflation take their toll on Christopher's pocketbook, he has to economize and temporarily leaves Frl. Schroeder's relatively luxurious flat, for the slum-like, working-class projects of Wassertorstrasse.

In "The Landaurers," a wealthy Jewish family is aware of what is in store with the rise of Hitler's Nazism. Natalie befriends Isherwood, and through her so does her family. In this story the perils ahead are obvious and the Landaurers make preparations to leave Germany.

And in "A Berlin Diary - Winter - 1932-33," Isherwood bids farewell to Berlin. He will not return until 1952.

These are well written and important stories which paint a picture of a never-to-be-forgotten time. The language and content give a real sense of the period, and Christopher Isherwood's taut and descriptive narrative is superb. Highly recommended!
JANA

Stunning, Atmospheric, Prescient, 10 Mar 2003
`Goodbye to Berlin' is writing at its best: spare, unadorned, and sincere. Christopher Isherwood flies in the face of today's tendency towards florid, pretentious writing, which seems to favor five similies when none would have done. His evocation of pre-WWII Berlin through a series of interlinked stories, and the deft, subtly drawn characters - the famous Sally Bowles is just one - is unforgettable.

Perhaps it is the way Isherwood writes with a remarkable lack of ego - as his famous quote states, events are captured as objectively as a camera records light onto a photographic film. This does not mean he is impassive; quite the opposite. His desire is clearly to record a fragile time exactly as it was. Nobody knows the outcome of history until it happens, and the rise of the Nazi party as told here is all the more horrifying, as we experience it as the people themselves must have done - first a fringe party regarded as little more than a joke, then as rulers of the country, in a frighteningly short space of time.

Although it's small and perfectly formed, you'll never want it to end. Isherwood's original intention was to include these episodes in a much larger opus about Germany in the Weimar Republic, but there's something about the fragmented quality of the eventual book which is perfectly suited to its subject matter.

It takes pride of place in my library.

Amazing portrayal of a city soon to change, 29 Jan 2003
What is unique in this book is its lack of reference to Nazism. Only at the end do we really see politics enter the novel and feel Berlin's doom closing in. Almost everyone Isherwood comes across are not political- they just want to get on with life. As an exception to this there is a group of Communists her sets out to meet but they seem devoted to theory alone.
The sense of Berlin's eminent change builds up momentum throughout the novel- at the start it is difficult to imagine the city Isherwood is writing about is soon to lose a vast amount of its population to the camps, the army or the bombs and most of its buildings destroyed. The light-hearted section detailing Sally Bowles's friendship guides us into more serious pieces on poverty and charged relationships ending with Isherwood's exit from Berlin, as the Nazi's power grows too strong.
Isherwood's writing seems modern for its time and has a sense of amusing reality that reminded me of George Orwell's Down and Out In Paris In London. What struck me as his finest point was the way in which his characters just leap off the page into reality and seem bursting with life. This makes the ending seem even more poignant than it is as we leave many of these characters to face their fate.
This is a wonderful last glance back at the old Berlin that no longer exists.

Hello to old Berlin, 17 Aug 2000
This book is known as the original of "Cabaret"- which is why I bought it. And am I glad I did- don't expect the story as seen on stage or film, for here you will find several accounts of pre-war Berlin from various view points. The book is made up of several, smaller, novella's that are vaguely related while independent in themselves. Isherwood's strength lies in his ability to create characters that are believable (all, or at least most, were based on real persons that Isherwood had met), and to evoke the atmosphere of the Berlin of the 30's. His writing style is quite simple, yet says all that there is to say- which makes this book very easy to read. He manages to create the increasingly opressive atmosphere of pre-war Germany throughout the book; which grows into an observation of Germany's response to the growing threat of Nazism- which makes us feel as though we could possibly have been there. It is a fascinating account of the changes that took place, and it shows how people can be led astray to believe false truths etc. This has to be one of my favourite books of all time because of what it is- A study of various characters, A document of a changing Germany, An echo of a lifestyle now lost...Read and Enjoy- with crude fascination!

An Extraordinary Portrait Of Weimar Berlin!, 17 Mar 2005
"I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking," wrote Christopher Isherwood, at the beginning of "Goodbye to Berlin." "Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed." In the six portraits of Weimar Berlin that comprise "Goodbye To Berlin," Isherwood chronicles his life among the demimonde in this gloriously decadent capital city. He lived there, off and on, between 1929 and 1933. These marvelous stories are a fusion of fact and fiction. With each tale, and the passing of time, the sense of foreboding and the author's prophetic imagery intensifies, as Germany prepares to embrace Adolph Hitler.

Berlin was still a charming city of broad avenues, parks and cafés during this period. It was also a grotesque metropolis of night-people, visionaries, political fanatics - a place filled with intrigue, where vice and virtue were found in abundance - more of the former than the latter. 1930s Berlin was a powerful city of mobs and millionaires. And it was one huge salon, a center of European intellectual life where the arts and sciences flourished. This is the scene which provides a backdrop for Isherwood's stories.

The six "Goodbye To Berlin" stories form a relatively continuous narrative. In "A Berlin Diary - Autumn 1930," Isherwood introduces the reader to his landlady, the infamous Fraulein Schroeder, "Schroederschen," who calls him Herr Issyvoo. She is able to recite a history of her former lodgers by looking at the spots, stains and spillages left behind on her furniture, carpets and linens. Fellow flatmates include: Frl. Kost, a young woman, plump, blonde and pretty, who makes a living at the world's oldest profession - extremely upscale, of course; Bobby, who is a mixer at a west-end bar called the Troika, has adopted an English Christian name because they are all the rage; a commercial traveler, who is out most of the time, lives in the tiny attic which Frl. Schroeder refers to as the Swedish Pavilion; and Frl. Mayr, with her enormous arms, bull-dog jaw and coarse string-colored hair, is a music hall singer - the best in all of Germany, Schroeder assures with pride.

"Sally Bowles" certainly is divine decadence, and her antics make for a wonderful story. I had a difficult time keeping the image of Liza Minnelli singing "Cabaret" out of my mind, however. I must say though, after reading about Isherwood's Sally, I have to laud Ms. Minnelli on her performance. Her characterization is indeed recognizable in this Ms. Bowles.

"On Ruegen Island - Summer 1931" describes the author's holiday and the two characters he becomes involved with at a summer resort, Otto Nowak and Peter Wilkinson. Otto is a working class German youth, who uses his attractiveness to freeload off of men and women alike, rather than earn an honest wage. Peter Wilkinson, an Englishman living in Berlin, is extremely neurotic and very attached to Otto, although the two quarrel and bicker constantly.

"The Nowaks," Otto, (of Ruegen Island), and his immediate family, take Isherwood in as a lodger. As money becomes more difficult to come by and the effects of hyperinflation take their toll on Christopher's pocketbook, he has to economize and temporarily leaves Frl. Schroeder's relatively luxurious flat, for the slum-like, working-class projects of Wassertorstrasse.

In "The Landaurers," a wealthy Jewish family is aware of what is in store with the rise of Hitler's Nazism. Natalie befriends Isherwood, and through her so does her family. In this story the perils ahead are obvious and the Landaurers make preparations to leave Germany.

And in "A Berlin Diary - Winter - 1932-33," Isherwood bids farewell to Berlin. He will not return until 1952.

These are well written and important stories which paint a picture of a never-to-be-forgotten time. The language and content give a real sense of the period, and Christopher Isherwood's taut and descriptive narrative is superb. Highly recommended!
JANA

Stunning, Atmospheric, Prescient, 10 Mar 2003
`Goodbye to Berlin' is writing at its best: spare, unadorned, and sincere. Christopher Isherwood flies in the face of today's tendency towards florid, pretentious writing, which seems to favor five similies when none would have done. His evocation of pre-WWII Berlin through a series of interlinked stories, and the deft, subtly drawn characters - the famous Sally Bowles is just one - is unforgettable.

Perhaps it is the way Isherwood writes with a remarkable lack of ego - as his famous quote states, events are captured as objectively as a camera records light onto a photographic film. This does not mean he is impassive; quite the opposite. His desire is clearly to record a fragile time exactly as it was. Nobody knows the outcome of history until it happens, and the rise of the Nazi party as told here is all the more horrifying, as we experience it as the people themselves must have done - first a fringe party regarded as little more than a joke, then as rulers of the country, in a frighteningly short space of time.

Although it's small and perfectly formed, you'll never want it to end. Isherwood's original intention was to include these episodes in a much larger opus about Germany in the Weimar Republic, but there's something about the fragmented quality of the eventual book which is perfectly suited to its subject matter.

It takes pride of place in my library.

Amazing portrayal of a city soon to change, 29 Jan 2003
What is unique in this book is its lack of reference to Nazism. Only at the end do we really see politics enter the novel and feel Berlin's doom closing in. Almost everyone Isherwood comes across are not political- they just want to get on with life. As an exception to this there is a group of Communists her sets out to meet but they seem devoted to theory alone.
The sense of Berlin's eminent change builds up momentum throughout the novel- at the start it is difficult to imagine the city Isherwood is writing about is soon to lose a vast amount of its population to the camps, the army or the bombs and most of its buildings destroyed. The light-hearted section detailing Sally Bowles's friendship guides us into more serious pieces on poverty and charged relationships ending with Isherwood's exit from Berlin, as the Nazi's power grows too strong.
Isherwood's writing seems modern for its time and has a sense of amusing reality that reminded me of George Orwell's Down and Out In Paris In London. What struck me as his finest point was the way in which his characters just leap off the page into reality and seem bursting with life. This makes the ending seem even more poignant than it is as we leave many of these characters to face their fate.
This is a wonderful last glance back at the old Berlin that no longer exists.

