I think I was very fortunate to read this novel with just the right amount of background knowledge to know what was going on, but not so much that I knew it all already. In particular, I had recently read the Berlin novels, but I wasn't aware of the story of Christopher's boyfriend, Heinz, which provides the strongest narrative thread in the book. Isherwood's attempts to help Heinz escape the Nazi regime are very compelling and he never spoils the suspense.

I also thought Isherwood cleverly conveyed how much sex was going on in the background of the main events, all with a minimum of jealousy and complication. Really it's only when someone gets the clap that you realise just how madly they've all been shagging away behind the scenes. Despite this, the book is not coy, and does reveal that everywhere you suspected characters were having sex in Mr Norris Changes Trains, they were. The nature of Isherwood's sexual and relationship tastes and their relation to class, age, power and the public perception of homosexuality are very interesting to speculate on.

Isherwood's prose is as light and sparkling as ever, with a casual precision that makes it wonderfully easy to read. I shall definitely be adding more of Isherwood's books to my to-read list, maybe even some which don't have gay themes or undercurrents. ( )

Ceaselessly meandering, the narrative becomes all-consumingly wayward and aimless after Isherwood leaves Berlin to spread his gay debauchery across the European continent. Stylistically quite bare, apart from the interesting decision to refer to his past self in the omniscient, this book mires itself in the details of the passing month rather than in the vivaciousness of an experienced life, the little details that can evoke emotions. Isherwood finds himself seeded into the literary cream of society, as Auden's BFF and Forster's protege; his love life is a dazzling success. Yet the most intriguing parts of the memoir travelogue proved to be the political ones, the embroilment in the conflicts, as well as those moments where love flings itself wildly into his life. Those occurrences bring into being the more thoughtful passages Isherwood masters.

( )

Makes me want to reread the Berlin Stories now with this added context. I found his insertion of his previous semi-autobiographical writing in this memoir (often with names and pronouns altered for clarity) to be fascinating.

Interesting that while this is the book that sets the record straight, he still refers to himself as "Christopher", not as "I". Really gives you the sense of the old Isherwood peeking back at his younger self, fondly, but as a bit of a mysterious other. ( )

An excellent memoir of a single decade decade in a very talented writers life 1929 thru 1939. The truth behind the people of "The Berlin Stories" ( )

4.5. My favourite Isherwood so far ( )