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# 2024-03-19 - The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood |
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A friend picked this book for me at a yard sale. |
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This book is a collection of episodes focusing on characters who were |
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amalgams of real people that the author knew in Germany. Woven |
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throughout the book is the background radiation of the Nazi party's |
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rise to power in Germany. At first nobody took them seriously, and |
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then they gradually became more and more threatening. |
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In my opinion the book started off weak, then picked up, and finished |
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strong. What made it weak? Stuffy details about objects. What made |
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it strong? The author's insights into the character of his friends, |
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which demonstrated the author's care for his friends. It was clear |
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to me that he missed them after losing contact with them. |
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He portrays his friends in a very human light. They are profoundly |
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broken and profoundly endearing, each in very different ways, |
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lending a richness to the stories. |
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The author seemed to play the part of the trickster now and then. |
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When his friends performed experiments on him, testing his |
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boundaries, he reflected and experimented right back, sometimes with |
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explosive results. |
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author: Isherwood, Christopher, 1904-1986 |
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detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/The_Berlin_Stories |
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LOC: PR6017.S5 A6 |
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tags: book,fiction,queer |
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book |
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fiction |
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queer |