Hello to old Berlin, 17 Aug 2000
This book is known as the original of "Cabaret"- which is why I bought it. And am I glad I did- don't expect the story as seen on stage or film, for here you will find several accounts of pre-war Berlin from various view points. The book is made up of several, smaller, novella's that are vaguely related while independent in themselves. Isherwood's strength lies in his ability to create characters that are believable (all, or at least most, were based on real persons that Isherwood had met), and to evoke the atmosphere of the Berlin of the 30's. His writing style is quite simple, yet says all that there is to say- which makes this book very easy to read. He manages to create the increasingly opressive atmosphere of pre-war Germany throughout the book; which grows into an observation of Germany's response to the growing threat of Nazism- which makes us feel as though we could possibly have been there. It is a fascinating account of the changes that took place, and it shows how people can be led astray to believe false truths etc. This has to be one of my favourite books of all time because of what it is- A study of various characters, A document of a changing Germany, An echo of a lifestyle now lost...Read and Enjoy- with crude fascination!

Gripping character studies by a great storyteller, 05 Dec 2000
I bought this book to give me a "feel" of Germany, and especially Berlin in the period before the Second World War. The reason - I'm to direct the musical "Cabaret" early in 2001. I found that Isherwood's simple style of storytelling with no pretentious nonsense is truely a pleasure to read. The stories are told from the point of view of an observer - even though he is involved in them - very dispasionately. The effect is gripping as the characters are so accurately drawn. Berlin before the war is evoked so well, you would think you had been there. Thoroughly recomended for those interested in the time or those who like good stories told well.

An Extraordinary Portrait Of Weimar Berlin!, 17 Mar 2005
"I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking," wrote Christopher Isherwood, at the beginning of "Goodbye to Berlin." "Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed." In the six portraits of Weimar Berlin that comprise "Goodbye To Berlin," Isherwood chronicles his life among the demimonde in this gloriously decadent capital city. He lived there, off and on, between 1929 and 1933. These marvelous stories are a fusion of fact and fiction. With each tale, and the passing of time, the sense of foreboding and the author's prophetic imagery intensifies, as Germany prepares to embrace Adolph Hitler.

Berlin was still a charming city of broad avenues, parks and cafés during this period. It was also a grotesque metropolis of night-people, visionaries, political fanatics - a place filled with intrigue, where vice and virtue were found in abundance - more of the former than the latter. 1930s Berlin was a powerful city of mobs and millionaires. And it was one huge salon, a center of European intellectual life where the arts and sciences flourished. This is the scene which provides a backdrop for Isherwood's stories.

The six "Goodbye To Berlin" stories form a relatively continuous narrative. In "A Berlin Diary - Autumn 1930," Isherwood introduces the reader to his landlady, the infamous Fraulein Schroeder, "Schroederschen," who calls him Herr Issyvoo. She is able to recite a history of her former lodgers by looking at the spots, stains and spillages left behind on her furniture, carpets and linens. Fellow flatmates include: Frl. Kost, a young woman, plump, blonde and pretty, who makes a living at the world's oldest profession - extremely upscale, of course; Bobby, who is a mixer at a west-end bar called the Troika, has adopted an English Christian name because they are all the rage; a commercial traveler, who is out most of the time, lives in the tiny attic which Frl. Schroeder refers to as the Swedish Pavilion; and Frl. Mayr, with her enormous arms, bull-dog jaw and coarse string-colored hair, is a music hall singer - the best in all of Germany, Schroeder assures with pride.

"Sally Bowles" certainly is divine decadence, and her antics make for a wonderful story. I had a difficult time keeping the image of Liza Minnelli singing "Cabaret" out of my mind, however. I must say though, after reading about Isherwood's Sally, I have to laud Ms. Minnelli on her performance. Her characterization is indeed recognizable in this Ms. Bowles.

"On Ruegen Island - Summer 1931" describes the author's holiday and the two characters he becomes involved with at a summer resort, Otto Nowak and Peter Wilkinson. Otto is a working class German youth, who uses his attractiveness to freeload off of men and women alike, rather than earn an honest wage. Peter Wilkinson, an Englishman living in Berlin, is extremely neurotic and very attached to Otto, although the two quarrel and bicker constantly.

"The Nowaks," Otto, (of Ruegen Island), and his immediate family, take Isherwood in as a lodger. As money becomes more difficult to come by and the effects of hyperinflation take their toll on Christopher's pocketbook, he has to economize and temporarily leaves Frl. Schroeder's relatively luxurious flat, for the slum-like, working-class projects of Wassertorstrasse.

In "The Landaurers," a wealthy Jewish family is aware of what is in store with the rise of Hitler's Nazism. Natalie befriends Isherwood, and through her so does her family. In this story the perils ahead are obvious and the Landaurers make preparations to leave Germany.

And in "A Berlin Diary - Winter - 1932-33," Isherwood bids farewell to Berlin. He will not return until 1952.

These are well written and important stories which paint a picture of a never-to-be-forgotten time. The language and content give a real sense of the period, and Christopher Isherwood's taut and descriptive narrative is superb. Highly recommended!
JANA

Stunning, Atmospheric, Prescient, 10 Mar 2003
`Goodbye to Berlin' is writing at its best: spare, unadorned, and sincere. Christopher Isherwood flies in the face of today's tendency towards florid, pretentious writing, which seems to favor five similies when none would have done. His evocation of pre-WWII Berlin through a series of interlinked stories, and the deft, subtly drawn characters - the famous Sally Bowles is just one - is unforgettable.

Perhaps it is the way Isherwood writes with a remarkable lack of ego - as his famous quote states, events are captured as objectively as a camera records light onto a photographic film. This does not mean he is impassive; quite the opposite. His desire is clearly to record a fragile time exactly as it was. Nobody knows the outcome of history until it happens, and the rise of the Nazi party as told here is all the more horrifying, as we experience it as the people themselves must have done - first a fringe party regarded as little more than a joke, then as rulers of the country, in a frighteningly short space of time.

Although it's small and perfectly formed, you'll never want it to end. Isherwood's original intention was to include these episodes in a much larger opus about Germany in the Weimar Republic, but there's something about the fragmented quality of the eventual book which is perfectly suited to its subject matter.

It takes pride of place in my library.

Amazing portrayal of a city soon to change, 29 Jan 2003
What is unique in this book is its lack of reference to Nazism. Only at the end do we really see politics enter the novel and feel Berlin's doom closing in. Almost everyone Isherwood comes across are not political- they just want to get on with life. As an exception to this there is a group of Communists her sets out to meet but they seem devoted to theory alone.
The sense of Berlin's eminent change builds up momentum throughout the novel- at the start it is difficult to imagine the city Isherwood is writing about is soon to lose a vast amount of its population to the camps, the army or the bombs and most of its buildings destroyed. The light-hearted section detailing Sally Bowles's friendship guides us into more serious pieces on poverty and charged relationships ending with Isherwood's exit from Berlin, as the Nazi's power grows too strong.
Isherwood's writing seems modern for its time and has a sense of amusing reality that reminded me of George Orwell's Down and Out In Paris In London. What struck me as his finest point was the way in which his characters just leap off the page into reality and seem bursting with life. This makes the ending seem even more poignant than it is as we leave many of these characters to face their fate.
This is a wonderful last glance back at the old Berlin that no longer exists.

Hello to old Berlin, 17 Aug 2000
This book is known as the original of "Cabaret"- which is why I bought it. And am I glad I did- don't expect the story as seen on stage or film, for here you will find several accounts of pre-war Berlin from various view points. The book is made up of several, smaller, novella's that are vaguely related while independent in themselves. Isherwood's strength lies in his ability to create characters that are believable (all, or at least most, were based on real persons that Isherwood had met), and to evoke the atmosphere of the Berlin of the 30's. His writing style is quite simple, yet says all that there is to say- which makes this book very easy to read. He manages to create the increasingly opressive atmosphere of pre-war Germany throughout the book; which grows into an observation of Germany's response to the growing threat of Nazism- which makes us feel as though we could possibly have been there. It is a fascinating account of the changes that took place, and it shows how people can be led astray to believe false truths etc. This has to be one of my favourite books of all time because of what it is- A study of various characters, A document of a changing Germany, An echo of a lifestyle now lost...Read and Enjoy- with crude fascination!

Gripping character studies by a great storyteller, 05 Dec 2000
I bought this book to give me a "feel" of Germany, and especially Berlin in the period before the Second World War. The reason - I'm to direct the musical "Cabaret" early in 2001. I found that Isherwood's simple style of storytelling with no pretentious nonsense is truely a pleasure to read. The stories are told from the point of view of an observer - even though he is involved in them - very dispasionately. The effect is gripping as the characters are so accurately drawn. Berlin before the war is evoked so well, you would think you had been there. Thoroughly recomended for those interested in the time or those who like good stories told well.

Entertaining, subtle, profound, 15 Jul 2006
First, the edition I have read is a Vintage Classics paperback dated 1999, not a talking book. Sally Bowles is not a character in this novel.
The book is set in pre-war Germany. The narrator, an Englishman, encounters the eponymous Mr Norris on a train and befriends him. What makes this novel so good is that Isherwood boldly takes a very important political theme, possibly the most important historical theme of the last century, but does not allow it to dominate the novel to the exclusion of the depiction of character. Quite the reverse, the characters, and especially Mr Norris, are exceptionally well realised. Perhaps one might make an exception of the narrator. Reference to this work in the critical literature indicate that Isherwood himself acknowledged that this was a problem. Nevertheless, this book is well worth reading. Its funny moments add to rather than detract from the underlying profound theme, and the style is excellent.

