Người Chuyển Tàu

The Berlin Stories #1

by Christopher Isherwood, Ngô Hà Thu (Translator)

Với NGƯỜI CHUYỂN TÀU, ngòi bút của nhà văn đã hóa thành dao trổ, Christopher Isherwood như một điêu khắc gia thuần thành giới thiệu với công chúng pho ngẫu tượng độc đáo bậc nhất trong bộ sưu tập nhân vật văn chương - ngài Arthur Norris: một Đảng viên cánh tả có nết khổ dâm; lịch lãm phong lưu nhưng lại là một tay lừa đảo thành thần; nợ nần chồng chất nhưng lại rất ưa hưởng thụ xa hoa. Dõi theo những bước thăng trầm của ngài Norris giữa thành Berlin đang ngả màu phát xít, Isherwood đã hé lộ cho người đọc một nước Đức nhiễu nhương của thập niên 30, một dân tộc đang run rẩy trong gọng kềm sẵn sàng bóp nghẹt của kẻ độc tài…

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Queer, Germany, LGBT, Historical Fiction, 20th Century

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1935

About the author

English-born American writer Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood portrayed Berlin in the early 1930s in his best known works, such as Goodbye to Berlin (1939), the basis for the musical Cabaret (1966). Isherwood was a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist.

With W.H. Auden he wrote three plays— The Dog Beneath the Skin (1932), The Ascent of F6 (1936), and On the Frontier (1938). Isherwood tells the story in his first autobiography, Lions and Shadows .

After Isherwood wrote joke answers on his second-year exams, Cambridge University in 1925 asked him to leave. He briefly attended medical school and progressed with his first two novels, All the Conspirators (1928) and The Memorial (1932). In 1930, he moved to Berlin, where he taught English, dabbled in Communism, and enthusiastically explored his homosexuality. His experiences provided the material for Mister Norris Changes Trains (1935) and Goodbye to Berlin (1938), still his most famous book.

In Berlin in 1932, he also began an important relationship with Heinz Neddermeyer, a young German with whom he fled the Nazis in 1933. England refused entry to Neddermeyer on his second visit in 1934, and the pair moved restlessly about Europe until the Gestapo arrested Neddermeyer in May 1937 and then finally separated them.

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).

In 1945, Isherwood published Prater Violet, fictionalizing his first movie writing job in London in 1933-1934. In Hollywood, he spent the start of the 1950s fighting his way free of a destructive five-year affair with an attractive and undisciplined American photographer, William Caskey. Caskey took the photographs for Isherwood’s travel book about South America, The Condor and The Cows (1947). Isherwood’s sixth novel, The World in the Evening (1954), written mostly during this period, was less successful than earlier ones.

In 1953, he fell in love with Don Bachardy, an eighteen-year-old college student born and raised in Los Angeles. They were to remain together until Isherwood’s death. In 1961, Isherwood and completed the final revisions to his new novel Down There on a Visit (1962). Their relationship nearly ended in 1963, and Isherwood moved out of their Santa Monica house. This dark period underpins Isherwood’s masterpiece A Single Man (1964).

Isherwood wrote another novel, A Meeting by the River (1967), about two brothers, but he gave up writing fiction and turned entirely to autobiography. In Kathleen and Frank (1971), he drew on the letters and diaries of his parents. In Christopher and His Kind (1976), he returned to the 1930s to tell, as a publicly avowed homosexual, the real story of his life in Berlin and his wanderings with Heinz Neddermeyer. The book made him a hero of gay liberation and a national celebrity all over again but now in his true, political and personal identity.

Reviews

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

BABYLON BERLIN



Secondo me Mr Norris Changes Train, come recita il titolo originale, potrebbe essere considerato uno dei primi casi di “instant book”: racconta una storia ambientata a Berlino all’inizio degli anni Trenta - i protagonisti, il Mr Norris del titolo e l’io narrante William Bradshaw (nel quale qualcuno vuole vedere lo stesso Isherwood che ha vissuto a Berlino proprio in quegli anni mantenendosi con lezioni d’inglese proprio come il suo protagonista) lasciano la capitale tedesca quando capiscono che i nazisti non sono più contenibili (nel 1933 dopo aver vinto le elezioni Hitler diventa cancelliere del Reich) – il romanzo è pubblicato nel 1935 (sia in UK che in US). Cotto e mangiato, per così dire.



È il terzo romanzo scritto da Isherwood. Per me invece fu il suo secondo che lessi, ma quello per cui mi innamorai della sua scrittura e del suo mondo: infatti ho poi proseguito con un’altra manciata di sue opere (La violetta del Prater, Un uomo solo, Ritratto di famiglia, Leoni e ombre, Incontro al fiume).

Ho ritrovato temi e umori, atmosfera e situazioni del romanzo di Isherwood perfettamente riportate nella bella serie TV tedesca Babylon Berlin, che però ha tutt’altra fonte d’ispirazione (i romanzi di Volker Kutscher). Ma guardarla era un po’ come ritornare nelle Storie Berlinesi di Isherwood, il nome collettivo col quale si includono sia questo romanzo che l’altro Addio a Berlino (dal quale è invece liberamente tratto il musical e il film Cabaret).



Sin dall’inizio potrebbe sembrare d’essere catapultati in una spy story alla Graham Greene: passaporti falsi, frontiere e controlli di polizia, personaggi che nascondono e non dicono tutta la verità…
Se non che Isherwood adotta un tono ben più ironico del suo conterraneo, già a partire dalla fisicità del signor Norris, con quello strano toupet che salta agli occhi, il modo di fare nervoso, la parlantina: siamo più inclini a ridere di Norris che a temere per lui.
Ma forse mi dovrei correggere perché anche Greene ha all’attivo una parte della sua produzione in chiave decisamente ironica, se non addirittura comica (penso alla satira di Il nostro agente all’Avana, per esempio).



