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A review by cais
Christopher and His Kind: A Memoir, 1929-1939 by Christopher Isherwood
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Before reading this book I read Isherwood's The Berlin Stories many years ago, and more recently his diaries from 1939-1960, which picks up right after this book finishes, and Down There On A Visit, which has fictionalized versions of some of the events in this book. "Down There" was written in the 1950s, so though Isherwood was openly living as a gay man, as in he cohabited with boyfriends and toured the SoCal gay scene, he clearly wasn't ready to write about his real experiences for the public. In this book, written in the 1970s with the benefit of both hindsight and the gay liberation movement, he was finally ready and able to be honest about his life during his time in 1930s Europe, enjoying the willing young men of Berlin's gay scene and then traipsing around Europe trying to save his German boyfriend Heinz from the Nazis (either prison or mandatory military service).
Isherwood's candor, his humor and ability to set a scene and just tell a good story, made this book such an enjoyable read. Besides enjoying and not enjoying his relationship with Heinz, having lots of sex and evading the Nazis, Isherwood managed to get a lot of writing done, travel, make many friends (some of them quite famous) and live a whole lot of life in ten years. He wanted experiences that would take him far away from his privileged English background, coming from a wealthy, landed family & having a Cambridge education, so he was drawn to people who could offer those experiences, even if the results were messy.
I loved reading this book, just as I loved reading his diaries from 1939-1960. His humor can be quite cutting, but for all his criticisms of others, he is also critical of himself. Often arrogant, yes, but he was also often generous. As a biography and as a historical document, this is a great book.
Isherwood's candor, his humor and ability to set a scene and just tell a good story, made this book such an enjoyable read. Besides enjoying and not enjoying his relationship with Heinz, having lots of sex and evading the Nazis, Isherwood managed to get a lot of writing done, travel, make many friends (some of them quite famous) and live a whole lot of life in ten years. He wanted experiences that would take him far away from his privileged English background, coming from a wealthy, landed family & having a Cambridge education, so he was drawn to people who could offer those experiences, even if the results were messy.
I loved reading this book, just as I loved reading his diaries from 1939-1960. His humor can be quite cutting, but for all his criticisms of others, he is also critical of himself. Often arrogant, yes, but he was also often generous. As a biography and as a historical document, this is a great book.