Charming, 15 Feb 2004
When William Bradshaw first meets Mr Norris on the train home, we are introduced to a character that makes us feel strangely protective and who is delightful and impossible to dislike. By the end of the novel though it is clear that Isherwood is truly representing through Mr Norris one of his ex boyfriends who he came to regard as a 'rogue laced with poison'. Such a character arc is an amazing feat and one that Isherwood handles well. The book is well written, easy to read and full of delights. The big reveal is a little predictable and the ending a little unblievable but despite that this is well worth a read and I would be interested to read more of Isherwood's work based on this book. Many authors must wish they were this good!

A Berlin Cabaret, 07 Jun 2003
Remembered, if at all, as the origin of the musical Cabaret; this book stays in my memory, not because of Mr Norris (he would be glad to hear), but because it brings to life the Berlin of the 1930's and it's peculiar innocence before the fall into Nazism. One gradually realises the characters innocence is presented by Mr Isherwood as a cause of the fall rather than the decadance we are usually enjoined to condemn. Not having been there at the time one cannot easily accept or reject such a conclusion, but it does give pause for thought.

A front row seat at Pre-Nazi Germany`s decline, 12 Oct 2000
As pre-Hitler German society heads towards disintergration through decadence and depraved indifference,the "Elite incrowd" shamlesslly ride on a merry-go-round of self-destrution. This book is a rare glimpse from behind the mirror at a nation wallowing in self-depravity and hedonistic behaviour only comparable to the "Fall of the Roman Empire". The main charactor Sally Bowles flits through life as an etheral butterfly who`s only problems in life are worring about the next party,-the next lover,-the next "goodtimes",whilst her rather nieve friend and confident Norris is more an "observer of life" than a "participant". In Isherwood`s subsequent novel "Goodby to Berlin" Sally Bowles was still a "flighty" character with self- serving "hustler" traits, whilst in "Mr Norris changes trains" one feels she has reached new depths of self-indulgence that can only lead to a state of life that calls for another way of living or ultimatly another way of dying! Judge for yourself,-but remember this was a society where at the end of the day relationships are as important as a suitcase full of Deutch marks-and tommorw may never come.

A Splendid Reading of a Unique Novel., 05 May 2000
On a very few occasions in one's life a personality is encountered who is by all rational measures is an out and out scoundrel, amoral, treacherous, mendacious, cowardly and - totally irresistible. It is a mystery why such persons should earn tolerance, and even regard, and why they should live on in one's memory and affection long after many more worthy characters one has known have faded into obscurity. It is Christopher Isherwood's genius, in this, his probably best novel, to describe such a character in such convincing detail that he lives on, years after first reading, as a personality more real than many actual persons of one's acquaintance. Little good can be said about Arthur Norris - other than that he is an engaging companion - and the reader is never in any doubt about his total unreliability, but it is impossible not to like him as he weaves his pathetically futile schemes of cunning and treachery against the backdrop of the last days of Weimar Germany. With a minimum of detail, but with that minimum telling, Isherwood fixes the time and locale with sharp accuracy and brings it further to life with a bizarre but credible cast of supporting characters. The balance between comedy and tragedy, farce and outright horror, is splendidly managed. This talking book version is all but perfect. Alan Cumming is an ideal reader and adopts a wide range of voices and accents throughout. His use of pauses and of changes of tone and emphasis is masterly. Arthur Norris's fruity tone are horribly enjoyable while the dreadful Kuno (to hear him ask if the narrator has read "Vinnie the Pooh" is enough to make the flesh crawl) becomes an almost palpable presence. In summary - one of the best Talking Books I've encountered. It's the only one you'll need on a long car journey since you'll listen to it over and over.

An Extraordinary Portrait Of Weimar Berlin!, 17 Mar 2005
"I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking," wrote Christopher Isherwood, at the beginning of "Goodbye to Berlin." "Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed." In the six portraits of Weimar Berlin that comprise "Goodbye To Berlin," Isherwood chronicles his life among the demimonde in this gloriously decadent capital city. He lived there, off and on, between 1929 and 1933. These marvelous stories are a fusion of fact and fiction. With each tale, and the passing of time, the sense of foreboding and the author's prophetic imagery intensifies, as Germany prepares to embrace Adolph Hitler.

Berlin was still a charming city of broad avenues, parks and cafés during this period. It was also a grotesque metropolis of night-people, visionaries, political fanatics - a place filled with intrigue, where vice and virtue were found in abundance - more of the former than the latter. 1930s Berlin was a powerful city of mobs and millionaires. And it was one huge salon, a center of European intellectual life where the arts and sciences flourished. This is the scene which provides a backdrop for Isherwood's stories.

The six "Goodbye To Berlin" stories form a relatively continuous narrative. In "A Berlin Diary - Autumn 1930," Isherwood introduces the reader to his landlady, the infamous Fraulein Schroeder, "Schroederschen," who calls him Herr Issyvoo. She is able to recite a history of her former lodgers by looking at the spots, stains and spillages left behind on her furniture, carpets and linens. Fellow flatmates include: Frl. Kost, a young woman, plump, blonde and pretty, who makes a living at the world's oldest profession - extremely upscale, of course; Bobby, who is a mixer at a west-end bar called the Troika, has adopted an English Christian name because they are all the rage; a commercial traveler, who is out most of the time, lives in the tiny attic which Frl. Schroeder refers to as the Swedish Pavilion; and Frl. Mayr, with her enormous arms, bull-dog jaw and coarse string-colored hair, is a music hall singer - the best in all of Germany, Schroeder assures with pride.

"Sally Bowles" certainly is divine decadence, and her antics make for a wonderful story. I had a difficult time keeping the image of Liza Minnelli singing "Cabaret" out of my mind, however. I must say though, after reading about Isherwood's Sally, I have to laud Ms. Minnelli on her performance. Her characterization is indeed recognizable in this Ms. Bowles.

"On Ruegen Island - Summer 1931" describes the author's holiday and the two characters he becomes involved with at a summer resort, Otto Nowak and Peter Wilkinson. Otto is a working class German youth, who uses his attractiveness to freeload off of men and women alike, rather than earn an honest wage. Peter Wilkinson, an Englishman living in Berlin, is extremely neurotic and very attached to Otto, although the two quarrel and bicker constantly.

"The Nowaks," Otto, (of Ruegen Island), and his immediate family, take Isherwood in as a lodger. As money becomes more difficult to come by and the effects of hyperinflation take their toll on Christopher's pocketbook, he has to economize and temporarily leaves Frl. Schroeder's relatively luxurious flat, for the slum-like, working-class projects of Wassertorstrasse.

In "The Landaurers," a wealthy Jewish family is aware of what is in store with the rise of Hitler's Nazism. Natalie befriends Isherwood, and through her so does her family. In this story the perils ahead are obvious and the Landaurers make preparations to leave Germany.

And in "A Berlin Diary - Winter - 1932-33," Isherwood bids farewell to Berlin. He will not return until 1952.

These are well written and important stories which paint a picture of a never-to-be-forgotten time. The language and content give a real sense of the period, and Christopher Isherwood's taut and descriptive narrative is superb. Highly recommended!
JANA

Stunning, Atmospheric, Prescient, 10 Mar 2003
`Goodbye to Berlin' is writing at its best: spare, unadorned, and sincere. Christopher Isherwood flies in the face of today's tendency towards florid, pretentious writing, which seems to favor five similies when none would have done. His evocation of pre-WWII Berlin through a series of interlinked stories, and the deft, subtly drawn characters - the famous Sally Bowles is just one - is unforgettable.

Perhaps it is the way Isherwood writes with a remarkable lack of ego - as his famous quote states, events are captured as objectively as a camera records light onto a photographic film. This does not mean he is impassive; quite the opposite. His desire is clearly to record a fragile time exactly as it was. Nobody knows the outcome of history until it happens, and the rise of the Nazi party as told here is all the more horrifying, as we experience it as the people themselves must have done - first a fringe party regarded as little more than a joke, then as rulers of the country, in a frighteningly short space of time.

Although it's small and perfectly formed, you'll never want it to end. Isherwood's original intention was to include these episodes in a much larger opus about Germany in the Weimar Republic, but there's something about the fragmented quality of the eventual book which is perfectly suited to its subject matter.

It takes pride of place in my library.

Amazing portrayal of a city soon to change, 29 Jan 2003
What is unique in this book is its lack of reference to Nazism. Only at the end do we really see politics enter the novel and feel Berlin's doom closing in. Almost everyone Isherwood comes across are not political- they just want to get on with life. As an exception to this there is a group of Communists her sets out to meet but they seem devoted to theory alone.
The sense of Berlin's eminent change builds up momentum throughout the novel- at the start it is difficult to imagine the city Isherwood is writing about is soon to lose a vast amount of its population to the camps, the army or the bombs and most of its buildings destroyed. The light-hearted section detailing Sally Bowles's friendship guides us into more serious pieces on poverty and charged relationships ending with Isherwood's exit from Berlin, as the Nazi's power grows too strong.
Isherwood's writing seems modern for its time and has a sense of amusing reality that reminded me of George Orwell's Down and Out In Paris In London. What struck me as his finest point was the way in which his characters just leap off the page into reality and seem bursting with life. This makes the ending seem even more poignant than it is as we leave many of these characters to face their fate.
This is a wonderful last glance back at the old Berlin that no longer exists.