Il treno è quello dove all’inizio l’io narrante, William Bradshaw, incontra per la prima volta il signor Norris, e lo nota subito per qualcosa di eccentrico, per poi finire avviluppato dalla di lui chiacchiera.
Più avanti il lettore apprende che il signor Norris è un masochista. E magari è proprio per questo che va a Berlino: sembra il posto giusto nel giusto momento in cui trovarsi.
Tra le eccentricità di Mr Norris andrebbe annoverata anche l’essere comunista, diretto proprio nella patria del nazismo (ma, che dire, anche Arthur Koestler era iscritto al partito comunista e corrispondente da Berlino nel 1933).



William ha lasciato l’Inghilterra per allontanarsi dalla famiglia e vivere l’avventura. Si può dire che la trova: locali notturni, teatro e cabaret, il nazismo che dilaga inquietante, cene al ristorante bevendo champagne, ma anche birrerie, una misteriosa dame francese (Margot), complotti e ricatti, aristocratici omosessuali, pedinamenti, retate, omicidi, e dopo l’incendio del Reichstag, meglio tornare a casa.
Norris invece scappa altrove.
Da questo altrove (Rio de Janeiro) scrive all’amico Bradshaw una cartolina che si conclude con una frase in qualche modo divenuta celebre:
Che cosa ho mai fatto per meritarmi tutto ciò?


Liza Minnelli in “Cabaret” di Bob Fosse, 1972.

[Jeffrey Keeten · Rating 3 out of 5]

”What repels me now about Mr Norris is its heartlessness. It is a heartless fairy-story about a real city in which human beings were suffering the miseries of political violence and near-starvation. The "wickedness" of Berlin's night-life was of the most pitiful kind; the kisses and embraces, as always, had price-tags attached to them, but here the prices were drastically reduced in the cut-throat competition of an over-crowded market. ... As for the "monsters", they were quite ordinary human beings prosaically engaged in getting their living through illegal methods. The only genuine monster was the young foreigner who passed gaily through these scenes of desolation, misinterpreting them to suit his childish fantasy.” Christopher Isherwood


Christopher Isherwood

Isherwood wrote the above quote in the forward to a book by Gerald Hamilton aptly called Mr. Norris and I that was published in 1956. Isherwood based the character of Mr. Norris on his friend Gerald Hamilton. Isherwood was being hard on himself. He originally went to Berlin in the 1930s to experience the deviant sexual lifestyle that was available to a young Englishman in search of expressing his sexual preferences, preferences that may have been considered deviant in the community he grew up in. In 1935 when this book was published very few people knew just how horrible things would become and those that could imagine some of it could not imagine the worst of it.

William Bradshaw, names that come from Isherwood’s middle names, comes to Berlin in search of adventure. He meets the enigmatic Arthur Norris on the train and despite the best efforts of the subject of his interest to warn him that all was not as it seemed, Bradshaw becomes fast friends with Norris. As Bradshaw learns more about Norris’s nefarious affairs, all revolving around Arthur’s frivolous use of money when he had some and a penchant for criminal behavior when he needed more, William expects to be kept abreast of the rise and fall of Norris’s fortunes. After all Norris and his peculiar behavior are a major form of entertainment for him. When Arthur is called away on “business” in Paris, or actually running away from a problem that has become...well...too problematic, William realizes that he has formed an unnatural attachment to his friend.

”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.”

Norris is a survivor so despite whatever noble characteristics that Bradshaw wishes to naively attach to Norris, ultimately, if need be, he would trade anyone or anything to avoid pain, unpleasantness, or imprisonment. Now on the other hand Bradshaw is basically a tourist on extended vacation in Berlin, tutoring people to keep himself in pocket money. He can feel some of the thrill of associating with criminals, communists, and people engaging in “perverted” behavior, but at the end of the day when the chips are down he can ring up the embassy and find himself safely back on a train to England. As Norris’s friends begin to disappear, some turning up dead, and others providing information that tightens the net around Norris’s activities Bradshaw begins to feel uncomfortable. The game has become all too real.



Norris has a predilection to being dominated and beaten. A severe young lady named Anni with long boots and an assortment of whips provides him with the equivalent of sexual release in the form of controlled torture. To Norris, Anni is a beauty beyond earthly compare.

”Do you think it’s an exquisitely beautiful face? Quite perfect in its way. Like a Raphael Madonna. The other day I made an epigram. I said, Anni’s beauty is only sin-deep. I hope that is original? Is it? Please laugh.”

Isherwood decided not to make Bradshaw gay. He did not want to distract the reader or give the reader a reason not to identify with the character. He basically made him asexual. He is subject to an occasionally pawing or a game of footsy from time to time, but overall he is an observer, a keen observer of the behavior of others. You can almost sense the stories that Isherwood wanted to tell about his experiences in Berlin. They are there in this book just barely off stage. If you listen closely you might even hear an occasional muffled scream or cry of pleasure coming from a back bedroom or sifting through the floorboards from downstairs.



The book did remind me of a class I had in sixth grade. The teacher’s first name was Francis which I remember because I had an Aunt named Frances and I couldn’t figure out why this guy was named Francis. He decided as a lesson in discrimination to take the most Aryan among us, blond and blue-eyed prefered, and drap construction paper billboards around us graffitied with anti-aryan rhetoric. We also had to wear dunce caps and for the length of the school day, one day only, we had to walk to all our classes wearing these ridiculous raiments. Students continued to scrawl their own thoughts of our unworthiness on us as the day progressed. I of course was an Aryan poster child, a bit gaunt, but you know the artist could have plumped me up a bit to promote a more healthy version of Hitler youth. It was one of the longest days of my life. I will never forget the feeling of being held apart, unable to escape even for a moment that I had been singled out for persecution.

It was horrible.
It scared the crap out of me.
And it made me a better person.

