Book review.
I have just read the novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood, and felt compelled to write a review.
This remarkable little book is compiled of several short stories, based on Christopher's own experiences whilst living in Berlin in the 1930s. It is simply fascinating how he portrays the country; cosmopolitan, in a state of economical disaster, plentiful political unrest, unemployment and poverty and yet the music still plays in the bars and the clubs, and somehow people keep happy.
The descent into the country becoming taken over by the Nazis is compelling. At first the Nazi party are portrayed as a joke, a tiny party, just on fringes - it seems more likely that the country will become communist before the Nazis get in power. There are of course some Nazi supporters, some ardent anti-Semites, the angry unemployed, the middle class families - even when at the beach, Christopher notes that some of the children's sandcastles are marked with swastika flags.
Then suddenly towards the closing of the book everything moves remarkably quickly. Hitler is suddenly in power, and the people of Germany are nervous but stoic. In a quote I found summed up the situation brilliantly, Christopher explains why the citizens of Germany do not protest about their new government: "Thousands of people... are acclimatizing themselves. After all, whatever government is in power, they are doomed to live in this town." I loved that quotation, it just captured the moment perfectly.
The rate at which the political situation in Germany suddenly cartwheeled shocked me. It moves from a time when a boycott of Jewish shops is laughable and ignored, to when Jews are insulted and attacked in the streets and then comes to a horrifying moment when a Jewish businessman is arrested, sent to a concentration camp and dies of 'heart failure' (it is implied the man was murdered).
Christopher Isherwood painted 1931-1933 Berlin very clearly in my mind. I'd recommend the book to anyone. Due to the novel being made up of short stories it can feel a little hard to read at times, but persevere - because the closing pages pack a punch.