Goodbye to Berlin

Short Story

Goodbye to Berlin

Christopher Isherwood

            Goodbye to Berlin contains six connected short stories- book is referred as novel in many reviews- written by Christopher Isherwood centered on Berlin of the early 1930s just before the takeover of Germany by Hitler. Isherwood lived in Berlin then and gave private tuitions in English for a living. These six pieces do not form a continuous narrative but have a common thread connecting all.  The common thread is the setting of time and place and the narrator, the author himself. In the book Christopher Isherwood appears as himself. He is not only the narrator but an important character in most of the stories. Book is semiautobiographical. Most reviews of the book have praised it for its beautiful evocation Berlin’s past in those prewar years when disaster was just around the corner but life in the bars, homes and offices continued albeit with the premonition of the danger looming large. Except for the last piece ‘The Berlin Diary (Winter 1932-3)’ I could not discern any deliberate intention of the author to write about the atmosphere of Berlin during those portentous days. He has mostly steered clear of political milieu of that period in all stories accept the last and this particular piece reads more like an essay than a story. Sometimes, I doubt whether the blurb writers really read the book they are writing about which sadly induces or prevents a reader from buying the particular book. In this book Isherwood writes about some interesting people he met in Berlin during that time (for the book is so well written that I cannot bring myself to believe that these characters are the product of the author’s imagination). His portrayal of these people is extremely skillful. Result is an endlessly delightful book of which you can never have enough. His language is bewitchingly simple and concise. His suave but unpretentious wit is evident throughout the book. Though the narration is mostly in a humorous vein there is an undercurrent of melancholy and pathos. In these pages you meet the ever vivacious Frau Shroider,  keeper of the guest house where Isherwood stayed off and on, snooping around, good naturedly, in to the lives of her tenants; Sally Bowles an unconventional and fatuous English Girl with an innocent and generous heart from a middle-class family who has come to Berlin to enjoy life; the sophisticated and rich Jew family of Landauers; the tragic-comic family of the poor Nowaks; and the weird and sad Englishman Peter Wilkinson whom Isherwood befriends during his stay at a Baltic resort. One cannot but marvel at Isherwood’s powers of perception in noticing absurdities of human behavior in most humdrum settings Isherwood’s consummate skill as a writer in creating such alluring narratives out of these observations. These stories should be case study in character portrayal for any aspiring author. A very satisfying read. Memories of the characters stay with you for long.