”They were suddenly proud to be blonde. And they thrilled with a furtive, sensual pleasure, like schoolboys, because the Jews, their business rivals, and the Marxists, a vaguely defined minority of people who didn’t concern them, had been satisfactorily found guilty of defeat and the inflation, and were going to catch it.”

This was really just an entertainment, a very good one with witty prose, and interesting characters. Mr. Norris in his assortment of vanity wigs and his troubles with an irate butler intent on his destruction will reside in my memory forever. Bradshaw, shadowy though he was, still provided us with a view of events filled with awe and excitement. He was a puppy let loose from his society shackles to explore whatever scent caught his attention. I do wonder what kind of gritty novel this would have been if Isherwood had not been afraid of losing the monetary sponsorship of an indulgent Uncle or of incurring the ire of his friends.

William receives a message from Arthur that may just sum up the whole novel. ”Tell me, William, his last letter concluded, what have I done to deserve all this?”

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[Agnieszka · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Bradshaw, an Englishman living in Berlin, meets on the train Mr Norris. He is remarkable and I may even say sophisticated person; by turns charming and crafty, narcissistic and vain, his manners and attire are elegant and impeccable and his approach to life may be summed up in his own words: I only wish to have three sorts of people as my friends, those who are very rich, those who are very witty, and those who are very beautiful. No wonder that from the first moment William is fascinated by Arthur Norris and accidental meeting right away turns into friendship.

William, in good faith and due to innate gullibility (I show him a little mercy not naming it stupidity), attends new friend's life. He accompanies Arthur to Berlin's underworld, engages in political activity and, convinced about his financial problems, let himself get entangled in spy affair. His interest and friendship to Norris does not falter despite warnings from other friends and Arthur's opaque explanations about his finances, dubious activities and disreputable acquaintances.

Mr Norris changes trains is very well written novel, with great evocation of prewar Berlin , its inhabitants and decadent atmosphere. And though we can sense overwhelming presence of coming Nazis, novel has ironic touch and abounds in hilarious incidents. Isherwood focuses predominantly on Norris but also introduces distinctive and memorable supporting characters, like Baron Pregnitz ( indulging himself with peculiar likings ), Olga, rather resourceful woman ( she was a procuress, a cocaine-seller, and a receiver of stolen goods; she also let lodgings, took in washing and, when in mood, did exquisite fancy needlework ) , dominattrix Anni or devious Arthur's assistant, Schmidt of whom Arthur used to say those who are foolish enough to keep snakes as pets usually have cause to regret it, sooner or later .

We can observe born of the fascism, participate in communist rally and drunken orgy as well and our pockets are empty due to galloping inflation. But in the turn of events, step by step, we're coming to the truth of the real Arthur's face and in the end, despite his ridiculous excuses and attempts to justify himself, we can even, oddly enough, pity him though we can’t deny that he got exactly what he deserved. And I may assure you that it was not Anni's whip at all.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of Isherwood’s Berlin novels; almost an historical novel of the last years of the Weimar Republic and was published in 1935. Isherwood was part of a group of young English writers and poets who found England repressive and sought a form of exile (this is also partly a novel of exile); the group included Auden and Spender as well. Berlin was the choice for Isherwood, mainly because an elderly relative had warned him against it, saying it was the vilest place since Sodom. Of course for gay men, such as Isherwood and Auden Berlin was much more liberal and less repressed than England.
The two main characters are thinly disguised. The narrator is a young man called William Bradshaw (Isherwood’s middle names) who is travelling to Berlin to be a private tutor. Because Isherwood wanted to put the main focus on Norris, he makes Bradshaw a voyeur who watches what goes on and provides commentary. This makes Bradshaw seem morally neutral (and sexually neutral). Isherwood later thought this might have been a mistake, making it seem as though he was lying about himself. Bradshaw’s moral neutrality also gives the impression that he does not care about what is going on around him.
The main character, Arthur Norris, is a very thinly veiled Gerald Hamilton. Hamilton was a complex character who at various times was imprisoned for theft, bankruptcy, gross indecency (he was gay) and he was interned during the second world war for being a threat to national security. He ran guns for the IRA, shared a flat with Aleister Crowley, was a communist sympathiser and had his hands in numerous other schemes. Hamilton wrote three volumes of autobiography, all three had different biographical details. He called one volume Mr Norris and I (Isherwood wrote the forward). He was a conman and raconteur with a good deal of charm. Norris in the book is exactly that, charming and endearing but always up to something and keeping many secrets. There are some genuinely comic moments; such as the party Norris and Bradshaw attend. Bradshaw hears Norris screaming in a bedroom and bursts in assuming he is being attacked, only to find him being soundly whipped by a dominatrix called Anni. The various rituals surrounding Norris’s wig and daily toilette are hilarious. There is also a great supporting cast of minor characters who all add something to the whole.
The real star of the book is the underbelly of Berlin in the early 1930s which is marvellously drawn. The various communists and the rather disorganised party machine contrasting with the well run and rather sinister Nazis, who most people seem to think don’t stand a chance of power. This is the tail end of Weimar and a look at the sleazier side of Berlin. It is beautifully written and is a joy to read. The ending outlines the Nazis taking power and the destruction of the communist party.
I read the folio edition with some wonderful illustrations by Beryl Cook.

[Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs · Rating 3 out of 5]

You guys out there in gigabytes land all know I have a serious problem with Solipsistic Autism. You want fries with that? Just sayin, so you know the purely fictional headspace I’m coming from…

So, anyway: YES, I tried to read Mr. Norris, brainchild of a close friend of W.H. Auden's, back in 1971.

And yes, reading it drew a complete blank in my virginal dreamspace about any possibility of Isherwood coming from what we - who may number among his ideological descendants - now call LGBTQ Land.

Some folks justly determine my capacious cranial vacancy to be an abject Waste of Space. Ouch.