Hello to old Berlin, 17 Aug 2000
This book is known as the original of "Cabaret"- which is why I bought it. And am I glad I did- don't expect the story as seen on stage or film, for here you will find several accounts of pre-war Berlin from various view points. The book is made up of several, smaller, novella's that are vaguely related while independent in themselves. Isherwood's strength lies in his ability to create characters that are believable (all, or at least most, were based on real persons that Isherwood had met), and to evoke the atmosphere of the Berlin of the 30's. His writing style is quite simple, yet says all that there is to say- which makes this book very easy to read. He manages to create the increasingly opressive atmosphere of pre-war Germany throughout the book; which grows into an observation of Germany's response to the growing threat of Nazism- which makes us feel as though we could possibly have been there. It is a fascinating account of the changes that took place, and it shows how people can be led astray to believe false truths etc. This has to be one of my favourite books of all time because of what it is- A study of various characters, A document of a changing Germany, An echo of a lifestyle now lost...Read and Enjoy- with crude fascination!

Gripping character studies by a great storyteller, 05 Dec 2000
I bought this book to give me a "feel" of Germany, and especially Berlin in the period before the Second World War. The reason - I'm to direct the musical "Cabaret" early in 2001. I found that Isherwood's simple style of storytelling with no pretentious nonsense is truely a pleasure to read. The stories are told from the point of view of an observer - even though he is involved in them - very dispasionately. The effect is gripping as the characters are so accurately drawn. Berlin before the war is evoked so well, you would think you had been there. Thoroughly recomended for those interested in the time or those who like good stories told well.

Entertaining, subtle, profound, 15 Jul 2006
First, the edition I have read is a Vintage Classics paperback dated 1999, not a talking book. Sally Bowles is not a character in this novel.
The book is set in pre-war Germany. The narrator, an Englishman, encounters the eponymous Mr Norris on a train and befriends him. What makes this novel so good is that Isherwood boldly takes a very important political theme, possibly the most important historical theme of the last century, but does not allow it to dominate the novel to the exclusion of the depiction of character. Quite the reverse, the characters, and especially Mr Norris, are exceptionally well realised. Perhaps one might make an exception of the narrator. Reference to this work in the critical literature indicate that Isherwood himself acknowledged that this was a problem. Nevertheless, this book is well worth reading. Its funny moments add to rather than detract from the underlying profound theme, and the style is excellent.

Charming, 15 Feb 2004
When William Bradshaw first meets Mr Norris on the train home, we are introduced to a character that makes us feel strangely protective and who is delightful and impossible to dislike. By the end of the novel though it is clear that Isherwood is truly representing through Mr Norris one of his ex boyfriends who he came to regard as a 'rogue laced with poison'. Such a character arc is an amazing feat and one that Isherwood handles well. The book is well written, easy to read and full of delights. The big reveal is a little predictable and the ending a little unblievable but despite that this is well worth a read and I would be interested to read more of Isherwood's work based on this book. Many authors must wish they were this good!

A Berlin Cabaret, 07 Jun 2003
Remembered, if at all, as the origin of the musical Cabaret; this book stays in my memory, not because of Mr Norris (he would be glad to hear), but because it brings to life the Berlin of the 1930's and it's peculiar innocence before the fall into Nazism. One gradually realises the characters innocence is presented by Mr Isherwood as a cause of the fall rather than the decadance we are usually enjoined to condemn. Not having been there at the time one cannot easily accept or reject such a conclusion, but it does give pause for thought.

A front row seat at Pre-Nazi Germany`s decline, 12 Oct 2000
As pre-Hitler German society heads towards disintergration through decadence and depraved indifference,the "Elite incrowd" shamlesslly ride on a merry-go-round of self-destrution. This book is a rare glimpse from behind the mirror at a nation wallowing in self-depravity and hedonistic behaviour only comparable to the "Fall of the Roman Empire". The main charactor Sally Bowles flits through life as an etheral butterfly who`s only problems in life are worring about the next party,-the next lover,-the next "goodtimes",whilst her rather nieve friend and confident Norris is more an "observer of life" than a "participant". In Isherwood`s subsequent novel "Goodby to Berlin" Sally Bowles was still a "flighty" character with self- serving "hustler" traits, whilst in "Mr Norris changes trains" one feels she has reached new depths of self-indulgence that can only lead to a state of life that calls for another way of living or ultimatly another way of dying! Judge for yourself,-but remember this was a society where at the end of the day relationships are as important as a suitcase full of Deutch marks-and tommorw may never come.

A Splendid Reading of a Unique Novel., 05 May 2000
On a very few occasions in one's life a personality is encountered who is by all rational measures is an out and out scoundrel, amoral, treacherous, mendacious, cowardly and - totally irresistible. It is a mystery why such persons should earn tolerance, and even regard, and why they should live on in one's memory and affection long after many more worthy characters one has known have faded into obscurity. It is Christopher Isherwood's genius, in this, his probably best novel, to describe such a character in such convincing detail that he lives on, years after first reading, as a personality more real than many actual persons of one's acquaintance. Little good can be said about Arthur Norris - other than that he is an engaging companion - and the reader is never in any doubt about his total unreliability, but it is impossible not to like him as he weaves his pathetically futile schemes of cunning and treachery against the backdrop of the last days of Weimar Germany. With a minimum of detail, but with that minimum telling, Isherwood fixes the time and locale with sharp accuracy and brings it further to life with a bizarre but credible cast of supporting characters. The balance between comedy and tragedy, farce and outright horror, is splendidly managed. This talking book version is all but perfect. Alan Cumming is an ideal reader and adopts a wide range of voices and accents throughout. His use of pauses and of changes of tone and emphasis is masterly. Arthur Norris's fruity tone are horribly enjoyable while the dreadful Kuno (to hear him ask if the narrator has read "Vinnie the Pooh" is enough to make the flesh crawl) becomes an almost palpable presence. In summary - one of the best Talking Books I've encountered. It's the only one you'll need on a long car journey since you'll listen to it over and over.

Essential, 07 Aug 2008
When I told a friend about this book, I said "it's very well written" and she said "Well, der! Isherwood!" and I laughed. But then I've only read Goodbye to Berlin and I was very young then, and didn't know good from bad.

It's possibly one of the most perfect little books I've read, absorbing from the first page and written in such a way that it feels like first person but it's actually written in third, astoundingly clever to my eyes. You get as easily into George's head as if it were first person.

Set over 24 hours, it simply covers his thought processes as he moves through the day and you learn a lot about him and the world in which he lives. From the first section he touches your heart as - as anyone who has suffered bereavement will understand - he wakes up and remembers again that his lover is dead. But he's not pessimistic about his outlook - he doesn't like the way that conservatism is encroaching upon the once bohemian area where he lives - once where there was artists and poets and easy sexual values, families are moving in, with more straight-laced ideals, but in juxtaposition to this, he loves youth.

He teaches at the University and the scenes with the Gidget-era youth are rather sweet and truly give a window into a lost American world. He does watch the athletes for his own enjoyment which was a nice touch.

I loved his optimism, despite how much he missed Jim, and the way that he finds the light and the dark in his life. He interacts with many people throughout the day, he's not at all an isolated person, but I was left feeling that he was spinning on the spot, lonely despite all the people who know and care from him. Without the one intimate friend he needed.

And really - that's about it apart from(spoilers below) He's a truly likeable guy, and towards the end of the book he's feeling optimistic about life. He had a lovely drunken evening first with a neighbour and then with a student friend, skinny dipping and a lot of drink. It's difficult to tell whether anything happened, but I don't think it did. He goes to bed at the end of his 24 hours feeling that it was time that he moved on with his life and that he was ready to look for love again. What would have been far more realistic and upbeat would have been if Isherwood had left it there. It would have been lovely to think that's what George does next. But - whether for literary merit - or for the tradition that - in books of this period - all gay guys MUST die at the end - he doesn't. And it was the ending that spoiled it for me and made me want to throw the book across the room, and made it lose a five star ranking.

brilliant but flawed, 28 Jul 2008
When I told a friend about this book, I said "it's very well written" and she said "Well, der! Isherwood!" and I laughed. But then I've only read Goodbye to Berlin and I was very young then, and didn't know good from bad.

It's possibly one of the most perfect little books I've read, absorbing from the first page and written in such a way that it feels like first person but it's actually written in third, astoundingly clever to my eyes. You get as easily into George's head as if it were first person.

Set over 24 hours, it simply covers his thought processes as he moves through the day and you learn a lot about him and the world in which he lives. From the first section he touches your heart as - as anyone who has suffered bereavement will understand - he wakes up and remembers again that his lover is dead. But he's not pessimistic about his outlook - he doesn't like the way that conservatism is encroaching upon the once bohemian area where he lives - once where there was artists and poets and easy sexual values, families are moving in, with more straight-laced ideals, but in juxtoposition to this, he loves youth.

He teaches at the University and the scenes with the Gidget-era youth are rather sweet and truly give a window into a lost American world. He does watch the athletes for his own enjoyment which was a nice touch.

I loved his optimism, despite how much he missed Jim, and the way that he finds the light and the dark in his life. He interacts with many people throughout the day, he's not at all an isolated person, but I was left feeling that he was spinning on the spot, lonely despite all the people who know and care from him. Without the one intimate friend he needed.

