A review of the classic novel “Goodbye To Berlin” by Christopher Isherwood
This 1939 novel by Anglo-American writer Isherwood has long been a classic and was the inspiration for the musical and the film “Cabaret”. In many respects, it is an unusual novel.
It is substantially autobiographical, based on the author’s time in the German capital during the dying days of the Weimar Republic in 1929-1931. The central character has the author’s name and all the other leading characters are based on actual persons that Isherwood encountered in Berlin, notably the flamboyant Sally Bowles – inspired by teenage cabaret singer Jean Ross – who became the centre of the “Cabaret” story.
Furthermore, although clearly a novel, it was first written as six, loosely-connected pieces, most of which were previously published in separate form, and the whole work has no real plot, being instead essentially a set of portraits of various colourful characters.
The obvious claim to fame of the novel is that it is a beautifully-written early work from a gay writer who went on to develop an important canon of literature. Additionally, it is a fascinating book because it chronicles the seedy nightlife of Weimar Berlin and the growing influence of the Nazi movement.
In fact, initially Isherwood – both the character in the novel and the author himself – was so apolitical and self-absorbed that he was barely aware of the incipient political crisis but, as the narrative develops, it is less about his socialising and hedonistic lifestyle and more and more about anti-semitism and casual violence with the bland observation “Hitler came, and the Reichstag fire, and the mock-elections.”
Ultimately, the novel can be seen as a warning. At a charade of a boxing match, Isherwood notes: “The political moral is certainly depressing: these people could be made to believe in anybody or anything.” As he is about to leave Berlin, he notes how people are already adapting to the new regime, saying of his landlady: “She is merely acclimatizing herself, in accordance with a natural law, like an animal which changes its coat for the winter.”
As I was reading the novel, a far Right political party won a regional election in Germany for the first time since the 1930s.