Anyway, it was January 1971. I had just escaped from Christmas Break nearly intact, after alien forces had desperately tried their gosh-darnedest to 'safely' sequester me out of harm's way in a psych ward. Fortunately, though, the Good Lord loves both fools and drunks and I was back at uni for final term.

Remember, an Autistic personality was terra incognita for folks back then.

First things first. For Friday night there was to be a rehearsal for my college Choral Society's production of Carmina Burana with the local Symphony Orchestra. I promised myself I would take along Mr. Norris to read at the pauses.

So I did. But wait a sec - why were my friend Bill and his buds up in the closest balcony snickering down at us baritones and basses in the choir? Were they amused by their Music Faculty pals having to do choir duty so close to the break?

Or - horrors - was I the reason for their manic antics? Or my book about which I still knew nothing, not being able to see where it was coming from?

I put Isherwood away. It was bought for our uni residence's library anyway.

I think it was my sidekick Michael (may he rest in peace), a prominent LGBTQ activist, who set me straight...

Oh, well. What I don't know now, at my age, still won't hurt me.

But we Aspies can make a hash of everything!

I have, however, added Isherwood's memoirs since then to my TBR's.

The thirties fascinate me, and...

Any pal of Wystan Auden is a pal of mine, however much I keep his books at arm's length.

[Meike · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part of Isherwood's iconic "Berlin Novels" tells the story of a young Englishman who lives in Berlin as a language teacher in the early 1930's, experiencing the rise of the Nazis. This narrator, William Bradshaw, is an alter ego of the author (full name: Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood) who came to interwar Berlin in search of freedom, adventure, and gay sex - and yes, the guy has to join the ranks of "problematic faves" because he famously took up with an underage street sweeper (see: Christopher and His Kind). Isherwood later condemned "Mr Norris changes trains" as "heartless", because he felt like at the time of writing, he did not truly understand the suffering of the people.

The novel was first published in 1935, and young Isherwood was a young, inexperienced, apolitical man and member of the discriminated gay minority when he came to the German capital - and while his perception regarding this novel is mostly certainly too harsh, it's true that the social circumstances function more or less as a backdrop to the main event, which is a spy thriller (but the passages that do describe the atmosphere are very well done, IMHO!). Protagonist Bradshaw meets the title-giving Norris (based on Gerald Hamilton) on a train from the Netherlands to Germany, and he is intrigued by the eccentric, mysterious traveler who seems to be involved in some kind of shady scheme. Bradshaw and Norris become friends, and our narrator finds himself in Communist meetings, in the midst of wild parties, and dining with nobility - but what's behind the enigmatic facade of the financially troubled, BDSM-loving, well-connected Norris?

Bradshaw is more a narrative tool than a character, serving to describe and ponder others who populate the scenes, and, of course, mainly Norris. I believe that there is great worth in having writers who hail from outside Germany and who witnessed the 1930's depict this time through their eyes, but the convoluted puzzle around Norris becomes more and more exhausting, while the political situation becomes more and more dangerous, but that doesn't translate enough to the story in the foreground which relies on enormous amounts of "tell, don't show".

To put it bluntly: Babylon Berlin is so much better, as it actually achieves what this novel aims to do. But then again, the writers of the series had almost 90 years of history between them and the events, while Isherwood published this four years before WW II.

[Jean-Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

(2025 reread)
How novel to read about the rise of fascism during a rise in fascism—said literally nobody, ever. But here we are. The echoes really are fucking shocking, but the hypocritical cult members in support of this latest wave of red hat fascism are either too dumb to read/reason or are smart enough to manipulate those blind to any fact (all facts, period) which doesn't align with their pseudo-religious racism/bigotry.

There had been one scandal too many. The exhausted public had been fed with surprises to point of indigestion.

They were pleased because it would soon be summer, because Hitler had promised to protect the small tradesmen, because their newspapers told them that the good times were coming.

—

(initial review)

It is indeed tragic to see how, even in these days, a clever and unscrupulous liar can deceive millions.

(1933 or 2023?)

My reading of Mr. Norris Changes Trains followed directly on the heels of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and the two books are more complementary than I'd expected. Norris and Brodie are obviously both mavericks whose affairs are of great interest to those around them—friend as well as foe; both are set in the 1930s, with glimpses of the Depression, but this one serves as an unanticipated reminder of how vile Brodie's admiration for fascism truly is—which is something Spark treats rather lightly.

Pre-war Germany is as fascinating as it is terrifying, and Isherwood—William Bradshaw as he calls himself in this one—is the ideal narrator. Several characters from Goodbye to Berlin appear in this novel and I can see why the two are often published in one volume. The right book at the right time has always been my philosphy, and this one—begun and abandoned several time before—once more reinforced it. Frl. Schroeder has to be one of my favorite literary creations.

[Nigeyb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A captivating novel about a duplicitous friendship set against the backdrop of a country in turmoil

Mr Norris Changes Trains was the first book I have read by Christopher Isherwood since my teens, back in the 1970s, and I am delighted to report that Christopher Isherwood is every bit as good as I had remembered.

Mr Norris Changes Trains was published in 1933 and (along with Goodbye to Berlin) is drawn from Isherwood's experiences as an expatriate living in Berlin during the early 1930s.

William Bradshaw, an English teacher in Berlin, has a chance encounter on a train with the slightly sinister Arthur Norris. On the surface Norris is a charming, if highly strung and down at heel, English gentleman. As the reader realises, and well before Bradshaw, Norris's charm masks a morally bankrupt personality. The character of Arthur Norris was based on a real life character, who Christopher Isherwood befriended in Berlin, called Gerald Hamilton.

