Book of Week 13
Uitgeverij Schokland publishes a series called critical classics. This gives authors such as Arthur Koestler, Max Frisch, Armando and Klaus Mann a new platform to surprise a young generation of readers. Two books by Chistopher Isherwood have been added to the series in Dutch translation: Mr. Norris changes trains and Goodbye to Berlin.
The latter has been translated as Farewell to Berlin and was originally published in 1939. It includes a number of stories from Berlin around 1930, when Isherwood lived in Berlin as a writer for three years. He earned his living there by teaching English to wealthy people.
I have now, after many years, reread the book Farewell to Berlin. What a wonderful reunion! Isherwood is a wonderful writer, observational, humorous and empathetic. In Farewell to Berlin we meet a colorful parade of endearing, tragic Berliners, full of life, full of expectations, sparklingly described in their daily worries. The strength of Isherwood’s writing lies in his ability to portray them in their humanity and with humor. To name a few main characters: you meet the Nowak family, who live under appalling conditions in an attic of a backyard, and their adolescent son Otto; Isherwood’s landlady Frl. Schroeder; and Sally Bowles, a young English actress -on whom the musical Cabaret was later based. In the last two chapters Isherwood describes his complex friendship with Bernard Landauer. The lightness has disappeared from the book. Isherwood casts a dark shadow ahead of the time to come, when the lives of the Jewish Landauer family would change dramatically. Finally, he says goodbye to Berlin, which is on the eve of war and destruction.
Initially casually – but as the book progresses with increasing frequency and intensity – Isherwood describes how the Nazis have embedded themselves in the very fabric of society. Swearing at Jews already appeared to be common practice in 1930, as we see with several main characters. What is also striking is the poverty, alcohol abuse and hopelessness among a large part of the Berlin population. And that most people were more concerned with surviving and seeking pleasure than with fighting oppression and injustice.
These stories are 90 years old, but have nevertheless remained very much alive, you are watching from a time machine, as it were. Goodbye to Berlin is a book to reread once in a while. If you don’t know it yet, let this beautifully presented publication be a reason for you to try it for the first time. And if you prefer to read it in the original language: the English edition is also on our shelves.
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Farewell to Berlin is written by Christopher Isherwood
Translated by Willem van Toorn
Published at Schokland Publishers
Maarten Dorenbos is a bookseller at Pampus bookstoreC. van Eesterenlaan 17