And really - that's about it apart from(spoilers below) He's a truly likeable guy, and towards the end of the book he's feeling optimistic about life. He had a lovely drunken evening first with a neighbour and then with a student friend, skinny dipping and a lot of drink. It's difficult to tell whether anything happened, but I don't think it did. He goes to bed at the end of his 24 hours feeling that it was time that he moved on with his life and that he was ready to look for love again. What would have been far more realistic and upbeat would have been if Isherwood had left it there. It would have been lovely to think that's what George does next. But - whether for literary merit - or for the tradition that - in books of this period - all gay guys MUST die at the end - he doesn't. And it was the ending that spoiled it for me and made me want to throw the book across the room, and made it lose a five star ranking.

Brilliant, 15 Nov 2007
This is Isherwood's finest piece of writing. Chanced upon it in a library, having heard about his Berlin novels and decided to give "Single Man" a go.

Isherwood's brilliance is his attention to detail, bringing to the reader's attention the world with an almost visceral quality, whilst retaining a resounding subtlety that makes this book really stand out. It is truly outstanding and a book for those who know about books.

Easily read in one sitting it is a book you can return to every now and again without feeling like you could be doing something better with your time.

The story revolves around an old man, lecturer at an LA university and a stranger to his neighbours. The people he meets during his routine are cause for much of the story's development, addressing key themes in the process.

This is my favourite book. It is well worth a read. If at all interested in North American literature (J.D. Salinger, Sylvia Plath, Douglas Coupland to name a few) and its concern with lonliness and the search for meaning and identity then this will be a book for you.

Stunning! undervalued masterpiece from an undervalued author, 07 Nov 2001
Isherwood's writing had as many ups and downs as a rollercoaster, which he would have been the first to admit, but this is (I think) the rose amongst the thorns that were his 'middle' books - a sensitive, heart warming and tender depiction of the life of a middle aged, gay male in mid-century America. This was the first of his books I read, and lead me to read all the others.

An Extraordinary Portrait Of Weimar Berlin!, 17 Mar 2005
"I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking," wrote Christopher Isherwood, at the beginning of "Goodbye to Berlin." "Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed." In the six portraits of Weimar Berlin that comprise "Goodbye To Berlin," Isherwood chronicles his life among the demimonde in this gloriously decadent capital city. He lived there, off and on, between 1929 and 1933. These marvelous stories are a fusion of fact and fiction. With each tale, and the passing of time, the sense of foreboding and the author's prophetic imagery intensifies, as Germany prepares to embrace Adolph Hitler.

Berlin was still a charming city of broad avenues, parks and cafés during this period. It was also a grotesque metropolis of night-people, visionaries, political fanatics - a place filled with intrigue, where vice and virtue were found in abundance - more of the former than the latter. 1930s Berlin was a powerful city of mobs and millionaires. And it was one huge salon, a center of European intellectual life where the arts and sciences flourished. This is the scene which provides a backdrop for Isherwood's stories.

The six "Goodbye To Berlin" stories form a relatively continuous narrative. In "A Berlin Diary - Autumn 1930," Isherwood introduces the reader to his landlady, the infamous Fraulein Schroeder, "Schroederschen," who calls him Herr Issyvoo. She is able to recite a history of her former lodgers by looking at the spots, stains and spillages left behind on her furniture, carpets and linens. Fellow flatmates include: Frl. Kost, a young woman, plump, blonde and pretty, who makes a living at the world's oldest profession - extremely upscale, of course; Bobby, who is a mixer at a west-end bar called the Troika, has adopted an English Christian name because they are all the rage; a commercial traveler, who is out most of the time, lives in the tiny attic which Frl. Schroeder refers to as the Swedish Pavilion; and Frl. Mayr, with her enormous arms, bull-dog jaw and coarse string-colored hair, is a music hall singer - the best in all of Germany, Schroeder assures with pride.

"Sally Bowles" certainly is divine decadence, and her antics make for a wonderful story. I had a difficult time keeping the image of Liza Minnelli singing "Cabaret" out of my mind, however. I must say though, after reading about Isherwood's Sally, I have to laud Ms. Minnelli on her performance. Her characterization is indeed recognizable in this Ms. Bowles.

"On Ruegen Island - Summer 1931" describes the author's holiday and the two characters he becomes involved with at a summer resort, Otto Nowak and Peter Wilkinson. Otto is a working class German youth, who uses his attractiveness to freeload off of men and women alike, rather than earn an honest wage. Peter Wilkinson, an Englishman living in Berlin, is extremely neurotic and very attached to Otto, although the two quarrel and bicker constantly.

"The Nowaks," Otto, (of Ruegen Island), and his immediate family, take Isherwood in as a lodger. As money becomes more difficult to come by and the effects of hyperinflation take their toll on Christopher's pocketbook, he has to economize and temporarily leaves Frl. Schroeder's relatively luxurious flat, for the slum-like, working-class projects of Wassertorstrasse.

In "The Landaurers," a wealthy Jewish family is aware of what is in store with the rise of Hitler's Nazism. Natalie befriends Isherwood, and through her so does her family. In this story the perils ahead are obvious and the Landaurers make preparations to leave Germany.

And in "A Berlin Diary - Winter - 1932-33," Isherwood bids farewell to Berlin. He will not return until 1952.

These are well written and important stories which paint a picture of a never-to-be-forgotten time. The language and content give a real sense of the period, and Christopher Isherwood's taut and descriptive narrative is superb. Highly recommended!
JANA

Stunning, Atmospheric, Prescient, 10 Mar 2003
`Goodbye to Berlin' is writing at its best: spare, unadorned, and sincere. Christopher Isherwood flies in the face of today's tendency towards florid, pretentious writing, which seems to favor five similies when none would have done. His evocation of pre-WWII Berlin through a series of interlinked stories, and the deft, subtly drawn characters - the famous Sally Bowles is just one - is unforgettable.

Perhaps it is the way Isherwood writes with a remarkable lack of ego - as his famous quote states, events are captured as objectively as a camera records light onto a photographic film. This does not mean he is impassive; quite the opposite. His desire is clearly to record a fragile time exactly as it was. Nobody knows the outcome of history until it happens, and the rise of the Nazi party as told here is all the more horrifying, as we experience it as the people themselves must have done - first a fringe party regarded as little more than a joke, then as rulers of the country, in a frighteningly short space of time.

Although it's small and perfectly formed, you'll never want it to end. Isherwood's original intention was to include these episodes in a much larger opus about Germany in the Weimar Republic, but there's something about the fragmented quality of the eventual book which is perfectly suited to its subject matter.

It takes pride of place in my library.

Amazing portrayal of a city soon to change, 29 Jan 2003
What is unique in this book is its lack of reference to Nazism. Only at the end do we really see politics enter the novel and feel Berlin's doom closing in. Almost everyone Isherwood comes across are not political- they just want to get on with life. As an exception to this there is a group of Communists her sets out to meet but they seem devoted to theory alone.
The sense of Berlin's eminent change builds up momentum throughout the novel- at the start it is difficult to imagine the city Isherwood is writing about is soon to lose a vast amount of its population to the camps, the army or the bombs and most of its buildings destroyed. The light-hearted section detailing Sally Bowles's friendship guides us into more serious pieces on poverty and charged relationships ending with Isherwood's exit from Berlin, as the Nazi's power grows too strong.
Isherwood's writing seems modern for its time and has a sense of amusing reality that reminded me of George Orwell's Down and Out In Paris In London. What struck me as his finest point was the way in which his characters just leap off the page into reality and seem bursting with life. This makes the ending seem even more poignant than it is as we leave many of these characters to face their fate.
This is a wonderful last glance back at the old Berlin that no longer exists.

Hello to old Berlin, 17 Aug 2000
This book is known as the original of "Cabaret"- which is why I bought it. And am I glad I did- don't expect the story as seen on stage or film, for here you will find several accounts of pre-war Berlin from various view points. The book is made up of several, smaller, novella's that are vaguely related while independent in themselves. Isherwood's strength lies in his ability to create characters that are believable (all, or at least most, were based on real persons that Isherwood had met), and to evoke the atmosphere of the Berlin of the 30's. His writing style is quite simple, yet says all that there is to say- which makes this book very easy to read. He manages to create the increasingly opressive atmosphere of pre-war Germany throughout the book; which grows into an observation of Germany's response to the growing threat of Nazism- which makes us feel as though we could possibly have been there. It is a fascinating account of the changes that took place, and it shows how people can be led astray to believe false truths etc. This has to be one of my favourite books of all time because of what it is- A study of various characters, A document of a changing Germany, An echo of a lifestyle now lost...Read and Enjoy- with crude fascination!

Gripping character studies by a great storyteller, 05 Dec 2000
I bought this book to give me a "feel" of Germany, and especially Berlin in the period before the Second World War. The reason - I'm to direct the musical "Cabaret" early in 2001. I found that Isherwood's simple style of storytelling with no pretentious nonsense is truely a pleasure to read. The stories are told from the point of view of an observer - even though he is involved in them - very dispasionately. The effect is gripping as the characters are so accurately drawn. Berlin before the war is evoked so well, you would think you had been there. Thoroughly recomended for those interested in the time or those who like good stories told well.