Apparently Gerald Hamilton went through life managing to amass a large number of distinguished and not-so-distinguished friends, despite being a liar, a thief, and completely two-faced. A man guaranteed, in any political situation, to choose the most repellent side, and who fabricated almost every detail of his life. Hamilton would sell a friend down the river for the smallest amount of money. Despite being permanently bankrupt, he frequently managed to live a life filled with five-star hotels, fine wines, and good food, whether in Weimar-era Berlin or London in the swinging sixties. All this and more is, so I understand, contained in The Man Who Was Norris: The Life of Gerald Hamilton by Tom Cullen a book, as the title suggests, devoted to The Man Who Was Norris. I hope to read it at some point.

Coincidentally Gerald Hamilton also appeared in another book I recently enjoyed, the stunning Rendezvous at the Russian Tea Rooms: The Spyhunter, the Fashion Designer & the Man From Moscow by Paul Willetts which is also well worth reading.

I heartily recommend Mr Norris Changes Trains, it's an engaging tale which is also historically fascinating through its powerful evocation of the atmosphere of Berlin during the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s.

Towards the novel's conclusion, politics dominates the story as the plot strands cleverly come together. Just as William Bradshaw realises that he has been duped, so the German people are also being taken in by their Nazi leader. Unlike Hitler in the 1930s, Norris's own plans never seem to quite work out and, as the tragic ending presages the horrors that were to follow, so it also signals hasty departures from Berlin for both Arthur Norris and William Bradshaw.

I'll leave you to discover Norris's fate for yourselves, it is an entertaining and apt conclusion for one so despicable, depraved and corrupt.

Overall Mr Norris Changes Trains is a captivating novel about a duplicitous friendship set against the backdrop of a country in turmoil.

4/5

[Barry Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's nice to be back with Isherwood. This novel is nice. Well, it's Isherwood nice. Meaning it's all great until something horrible happens and then he stamps on your heart and never looks back. This is a fantastic study of male friendship in the 30s (aka hella gay) and of the rise of Nazism. It odd seeing just how much the people in this novel don't like Hitler or the Nazis even though this was published in 1933, they don't even know what's coming.

I must read more Isherwood and so must you. If you haven't read Isherwood then ugh what are you doing with your life?

[Fabian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impressive & rich in the anecdotal department... I wholly agree that the book lacks a true plot. It is more of a character study, of the flamboyant & unpredictable Arthur Norris whose nature embodies the joie de vivre of the true bohemian--his mishaps with the stirrings up of the Nazi party (relevant as much today as EVER) are part of true history, and another plus for the short novel. As part of "The Berlin Tales" of which I am henceforth bewitched (I mean, we yet have to meet Sally Bowles, ain't we!), it is a nod to the writer's authentic experience of a crucial point in time. That it is all laced delicately with gay wisdom & wit makes it truly worthwhile!

[Sketchbook · Rating 5 out of 5]

"He had an animal innocence," Isherwood sums up Mr Norris -- no, I mean Gerald Hamilton (1890-1970), the flamboyant and flabby rogue who inspired Mr Norris. The 2 met, presumably, in Berlin where Issyvoo lived fr 1929-33. This may be the coolest and finest book Isherwood wrote. If he groused about it years later, it's because he was probably ashamed of his own political naivete.

I don't think Gerald Hamilton had any innocence at all. But his bewigged and painted self gave birth to a wonderful "fictional" character -- the scheming Mr Norris who lacks any positive qualities, but is still an unforgettable person. I read this book a long time ago and, now, thanks to Google, I reread anew after sleuthing Hamilton.

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?

Sally Bowles & Co came later, c 1939, when our author "got the political picture." 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."

Isherwood wasn't known in the US until 1951 when John Van Druten took a couple of his Berlin stories and wrote the play "I Am a Camera," later a musicom. He told an interviewer, "I've never had a great success at first with anything I've written." He may have been the earliest to write about Berlin in the 30s, but the forgotten and slighted Robert McAlmon caught the nether-scene, steeped in drugs and unzippered frolics ten years earlier in "Miss Knight and Others," which, for years, was unpublished here.

Isherwood's writing style in Mr Norris is quietly dry in a way that may remind you of Graham Greene. It's very effective. And witty. You feel Berlin as a reckless, scary crossroads. Mr Norris is last spotted in Rio. Gerald Hamilton, in fact, expired while living above a Chinese restaurant in Chelsea called The Good Earth.
========
This novel also has the title in some editions as "The Last of Mr. Norris." (GR has various sites for this novel, under two titles, so sleuthing reviews is confusing. It's the best of Isherwood.)

[Daniela · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I expected from this book: Suave, homosexual man has affair with Englishman he met on a train in Berlin against the backdrop of the rise of Nazism.

What I got from this book: Weird, possibly bisexual man gets into too much trouble with the authorities because of his schemes to make money while his possibly bisexual friend tries to protect him from himself.

It's a good book, with fantastically understated writing, but it's a far cry from what I expected. I also didn't see the point. Not all fiction must have a point, it can exist simply for the sake of itself, but here, given the structure and the characters, it feels as if Isherwood should have delivered more. Apart from offering a screenshot of Berlin at the crossroads of History, I didn't quite see the idea behind the story. In any case, it's a good, fast read, great to get into Isherwood.

[Matthew Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

182nd book of 2020.

A good book, wonderfully written as expected from Herr Issyvoo. I initially wondered about the protagonist of this novel, William Bradshaw, and why it wasn't Isherwood himself, as it is in the subsequent Berlin Novel, Goodbye to Berlin. It didn't take long to realise: Christopher Isherwood's full name is Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood. There's our name. There is also some confusion surrounding this book and its title. Here in the UK it is published as so, Mr Norris Changes Trains. There is another book, so I thought, and many apparently think, titled The Last of Mr Norris, which sounds distinctly like a sequel. It is in fact the same book, the latter being the title Isherwood suggested for its American publication after there being some worry that the American audience wouldn’t understand the phrase “changes trains”. The sequel to the novel is Goodbye to Berlin, in which the narrator is named Christopher Isherwood and not William Bradshaw, but I will come back to Isherwood’s change.


