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