Mr Norris Changes Trains: Christopher Isherwood (Vintage classics)

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Isherwood evokes the Berlin of the early 1930s as the Nazis are on the rise but are opposed by others, particularly the Communists. He clearly does not have a great deal of faith in the Communists, who are almost as much schemers as the Nazis. However, his portrait of Norris is superb. Here is a man, oily, dishonest, deceitful, of not particularly pleasant appearance, always out to make some money, even if at the expense of others, including his friends, yet we cannot help but have a soft spot for him. This is partially because there are those worse than him (the Nazis and Schmidt) and partially because we see him through Bradshaw’s eyes who, despite Norris’ behaviour, clearly also has a soft spot for him. Publishing history Sally Bowles & Co came later, c 1939, when our author "got the political pittcha." Although the musical "Cabaret" is a rouser with everyone singing that life is a cabaret ole chun, Isherwood focused on the lost and rejected. He caught the tormented, self-destructive spirit of Berlin which Broadway excised. He'd gone to Berlin because of the favorable money-exchange. And, coming from a strangulating UK environment where you faced jail if caught in the bushes with a boy, he read that anything went in Berlin. As Gerald Hamilton said, "We live in stirring times. Tea-stirring times." An entertainment set during the growth of the Nazi party? It actually works too. Published before things went horribly wrong in Europe this collection of events chronicling the friendship of Mr Norris and Mr Bradshaw stands the test of time and history remarkably well.

Mr. Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood | Goodreads

I first read Mr Norris Changes Trains in 1984. God knows what I made of it then. I wanted to read some Isherwood after reading Eric Larson’s book about Berlin in the 1930s. I wanted to see what a fictional representation of this era looked like. It’s a strange and slight novel. The narrator presents as being gullible and naïve. The Mr Norris of the title is entirely untrustworthy. In a way, these three qualities echo some key elements of the times but despite this overlay, the author doesn’t do much with the narrative. Christopher Isherwood lived in BerliThe closeness to the communist party is probably the only shortcoming of a novel that is otherwise Perfect, for the under signed has lived for twenty five years under the Ceausescu regime (no less, though he is more than proud to say that he took part in the 1989 revolution and he is mentioned in Newsweek for the bravado…this and the fact that I have invented the lotus on the head position while doing abdomens might be my greatest, and sadly only, achievements and if you know how to monetize this, we could partner on it) and there is ‘no love lost there’ and when a personage shows this kind of affinity, well…he, she, they (we have to use they now, for the transgender, nongender and others I hear) lose my sympathy…

Mr Norris changes trains : Isherwood, Christopher, 1904-1986

Come mi accadeva quand’ero lasciato a me stesso, cominciai a esaminare il suo parrucchino. Forse lo fissai con troppa sfacciata insistenza perché, alzando d’un tratto gli occhi, egli si accorse della direzione del mio sguardo e mi fece trasalire, domandandomi semplicemente:

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For "Mr Norris Changes Trains" is set in a very well-defined place and moment of recent history: Berlin in the mid-thirties. That is precisely when Hitler seized power tightening his grip on a whole nation and - quite soon - changing for worse Europe as we knew it. Far less successful is how the British author writes about Mr Norris' business between Paris and Berlin: plotting and intrigues are definitely something Graham Greene is more apt to work on than his compatriot. Isherwood tries to tell us more about German communists but he somehow fails to be very convincing in that respect.

Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood

After a chance encounter on a train the English teacher William Bradshaw starts a close friendship with the mildly sinister Arthur Norris. Norris is a man of contradictions; lavish but heavily in debt, excessively polite but sexually deviant. First published in 1933 Mr Norris Changes Trains piquantly evokes the atmosphere of Berlin during the rise of the Nazis. Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood – eBook Details The narrator, William Bradshaw, lives there nicely as an expat giving English classes and enjoying life. This is pretty much all that we know about him, he doesn’t even explicitly reveal his sexual orientation. In fact, this first person narrative tells us very little about narrator and focuses entirely on the person of Mr Norris, a perfect English gentlemen, a charming scoundrel. Gerald Hamilton was a gun-runner for the IRA, a con-man caught in embezzlement plots, a Commie symp and then, turning far, far right, he was against war with Germany, espousing the views of fascist Oswald Mosley. Facing arrest in the UK, he tried to escape to Ireland dressed as a nun. Isherwood published this book in 1935 while the wayward Gerald Hamilton was spinning left and right. How could Isherwood resist using Hamilton as an amusing character?