—Isherwood

Though it’s never “confirmed”, it’s quite clear to me that Bradshaw is Isherwood, or at least, an iteration of him. Mr Norris is based on Gerald Hamilton and several other characters of the book are based off other real people Isherwood met in Berlin. The novel is a roman-à-clef, then, just like Goodbye to Berlin. Both novels are successive as character portraits, but are both elevated by their dramatic backdrop—the rise of the Nazis. A quote on the back of my edition sums the book up nicely:

Isherwood sketches with the lightest of touches the last gasp of the decaying demi-monde and the vigorous world of Communists and Nazis, grappling with each other on the edge of the abyss.

Norris is a Communist, and also a masochist. His character is brilliantly drawn by Isherwood, with his classic wit and sly humour, but he is also veiled in mystery, which the progression of the novel slowly unravels. It isn’t quite as enjoyable or illuminated as Goodbye to Berlin, but still a brilliant read.

And the book did well, critically and otherwise as soon as it was published in 1935, but Isherwood later disregarded it himself. He called his name change to William Bradshaw a “foolish evasion”, which explains his becoming Christopher Isherwood in later novels. I recently discovered that Gerald Hamilton (Mr Norris) wrote his own memoir in 1956, and it was titled Mr Norris and I; Isherwood wrote an introduction and referred back to his own novel:

What repels me now about Mr Norris is its heartlessness. It is a heartless fairy-story about a real city in which human beings were suffering the miseries of political violence and near-starvation. The "wickedness" of Berlin's night-life was of the most pitiful kind; the kisses and embraces, as always, had price-tags attached to them, but here the prices were drastically reduced in the cut-throat competition of an over-crowded market. ... As for the "monsters", they were quite ordinary human beings prosaically engaged in getting their living through illegal methods. The only genuine monster was the young foreigner who passed gaily through these scenes of desolation, misinterpreting them to suit his childish fantasy.

And as a postscript: I lived down Bradshaw Road for two years in C. while I was studying at University with my own companions and we perhaps fancied ourselves the demi-monde of our classes, for romantic purposes only.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel begins with William Bradshaw, a young English tutor, meeting the slightly ridiculous Mr Arthur Norris on a train to Berlin. Mr Norris is nervous at having to present his passport, elusive about what he does and, with his rather obvious wig and odd habits, does not seem as though he is a character to take seriously at first. However, this chance meeting results in a firm friendship and, fairly soon, William is visiting his new friend frequently and becomes involved in his disreputable life and associates; including his bullying secretary Herr Schmidt.

Mr Norris is a man who lives well, despite his soon obvious lifestyle of debts, despair and dodgy dealings. The novel is set in 1930’s Berlin and so it is impossible to ignore the political situation unfolding there. Mr Norris is keen to shine at the local Communist Party meetings, but these activities also lead to him being questioned by the authorities.

I have never read Christopher Isherwood before, but I liked the way that the author allowed us to interpret events for ourselves. He trusted the reader to keep up and so it is enough to infer certain things, or show us glimpses, so that we can make our own assumptions. The style of the novel seems deceptively slight, but this is a very clever book – beautifully written, it flows wonderfully and is filled with great characters and has an excellent setting.

[D'Ailleurs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Οφείλω να προειδοποιήσω ότι ο τίτλος είναι παραπλανητικός καθώς μόνο ένα τρένο εμφανίζεται σε όλο το βιβλίο. Παρόλα αυτά είναι απόλυτα ταιριαστός αφού μεταφέρει τις διακυμάνσεις της διάθεσης του κ. Νόρις. Μια τυχαία γνωριμία μεταξύ του συγγραφέα και του εκκεντρικού ΄Αρθουρ Νόρρις ξεδιπλώνει το προπολεμικό Βερολίνο, την έκρυθμη κατάσταση μεταξύ κομμουνιστών και ναζί αλλά και την κρυφή "παρακμή" της μεσοαστικής τάξης. Πολύ όμορφο ανάγνωσμα που διάβαζεται σε συνδιασμό με το "Αντίο Βερολίνο" και αποπνέει μια αυθεντικότητα που σπάνια βρίσκεις σε ανάλογα σύγχρονα αναγνώσματα.

[Xenja · Rating 5 out of 5]

E un mattino dopo l'altro, in tutta l'immensa, umida e triste città, e nelle colonie di baracche dei sobborghi fatte con le casse da imballaggio, i giovani si svegliavano in un'altra giornata vuota, senza scopo e senza lavoro, da trascorrere come meglio potevano: vendendo stringhe da scarpe, chiedendo l'elemosina, aspettando interminabilmente negli uffici di collocamento, gironzolando attorno ai vespasiani, aprendo gli sportelli delle automobili, aiutando a portar ceste nei mercati, spettegolando, oziando, rubando, cercando soffiate per le corse, dividendosi mozziconi di sigarette raccolti nei rigagnoli, cantando canzonette per qualche moneta nei cortili o nelle vetture della metropolitana.