Entertaining, subtle, profound, 15 Jul 2006
First, the edition I have read is a Vintage Classics paperback dated 1999, not a talking book. Sally Bowles is not a character in this novel.
The book is set in pre-war Germany. The narrator, an Englishman, encounters the eponymous Mr Norris on a train and befriends him. What makes this novel so good is that Isherwood boldly takes a very important political theme, possibly the most important historical theme of the last century, but does not allow it to dominate the novel to the exclusion of the depiction of character. Quite the reverse, the characters, and especially Mr Norris, are exceptionally well realised. Perhaps one might make an exception of the narrator. Reference to this work in the critical literature indicate that Isherwood himself acknowledged that this was a problem. Nevertheless, this book is well worth reading. Its funny moments add to rather than detract from the underlying profound theme, and the style is excellent.

Charming, 15 Feb 2004
When William Bradshaw first meets Mr Norris on the train home, we are introduced to a character that makes us feel strangely protective and who is delightful and impossible to dislike. By the end of the novel though it is clear that Isherwood is truly representing through Mr Norris one of his ex boyfriends who he came to regard as a 'rogue laced with poison'. Such a character arc is an amazing feat and one that Isherwood handles well. The book is well written, easy to read and full of delights. The big reveal is a little predictable and the ending a little unblievable but despite that this is well worth a read and I would be interested to read more of Isherwood's work based on this book. Many authors must wish they were this good!

A Berlin Cabaret, 07 Jun 2003
Remembered, if at all, as the origin of the musical Cabaret; this book stays in my memory, not because of Mr Norris (he would be glad to hear), but because it brings to life the Berlin of the 1930's and it's peculiar innocence before the fall into Nazism. One gradually realises the characters innocence is presented by Mr Isherwood as a cause of the fall rather than the decadance we are usually enjoined to condemn. Not having been there at the time one cannot easily accept or reject such a conclusion, but it does give pause for thought.

A front row seat at Pre-Nazi Germany`s decline, 12 Oct 2000
As pre-Hitler German society heads towards disintergration through decadence and depraved indifference,the "Elite incrowd" shamlesslly ride on a merry-go-round of self-destrution. This book is a rare glimpse from behind the mirror at a nation wallowing in self-depravity and hedonistic behaviour only comparable to the "Fall of the Roman Empire". The main charactor Sally Bowles flits through life as an etheral butterfly who`s only problems in life are worring about the next party,-the next lover,-the next "goodtimes",whilst her rather nieve friend and confident Norris is more an "observer of life" than a "participant". In Isherwood`s subsequent novel "Goodby to Berlin" Sally Bowles was still a "flighty" character with self- serving "hustler" traits, whilst in "Mr Norris changes trains" one feels she has reached new depths of self-indulgence that can only lead to a state of life that calls for another way of living or ultimatly another way of dying! Judge for yourself,-but remember this was a society where at the end of the day relationships are as important as a suitcase full of Deutch marks-and tommorw may never come.

A Splendid Reading of a Unique Novel., 05 May 2000
On a very few occasions in one's life a personality is encountered who is by all rational measures is an out and out scoundrel, amoral, treacherous, mendacious, cowardly and - totally irresistible. It is a mystery why such persons should earn tolerance, and even regard, and why they should live on in one's memory and affection long after many more worthy characters one has known have faded into obscurity. It is Christopher Isherwood's genius, in this, his probably best novel, to describe such a character in such convincing detail that he lives on, years after first reading, as a personality more real than many actual persons of one's acquaintance. Little good can be said about Arthur Norris - other than that he is an engaging companion - and the reader is never in any doubt about his total unreliability, but it is impossible not to like him as he weaves his pathetically futile schemes of cunning and treachery against the backdrop of the last days of Weimar Germany. With a minimum of detail, but with that minimum telling, Isherwood fixes the time and locale with sharp accuracy and brings it further to life with a bizarre but credible cast of supporting characters. The balance between comedy and tragedy, farce and outright horror, is splendidly managed. This talking book version is all but perfect. Alan Cumming is an ideal reader and adopts a wide range of voices and accents throughout. His use of pauses and of changes of tone and emphasis is masterly. Arthur Norris's fruity tone are horribly enjoyable while the dreadful Kuno (to hear him ask if the narrator has read "Vinnie the Pooh" is enough to make the flesh crawl) becomes an almost palpable presence. In summary - one of the best Talking Books I've encountered. It's the only one you'll need on a long car journey since you'll listen to it over and over.

Essential, 07 Aug 2008
When I told a friend about this book, I said "it's very well written" and she said "Well, der! Isherwood!" and I laughed. But then I've only read Goodbye to Berlin and I was very young then, and didn't know good from bad.

It's possibly one of the most perfect little books I've read, absorbing from the first page and written in such a way that it feels like first person but it's actually written in third, astoundingly clever to my eyes. You get as easily into George's head as if it were first person.

Set over 24 hours, it simply covers his thought processes as he moves through the day and you learn a lot about him and the world in which he lives. From the first section he touches your heart as - as anyone who has suffered bereavement will understand - he wakes up and remembers again that his lover is dead. But he's not pessimistic about his outlook - he doesn't like the way that conservatism is encroaching upon the once bohemian area where he lives - once where there was artists and poets and easy sexual values, families are moving in, with more straight-laced ideals, but in juxtaposition to this, he loves youth.

He teaches at the University and the scenes with the Gidget-era youth are rather sweet and truly give a window into a lost American world. He does watch the athletes for his own enjoyment which was a nice touch.

I loved his optimism, despite how much he missed Jim, and the way that he finds the light and the dark in his life. He interacts with many people throughout the day, he's not at all an isolated person, but I was left feeling that he was spinning on the spot, lonely despite all the people who know and care from him. Without the one intimate friend he needed.

And really - that's about it apart from(spoilers below) He's a truly likeable guy, and towards the end of the book he's feeling optimistic about life. He had a lovely drunken evening first with a neighbour and then with a student friend, skinny dipping and a lot of drink. It's difficult to tell whether anything happened, but I don't think it did. He goes to bed at the end of his 24 hours feeling that it was time that he moved on with his life and that he was ready to look for love again. What would have been far more realistic and upbeat would have been if Isherwood had left it there. It would have been lovely to think that's what George does next. But - whether for literary merit - or for the tradition that - in books of this period - all gay guys MUST die at the end - he doesn't. And it was the ending that spoiled it for me and made me want to throw the book across the room, and made it lose a five star ranking.

brilliant but flawed, 28 Jul 2008
When I told a friend about this book, I said "it's very well written" and she said "Well, der! Isherwood!" and I laughed. But then I've only read Goodbye to Berlin and I was very young then, and didn't know good from bad.

It's possibly one of the most perfect little books I've read, absorbing from the first page and written in such a way that it feels like first person but it's actually written in third, astoundingly clever to my eyes. You get as easily into George's head as if it were first person.

Set over 24 hours, it simply covers his thought processes as he moves through the day and you learn a lot about him and the world in which he lives. From the first section he touches your heart as - as anyone who has suffered bereavement will understand - he wakes up and remembers again that his lover is dead. But he's not pessimistic about his outlook - he doesn't like the way that conservatism is encroaching upon the once bohemian area where he lives - once where there was artists and poets and easy sexual values, families are moving in, with more straight-laced ideals, but in juxtoposition to this, he loves youth.

He teaches at the University and the scenes with the Gidget-era youth are rather sweet and truly give a window into a lost American world. He does watch the athletes for his own enjoyment which was a nice touch.

I loved his optimism, despite how much he missed Jim, and the way that he finds the light and the dark in his life. He interacts with many people throughout the day, he's not at all an isolated person, but I was left feeling that he was spinning on the spot, lonely despite all the people who know and care from him. Without the one intimate friend he needed.

And really - that's about it apart from(spoilers below) He's a truly likeable guy, and towards the end of the book he's feeling optimistic about life. He had a lovely drunken evening first with a neighbour and then with a student friend, skinny dipping and a lot of drink. It's difficult to tell whether anything happened, but I don't think it did. He goes to bed at the end of his 24 hours feeling that it was time that he moved on with his life and that he was ready to look for love again. What would have been far more realistic and upbeat would have been if Isherwood had left it there. It would have been lovely to think that's what George does next. But - whether for literary merit - or for the tradition that - in books of this period - all gay guys MUST die at the end - he doesn't. And it was the ending that spoiled it for me and made me want to throw the book across the room, and made it lose a five star ranking.

Brilliant, 15 Nov 2007
This is Isherwood's finest piece of writing. Chanced upon it in a library, having heard about his Berlin novels and decided to give "Single Man" a go.

Isherwood's brilliance is his attention to detail, bringing to the reader's attention the world with an almost visceral quality, whilst retaining a resounding subtlety that makes this book really stand out. It is truly outstanding and a book for those who know about books.

Easily read in one sitting it is a book you can return to every now and again without feeling like you could be doing something better with your time.

The story revolves around an old man, lecturer at an LA university and a stranger to his neighbours. The people he meets during his routine are cause for much of the story's development, addressing key themes in the process.

This is my favourite book. It is well worth a read. If at all interested in North American literature (J.D. Salinger, Sylvia Plath, Douglas Coupland to name a few) and its concern with lonliness and the search for meaning and identity then this will be a book for you.

Stunning! undervalued masterpiece from an undervalued author, 07 Nov 2001
Isherwood's writing had as many ups and downs as a rollercoaster, which he would have been the first to admit, but this is (I think) the rose amongst the thorns that were his 'middle' books - a sensitive, heart warming and tender depiction of the life of a middle aged, gay male in mid-century America. This was the first of his books I read, and lead me to read all the others.