The first literary novel that really switched me on was Christopher Isherwood's Mr Norris Changes Trains Chris Pattern, Daily Mail In 1938, Isherwood sailed with Auden to China to write Journey to a War (1939), about the Sino-Japanese conflict. They returned to England and Isherwood went on to Hollywood to look for movie-writing work. He also became a disciple of the Ramakrishna monk, Swami Prabhavananda, head of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. He decided not to take monastic vows, but he remained a Hindu for the rest of his life, serving, praying, and lecturing in the temple every week and writing a biography, Ramakrishna and His Disciples (1965). Isherwood is masterful in writing: no doubt about this. And where he excels is in Mr Norris himself. This affected Barry Lyndonesque man with more than a touch of effeminacy and seeking for masochistic pleasures is a marvelous creation. Sally gave me the most fatuous grin: ‘I know, darling...But it makes me feel so marvellously sensual….’” The name of the narrator, William Bradshaw, is drawn from Isherwood's full name, Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood. In subsequent novels Isherwood changed the narrator's name to "Christopher Isherwood", having come to regard "William Bradshaw" as a "foolish evasion". Isherwood did not explicitly claim that he was William Bradshaw although the novel describes Isherwood's own experiences. He sought to make the narrator as unobtrusive as possible so as to keep readers focused on Norris. Although Isherwood was living more or less openly as a homosexual, he balked at making Bradshaw homosexual as well. In part this was to help the average reader identify with the narrator by minimising the differences between the narrator and the reader. Not to do so meant that "The Narrator would have become so odd, so interesting, that his presence would have thrown the novel out of perspective. ... The Narrator would have kept upstaging Norris's performance as the star." Isherwood's decision had a more pragmatic reason as well; he had no desire to cause a scandal and feared that should he cause one his uncle, who was financially supporting him, would cut him off. Yet Isherwood had no interest in making Bradshaw heterosexual either, so the Narrator has no scenes of a sexual nature. [9]

Mr Norris Changes Trains – What I Think About When I Think Mr Norris Changes Trains – What I Think About When I Think

Although the Goodbye to Berlin is only semi autobiographic it gives a fine picture of Berlin between wars. My first reaction was to feel, perhaps unreasonably, angry, I had to admit to myself that my feeling for Arthur had been largely possessive. He was my discovery, my property. I was as hurt as a spinster who had been deserted by her cat. And yet, after all, how silly of me. Arthur was his own master; he wasn’t accountable to me for his actions. I began to look round for excuses for his conduct, and, like an indulgent parent, easily found them. Hadn’t he, indeed, behaved with considerable nobility? Threatened from every side, he had face his troubles alone. He had carefully avoided involving me in possible future unpleasantness with the authorities.” One of the small pleasures of growing older is that you can re-read your favourite books and, for the most part, they seem fresh and new; one fondly recalls the core story but generally forgets the local colour, the descriptions and prose styling. I was recently reading “Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America” by Christopher Bram; in it he discussed Christopher Isherwood and “Goodbye to Berlin.” Ironically my online book group was reading it at the same time. So, I decided to re-read it for the first time in twenty-five years. Of the novel, Wikipedia says “Although Mr Norris Changes Trains was a critical and popular success, Isherwood later condemned it, believing that he had lied about himself through the characterization of the narrator and that he did not truly understand the suffering of the people he had depicted. In an introduction to a 1956 edition of Gerald Hamilton's memoir Mr Norris and I, Isherwood wrote:La storia malinconica di un’amicizia tra due stranieri molto diversi tra loro, nella problematica Berlino dei primi anni Trenta. Dialoghi perfetti, ironia sempre presente, descrizioni di persone e ambienti rapide ed efficaci: Isherwood colpisce ancora.