Precede di alcuni anni ‘Addio a Berlino’ ed è altrettanto splendido: le stesse cupe atmosfere della capitale tedesca negli anni Trenta, con il nazismo che avanza e il comunismo che combatte per tenergli testa, la crisi economica, la disoccupazione, la tetra allegria sfrenata dello sfacelo; lo stesso narratore, il giovane inglese omosessuale (ma stavolta è un alter ego che porta l’altro nome dell’autore, William Bradshaw) che sceglie di vivere a Berlino per la sua nota libertà di costumi, che dà lezioni private per vivere, che fa amicizia con la padrona di casa, e con tanti altri personaggi bizzarri e imperfetti ma straordinariamente umani, tutti impegnati, ognuno a suo modo, nella lotta per la sopravvivenza. Il più straordinario tra loro è Mr Norris, un buffo ometto inglese di mezza età, cerimonioso e spericolato, che vive di espedienti; e che tra mille vicissitudini prima divertenti e poi andando avanti sempre più serie e drammatiche, si trasforma in un indimenticabile antieroe. Come sempre, sotto una apparente semplicità e ironica leggerezza, le storie di Isherwood rivelano conflitti morali brucianti e una chiara, aperta, lucida e saggia (insolita per la sua giovane età) visione delle cose.
Fra ‘Mr Norris’ e ‘Addio a Berlino’ scrisse vari romanzi che non sono ancora stati tradotti in italiano, chissà perché. E anche dopo la guerra, ma quelli mi interessano meno, perché una volta stabilito in California, si fece prendere da un totalizzante interesse per l’induismo, lo zen, e tutte quelle robe lì, e di quelle soprattutto scrisse. In ogni caso, lancerei un appello alla Adelphi perché si metta al lavoro subito. Isherwood è un autore di cui non si potrà mai stimare abbastanza la sensibilità, la pietas, l’umiltà, la generosità, l’intelligenza emotiva, il dubbio: e abbiamo bisogno della sua opera omnia.

[Kinga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Berlin in the 30s, the political unrest grows but the demimonde parties on.

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.

William meets Mr Norris on the train in the first chapter, and, sadly, there aren’t that many trains afterwards. Sadly, as I love reading about what happens on the trains. Mr Norris, while keeping up the appearances of a refined Englishman of delicate sensibilities, seems rather murky.
William’s favourite pastime becomes watching Mr Norris, and, gosh, is that boy observant! He notices everything, every furtive glance, every twitch of the mouth, every tense muscle.

“’Do you know what time we arrive at the frontier?’
Looking back on the conversation, this question does not seem to me to have been particularly unusual. It is true that I had no interest in the answer; I wanted merely to ask something which might start us chatting, and which wasn’t, at the same time, inquisitive or impertinent. Its effect on the stranger was remarkable. I had certainly succeeded in arousing his interest. He gave me a long, odd glance, his features seemed to stiffen a little. It was the glance of a poker-player who guesses suddenly that his opponent hold a straight flush and that he had better be careful. At length he answered, speaking slowly and with caution:
‘I’m afraid I couldn’t tell you exactly. In about an hour’s time, I believe. ‘
His glance, now vacant for a moment, was clouded again. An unpleasant thought seemed to tease him like a wasp; he moved his head slightly to avoid it."

I told you; nothing goes past this boy. But you get used to it and become equally obsessed about every change in Mr Norris’ body language, trying to read what he’s not telling you (and that’s quite a lot.). Isherwood has created a rich and fascinating character (apparently he didn’t create him from scratch, as Mr Norris was modeled on Gerald Hamilton) whom we can’t help but cut a lot of slack, despite the fact he is obviously a total scumbag. As a reader, I found myself just as gullible as William while believing (like him) that I had it all under control and saw Mr Norris through.

I liked this book a lot but maybe I’m wrong to like it. Isherwood himself ended up hating it saying it was dishonest and shallow. I think he is being too hard on himself. Literally on himself, because the narrator, William Bradshaw, is more than just an alter-ego; it’s the author himself. Isherwood came to the conclusion that it was William who was the villain of the novel, insensitive to the misery and horror that was surrounding him in the prewar Germany.
If I were Chris, I wouldn’t beat myself about it so much. His descriptions of the state of the decaying German society were powerful. And I felt the sense of impending doom. (Although it was maybe because I knew how it all escalated). Anyway, he wouldn’t be the only one to dismiss the seriousness of the situation. How do you think Chamberlain felt?

There is so much more awesomeness in this book like dominatrix scenes, a sleazy homosexual baron playing footsie under the table, a Communist pimp, but I think you should read it all for yourself.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our voices sounded so absurd that I could have laughed out loud. We were like two unimportant characters in the first act of a play, put there to make conversation until it is time for the chief actor to appear.

A sweetly nostalgic look backwards at what unexpectedly becomes nostalgia-- the half-understood, the loony, the unexplained and the senseless-- as they begin to morph into the storyline of what we remember. And into what we end up calling human nature, once we have some perspective on the past.

At this point it goes without saying that this author was writing about life that wasn't mainstream, and yet reflected the era in a kind of funhouse mirror version. Isherwood was able to contrast his unusual cast of characters, contrary and unmanageably compulsive, against the backdrop of the burgeoning National Socialist regime in Germany's thirties, a larger frame that makes individual failings or eccentricity seem minor.

Our impressionable and yet worldly narrator makes his polite way amongst the international flotsam and near-society types that comprise certain circles in Berlin, 1935. Rather than savagely giving us a wicked parody of everyone he meets and all he sees, he opts for a kind of quiet empathy in the hopes of understanding the larger things. As much as this helps the story, since he gets far more out of the proceedings than he might with a more judgmental approach-- in the end he gets no further in his larger quest, due no doubt to the precarious uncertainty of the era.

Isherwood has a kind of opposite number here to Hamilton's The Slaves Of Solitude, but with characters who are the inverse of quiet bed-sit desperation; they are criminals, bolsheviks, secret homosexuals, dominatrixes and jaded, perverse aristocracy, harboring various kinds of intents. It's a Reader's Digest "Most Unforgettable Character" with candidates who would truly horrify that staid family publication.

(..there is one ridiculous Baron whose proclivity for young boys is aided by his reading list in one particular genre: it is the Boy's-Castaway-Island scenario that fascinates him. Whenever we encounter the Baron, he's likely to be asking if a current escort reminds the narrator of one of his desert-island idylls. Grown men. Some wearing monocles. Boy castaways. Berlin. Nazis. Isherwood makes it impossible not to laugh, and yet...)