Fantastic, a real insight into an author's mind., 27 Feb 2002
Having read Christopher Isherwood's 'Berlin Stories'I was intrigued to read more and 'Christopher and his kind' surpassed what I could have hoped for. This honest and open book lets the reader meet the real characters of many of Isherwood's novels, including, I think, the real Christopher Isherwood. A must for anyone who has read any of his books and was left wondering who are these people? A fantastic book, must be read. (All Auden fans will also find a different Auden than perhaps expecting, worth a read just for that!)

An Extraordinary Portrait Of Weimar Berlin!, 17 Mar 2005
"I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking," wrote Christopher Isherwood, at the beginning of "Goodbye to Berlin." "Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed." In the six portraits of Weimar Berlin that comprise "Goodbye To Berlin," Isherwood chronicles his life among the demimonde in this gloriously decadent capital city. He lived there, off and on, between 1929 and 1933. These marvelous stories are a fusion of fact and fiction. With each tale, and the passing of time, the sense of foreboding and the author's prophetic imagery intensifies, as Germany prepares to embrace Adolph Hitler.

Berlin was still a charming city of broad avenues, parks and cafés during this period. It was also a grotesque metropolis of night-people, visionaries, political fanatics - a place filled with intrigue, where vice and virtue were found in abundance - more of the former than the latter. 1930s Berlin was a powerful city of mobs and millionaires. And it was one huge salon, a center of European intellectual life where the arts and sciences flourished. This is the scene which provides a backdrop for Isherwood's stories.

The six "Goodbye To Berlin" stories form a relatively continuous narrative. In "A Berlin Diary - Autumn 1930," Isherwood introduces the reader to his landlady, the infamous Fraulein Schroeder, "Schroederschen," who calls him Herr Issyvoo. She is able to recite a history of her former lodgers by looking at the spots, stains and spillages left behind on her furniture, carpets and linens. Fellow flatmates include: Frl. Kost, a young woman, plump, blonde and pretty, who makes a living at the world's oldest profession - extremely upscale, of course; Bobby, who is a mixer at a west-end bar called the Troika, has adopted an English Christian name because they are all the rage; a commercial traveler, who is out most of the time, lives in the tiny attic which Frl. Schroeder refers to as the Swedish Pavilion; and Frl. Mayr, with her enormous arms, bull-dog jaw and coarse string-colored hair, is a music hall singer - the best in all of Germany, Schroeder assures with pride.

"Sally Bowles" certainly is divine decadence, and her antics make for a wonderful story. I had a difficult time keeping the image of Liza Minnelli singing "Cabaret" out of my mind, however. I must say though, after reading about Isherwood's Sally, I have to laud Ms. Minnelli on her performance. Her characterization is indeed recognizable in this Ms. Bowles.

"On Ruegen Island - Summer 1931" describes the author's holiday and the two characters he becomes involved with at a summer resort, Otto Nowak and Peter Wilkinson. Otto is a working class German youth, who uses his attractiveness to freeload off of men and women alike, rather than earn an honest wage. Peter Wilkinson, an Englishman living in Berlin, is extremely neurotic and very attached to Otto, although the two quarrel and bicker constantly.

"The Nowaks," Otto, (of Ruegen Island), and his immediate family, take Isherwood in as a lodger. As money becomes more difficult to come by and the effects of hyperinflation take their toll on Christopher's pocketbook, he has to economize and temporarily leaves Frl. Schroeder's relatively luxurious flat, for the slum-like, working-class projects of Wassertorstrasse.

In "The Landaurers," a wealthy Jewish family is aware of what is in store with the rise of Hitler's Nazism. Natalie befriends Isherwood, and through her so does her family. In this story the perils ahead are obvious and the Landaurers make preparations to leave Germany.

And in "A Berlin Diary - Winter - 1932-33," Isherwood bids farewell to Berlin. He will not return until 1952.

These are well written and important stories which paint a picture of a never-to-be-forgotten time. The language and content give a real sense of the period, and Christopher Isherwood's taut and descriptive narrative is superb. Highly recommended!
JANA

Stunning, Atmospheric, Prescient, 10 Mar 2003
`Goodbye to Berlin' is writing at its best: spare, unadorned, and sincere. Christopher Isherwood flies in the face of today's tendency towards florid, pretentious writing, which seems to favor five similies when none would have done. His evocation of pre-WWII Berlin through a series of interlinked stories, and the deft, subtly drawn characters - the famous Sally Bowles is just one - is unforgettable.

Perhaps it is the way Isherwood writes with a remarkable lack of ego - as his famous quote states, events are captured as objectively as a camera records light onto a photographic film. This does not mean he is impassive; quite the opposite. His desire is clearly to record a fragile time exactly as it was. Nobody knows the outcome of history until it happens, and the rise of the Nazi party as told here is all the more horrifying, as we experience it as the people themselves must have done - first a fringe party regarded as little more than a joke, then as rulers of the country, in a frighteningly short space of time.

Although it's small and perfectly formed, you'll never want it to end. Isherwood's original intention was to include these episodes in a much larger opus about Germany in the Weimar Republic, but there's something about the fragmented quality of the eventual book which is perfectly suited to its subject matter.

It takes pride of place in my library.

Amazing portrayal of a city soon to change, 29 Jan 2003
What is unique in this book is its lack of reference to Nazism. Only at the end do we really see politics enter the novel and feel Berlin's doom closing in. Almost everyone Isherwood comes across are not political- they just want to get on with life. As an exception to this there is a group of Communists her sets out to meet but they seem devoted to theory alone.
The sense of Berlin's eminent change builds up momentum throughout the novel- at the start it is difficult to imagine the city Isherwood is writing about is soon to lose a vast amount of its population to the camps, the army or the bombs and most of its buildings destroyed. The light-hearted section detailing Sally Bowles's friendship guides us into more serious pieces on poverty and charged relationships ending with Isherwood's exit from Berlin, as the Nazi's power grows too strong.
Isherwood's writing seems modern for its time and has a sense of amusing reality that reminded me of George Orwell's Down and Out In Paris In London. What struck me as his finest point was the way in which his characters just leap off the page into reality and seem bursting with life. This makes the ending seem even more poignant than it is as we leave many of these characters to face their fate.
This is a wonderful last glance back at the old Berlin that no longer exists.

Hello to old Berlin, 17 Aug 2000
This book is known as the original of "Cabaret"- which is why I bought it. And am I glad I did- don't expect the story as seen on stage or film, for here you will find several accounts of pre-war Berlin from various view points. The book is made up of several, smaller, novella's that are vaguely related while independent in themselves. Isherwood's strength lies in his ability to create characters that are believable (all, or at least most, were based on real persons that Isherwood had met), and to evoke the atmosphere of the Berlin of the 30's. His writing style is quite simple, yet says all that there is to say- which makes this book very easy to read. He manages to create the increasingly opressive atmosphere of pre-war Germany throughout the book; which grows into an observation of Germany's response to the growing threat of Nazism- which makes us feel as though we could possibly have been there. It is a fascinating account of the changes that took place, and it shows how people can be led astray to believe false truths etc. This has to be one of my favourite books of all time because of what it is- A study of various characters, A document of a changing Germany, An echo of a lifestyle now lost...Read and Enjoy- with crude fascination!

Gripping character studies by a great storyteller, 05 Dec 2000
I bought this book to give me a "feel" of Germany, and especially Berlin in the period before the Second World War. The reason - I'm to direct the musical "Cabaret" early in 2001. I found that Isherwood's simple style of storytelling with no pretentious nonsense is truely a pleasure to read. The stories are told from the point of view of an observer - even though he is involved in them - very dispasionately. The effect is gripping as the characters are so accurately drawn. Berlin before the war is evoked so well, you would think you had been there. Thoroughly recomended for those interested in the time or those who like good stories told well.

Entertaining, subtle, profound, 15 Jul 2006
First, the edition I have read is a Vintage Classics paperback dated 1999, not a talking book. Sally Bowles is not a character in this novel.
The book is set in pre-war Germany. The narrator, an Englishman, encounters the eponymous Mr Norris on a train and befriends him. What makes this novel so good is that Isherwood boldly takes a very important political theme, possibly the most important historical theme of the last century, but does not allow it to dominate the novel to the exclusion of the depiction of character. Quite the reverse, the characters, and especially Mr Norris, are exceptionally well realised. Perhaps one might make an exception of the narrator. Reference to this work in the critical literature indicate that Isherwood himself acknowledged that this was a problem. Nevertheless, this book is well worth reading. Its funny moments add to rather than detract from the underlying profound theme, and the style is excellent.

Charming, 15 Feb 2004
When William Bradshaw first meets Mr Norris on the train home, we are introduced to a character that makes us feel strangely protective and who is delightful and impossible to dislike. By the end of the novel though it is clear that Isherwood is truly representing through Mr Norris one of his ex boyfriends who he came to regard as a 'rogue laced with poison'. Such a character arc is an amazing feat and one that Isherwood handles well. The book is well written, easy to read and full of delights. The big reveal is a little predictable and the ending a little unblievable but despite that this is well worth a read and I would be interested to read more of Isherwood's work based on this book. Many authors must wish they were this good!

A Berlin Cabaret, 07 Jun 2003
Remembered, if at all, as the origin of the musical Cabaret; this book stays in my memory, not because of Mr Norris (he would be glad to hear), but because it brings to life the Berlin of the 1930's and it's peculiar innocence before the fall into Nazism. One gradually realises the characters innocence is presented by Mr Isherwood as a cause of the fall rather than the decadance we are usually enjoined to condemn. Not having been there at the time one cannot easily accept or reject such a conclusion, but it does give pause for thought.

