Goodbye to Berlin : Christopher Isherwood

The taxi man said he missed the Guyana elections. He not too bothered with the Government. He seh.. nah man , dem aint gun ban flour again? 

Saying this because I have Goodbye to Berlin in my head.  I had bought the book a year ago in a second hand Toronto bookstore and read it on the plane to Toronto on a random trip.

And this line, on the first page had me hooked. "“I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking. 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.”  .   This quote is apparently a cliche now.

Isherwood is anything but passive, and recording. This is the 1929 to 1933 Germany.. with its happening 'sexual freedoms' and Nazi beginnings. There are six short stories about different characters.

The only time Isherwood seems to smile is in this brutal ending paragraph. The sun is shining and it is a day to be happy. And yet there is the underlying madness which happened, built up as people question throughout the book.. will they really get rid of all the Jews?


And so when the taxi man asked about the flour ban, this part of the book is in my head as I say "Well, people probably did not believe Burnham would ban flour.." or that the Dominican Republic would be doing apartheid on Haitians, or the PPP would have a candidate who wants to strip and slap women; or any of the madness that evolves in politics?

Isherwood's language is sharp .  He apparently went to Berlin to enjoy his homosexuality, but there is no direct reference here. One of the stories is about a couple who are messed up. But then.. there is this episode ..the 'eventually we are all queer' with the American youths who rushed into Salome.


None of Isherwood's characters are likeable, hell even he is not likeable.

But that does not make the book bad to read.



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