A front row seat at Pre-Nazi Germany`s decline, 12 Oct 2000
As pre-Hitler German society heads towards disintergration through decadence and depraved indifference,the "Elite incrowd" shamlesslly ride on a merry-go-round of self-destrution. This book is a rare glimpse from behind the mirror at a nation wallowing in self-depravity and hedonistic behaviour only comparable to the "Fall of the Roman Empire". The main charactor Sally Bowles flits through life as an etheral butterfly who`s only problems in life are worring about the next party,-the next lover,-the next "goodtimes",whilst her rather nieve friend and confident Norris is more an "observer of life" than a "participant". In Isherwood`s subsequent novel "Goodby to Berlin" Sally Bowles was still a "flighty" character with self- serving "hustler" traits, whilst in "Mr Norris changes trains" one feels she has reached new depths of self-indulgence that can only lead to a state of life that calls for another way of living or ultimatly another way of dying! Judge for yourself,-but remember this was a society where at the end of the day relationships are as important as a suitcase full of Deutch marks-and tommorw may never come.

A Splendid Reading of a Unique Novel., 05 May 2000
On a very few occasions in one's life a personality is encountered who is by all rational measures is an out and out scoundrel, amoral, treacherous, mendacious, cowardly and - totally irresistible. It is a mystery why such persons should earn tolerance, and even regard, and why they should live on in one's memory and affection long after many more worthy characters one has known have faded into obscurity. It is Christopher Isherwood's genius, in this, his probably best novel, to describe such a character in such convincing detail that he lives on, years after first reading, as a personality more real than many actual persons of one's acquaintance. Little good can be said about Arthur Norris - other than that he is an engaging companion - and the reader is never in any doubt about his total unreliability, but it is impossible not to like him as he weaves his pathetically futile schemes of cunning and treachery against the backdrop of the last days of Weimar Germany. With a minimum of detail, but with that minimum telling, Isherwood fixes the time and locale with sharp accuracy and brings it further to life with a bizarre but credible cast of supporting characters. The balance between comedy and tragedy, farce and outright horror, is splendidly managed. This talking book version is all but perfect. Alan Cumming is an ideal reader and adopts a wide range of voices and accents throughout. His use of pauses and of changes of tone and emphasis is masterly. Arthur Norris's fruity tone are horribly enjoyable while the dreadful Kuno (to hear him ask if the narrator has read "Vinnie the Pooh" is enough to make the flesh crawl) becomes an almost palpable presence. In summary - one of the best Talking Books I've encountered. It's the only one you'll need on a long car journey since you'll listen to it over and over.

Essential, 07 Aug 2008
When I told a friend about this book, I said "it's very well written" and she said "Well, der! Isherwood!" and I laughed. But then I've only read Goodbye to Berlin and I was very young then, and didn't know good from bad.

It's possibly one of the most perfect little books I've read, absorbing from the first page and written in such a way that it feels like first person but it's actually written in third, astoundingly clever to my eyes. You get as easily into George's head as if it were first person.

Set over 24 hours, it simply covers his thought processes as he moves through the day and you learn a lot about him and the world in which he lives. From the first section he touches your heart as - as anyone who has suffered bereavement will understand - he wakes up and remembers again that his lover is dead. But he's not pessimistic about his outlook - he doesn't like the way that conservatism is encroaching upon the once bohemian area where he lives - once where there was artists and poets and easy sexual values, families are moving in, with more straight-laced ideals, but in juxtaposition to this, he loves youth.

He teaches at the University and the scenes with the Gidget-era youth are rather sweet and truly give a window into a lost American world. He does watch the athletes for his own enjoyment which was a nice touch.

I loved his optimism, despite how much he missed Jim, and the way that he finds the light and the dark in his life. He interacts with many people throughout the day, he's not at all an isolated person, but I was left feeling that he was spinning on the spot, lonely despite all the people who know and care from him. Without the one intimate friend he needed.

And really - that's about it apart from(spoilers below) He's a truly likeable guy, and towards the end of the book he's feeling optimistic about life. He had a lovely drunken evening first with a neighbour and then with a student friend, skinny dipping and a lot of drink. It's difficult to tell whether anything happened, but I don't think it did. He goes to bed at the end of his 24 hours feeling that it was time that he moved on with his life and that he was ready to look for love again. What would have been far more realistic and upbeat would have been if Isherwood had left it there. It would have been lovely to think that's what George does next. But - whether for literary merit - or for the tradition that - in books of this period - all gay guys MUST die at the end - he doesn't. And it was the ending that spoiled it for me and made me want to throw the book across the room, and made it lose a five star ranking.

brilliant but flawed, 28 Jul 2008
When I told a friend about this book, I said "it's very well written" and she said "Well, der! Isherwood!" and I laughed. But then I've only read Goodbye to Berlin and I was very young then, and didn't know good from bad.

It's possibly one of the most perfect little books I've read, absorbing from the first page and written in such a way that it feels like first person but it's actually written in third, astoundingly clever to my eyes. You get as easily into George's head as if it were first person.

Set over 24 hours, it simply covers his thought processes as he moves through the day and you learn a lot about him and the world in which he lives. From the first section he touches your heart as - as anyone who has suffered bereavement will understand - he wakes up and remembers again that his lover is dead. But he's not pessimistic about his outlook - he doesn't like the way that conservatism is encroaching upon the once bohemian area where he lives - once where there was artists and poets and easy sexual values, families are moving in, with more straight-laced ideals, but in juxtoposition to this, he loves youth.

He teaches at the University and the scenes with the Gidget-era youth are rather sweet and truly give a window into a lost American world. He does watch the athletes for his own enjoyment which was a nice touch.

I loved his optimism, despite how much he missed Jim, and the way that he finds the light and the dark in his life. He interacts with many people throughout the day, he's not at all an isolated person, but I was left feeling that he was spinning on the spot, lonely despite all the people who know and care from him. Without the one intimate friend he needed.

And really - that's about it apart from(spoilers below) He's a truly likeable guy, and towards the end of the book he's feeling optimistic about life. He had a lovely drunken evening first with a neighbour and then with a student friend, skinny dipping and a lot of drink. It's difficult to tell whether anything happened, but I don't think it did. He goes to bed at the end of his 24 hours feeling that it was time that he moved on with his life and that he was ready to look for love again. What would have been far more realistic and upbeat would have been if Isherwood had left it there. It would have been lovely to think that's what George does next. But - whether for literary merit - or for the tradition that - in books of this period - all gay guys MUST die at the end - he doesn't. And it was the ending that spoiled it for me and made me want to throw the book across the room, and made it lose a five star ranking.

Brilliant, 15 Nov 2007
This is Isherwood's finest piece of writing. Chanced upon it in a library, having heard about his Berlin novels and decided to give "Single Man" a go.

Isherwood's brilliance is his attention to detail, bringing to the reader's attention the world with an almost visceral quality, whilst retaining a resounding subtlety that makes this book really stand out. It is truly outstanding and a book for those who know about books.

Easily read in one sitting it is a book you can return to every now and again without feeling like you could be doing something better with your time.

The story revolves around an old man, lecturer at an LA university and a stranger to his neighbours. The people he meets during his routine are cause for much of the story's development, addressing key themes in the process.

This is my favourite book. It is well worth a read. If at all interested in North American literature (J.D. Salinger, Sylvia Plath, Douglas Coupland to name a few) and its concern with lonliness and the search for meaning and identity then this will be a book for you.

Stunning! undervalued masterpiece from an undervalued author, 07 Nov 2001
Isherwood's writing had as many ups and downs as a rollercoaster, which he would have been the first to admit, but this is (I think) the rose amongst the thorns that were his 'middle' books - a sensitive, heart warming and tender depiction of the life of a middle aged, gay male in mid-century America. This was the first of his books I read, and lead me to read all the others.

Fantastic, a real insight into an author's mind., 27 Feb 2002
Having read Christopher Isherwood's 'Berlin Stories'I was intrigued to read more and 'Christopher and his kind' surpassed what I could have hoped for. This honest and open book lets the reader meet the real characters of many of Isherwood's novels, including, I think, the real Christopher Isherwood. A must for anyone who has read any of his books and was left wondering who are these people? A fantastic book, must be read. (All Auden fans will also find a different Auden than perhaps expecting, worth a read just for that!)

Reader beware!, 07 Nov 2001
Very interesting book, but much of it is shadow and mirrors, as Isherwood struggles to reveal as much as possible without exploring his sexuality - what surfaces is a character as 2 dimensional as William Bradshaw/Christopher Isherwood in the Berlin novels. Still enjoying for its depiction of the times, it is far from accurate as an autobiography.

A good introduction to British pre-war intellectual world, 28 Dec 2000
Isherwood's account of his youth, mainly as a student at Cambridge and as a member of the intellectual middle-class, is a well written introduction to those who are looking for a 'behind the scenes' account of the period. Isherwood hides himself somewhat by blurring the facts in places and by using pseudonyms for his friends, many of whom, such as Stephen Spender and W.H.Auden, became equally as well known as Isherwood. However the semi-fictional style allows the reader to be drawn into the book without having to be bogged down by the nitty-gritty of reality. The book proves insightful in respect of the mind of an author and the creative process. It also has the slightly lurid 'gossip value' of a standard biography, although not as much as the follow-up 'Christopher and His Kind'. Although this is indispensible reading for Isherwood fans, I would recommend that first-timers read some of the novels beforehand.