Mr. Norris Changes Trains is by turns silly, antic, then not-silly, and threatening, unpredictable. The introductory scene in the train embodies this nicely. Detail flies by in dense clouds, but a small item here or there may prove consequentially deadly. Perhaps. Kind of like life, but life in a highly-fraught, delirious era, that will never happen quite the same way again.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the least juicy title ever devised; it sounds like an Ealing comedy. Yet its colloquial, conversational prose betrays a speedy political thriller trying to get out. The book’s initial readers were getting the news about the fledgling Nazi state hot from its pages.

The odd quality of the book is how the fascist creeps aren’t portrayed as all-powerful, diabolical monsters. Like the villain with his empty blue eyes and wig held on with a dab of glue, evil is more self-serving, pathetic and narcissistic.

I couldn’t help thinking of the likes of Donald Trump and his enablers when finishing it.

[Connie G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher Isherwood wrote the fictional "Mr Norris Changes Trains" based on his experiences in Berlin in the early 1930s. He left England to work in Berlin as an English tutor since Berlin was much more liberal toward homosexuals. The character William Bradshaw (named after Isherwood's middle names) acts as a narrator and an observer in the book.

Mr Norris, based on Isherwood's friend, Gerald Hamilton, is a charming, nervous, middle-aged man whose lifestyle is supported by conning people, selling secrets, and other criminal activities. He's a bit of a comical, prissy figure with a wig that has a tendency to sit off-center. He has regular appointments with Anni, a woman with tall boots and a whip.

William meets Mr Norris on the train to Berlin, and they become good friends. Mr Norris introduces William to a group of people who engage in drunken, sexual partying. He also involves William with the Communist party leaders in Berlin. This was a difficult economic time in Germany. The Nazis were gaining power with their efficient brutal organization. The political scene is viewed through the eyes of the young, politically naive William.

The book is engaging with its entertaining, well-drawn characters. It is also a historical look at a changing Germany as the Weimar republic was ending.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

As Isherwood himself said of this novel much later in his life, it is shallow and it is filled with frivolity whilst being set during a dark time in world history, but that doesn't change the fact that it is an enjoyable read perhaps akin to the entertainments of Graham Greene or Evelyn Waugh. Much like Mr Norris looking back at his youthful enthusiasms with regret I believe Isherwood's disowning of this book has to be put down to growing old and the looming spectre of death. I am of the opinion that you should never have regrets over your youthful art, but who knows perhaps one day I will look upon my published works with the same disdain?

As far as the novel itself goes, I was expecting something more. I imagined that there would be a much closer look at the debauched lifestyles being led in Berlin by the Bright Young Things of this period, something closer to a Vile Bodies in Berlin than I found but that aside the characters are wonderfully drawn (most natably the fabulous titular character of Mr Norris) and the relationship between Bradshaw and Norris is terribly entertaining.

Despite not really containing itself within a conventional plot structure the intrigue grows and grows as you become quite certain that Mr Norris is up to no good and you're wondering when and how things are going to go wrong for the hapless young Bradshaw as Germany begins to disintegrate in the background.

[merixien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kusursuz bir Berlin hikayesi değil. Ama Nazilerin yükseliş döneminde çok hüzünlü bir dönemi oldukça eğlenceli bir dille ve okurunu saran bir şekilde anlatmasına bayıldım. Tabii bu süreci politikacılar değil de yerli halk ve şehirde yaşayan sıradan insanların gözünden anlattığını da ekleyeyim, zira 30ların politik ortamını okumak istemiyorsanız çok yanlış bir yerdesiniz.

[Jillwilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

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:
What repels me now about Mr Norris is its heartlessness. It is a heartless fairy-story about a real city in which human beings were suffering the miseries of political violence and near-starvation. The "wickedness" of Berlin's night-life was of the most pitiful kind; the kisses and embraces, as always, had price-tags attached to them, but here the prices were drastically reduced in the cut-throat competition of an over-crowded market....As for the "monsters", they were quite ordinary human beings prosiacally engaged in getting their living through illegal methods. The only genuine monster was the young foreigner who passed gaily through these scenes of desolation, misinterpreting them to suit his childish fantasy.”

Isherwood felt unable to fully write about his sexuality in this novel which explains some deadened undercurrents. The plot circles around secrets, betrayals, politics and identity without ever really going anywhere with any of these themes. It is slight.

The Telegraph commented: “While Isherwood was attracted to Berlin by the ready availability of homosexual partners there, he always had a keen journalist’s instinct for being in the right place at the right time. “Here was the seething brew of history in the making,” he wrote, “a brew which would test the truth of all the political theories, just as actual cooking tests the cookery books. The Berlin brew seethed with unemployment, malnutrition, stock market panic, hatred of the Versailles Treaty and other potent ingredients.” “
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tv...)

Both the homosexuality and the seething brew of Berlin are faint shadows in the novel which is set in 1931-32. You get a taste “Berlin was in a state of civil war. Hate exploded suddenly, without warning, out of nowhere: at street corners, in restaurants, cinemas, dance halls, swimming baths: at midnight, after breakfast, in the middle of the afternoon. Knives were whipped out, blows were dealt with spiked rings, beer-mugs, chair-legs or leaded clubs; bullets slashed the advertisements on the poster-columns, rebounded from the iron roofs of latrines. In the middle of a crowded street a young man would be attacked, stripped, thrashed and left bleeding on the pavement; in fifteen seconds it was all over and the assailants had disappeared.” (p90) I wanted more of this reality. It was to have been called 'The Lost' which is a good description of what happened to the idea.

[Dimitri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sospirò. “Sono troppo vecchio per questo genere di storie. Questi continui viaggi … mi fanno molto male”.
“Ma non dovreste allarmarvi tanto, sapete”. Provavo più che mai, in quel momento, un sentimento di protezione per lui. Questo sentimento, misto di protezione e di affetto, che in modo tanto facile e pericoloso egli ispirava in me, doveva poi influire su tutte le nostre relazioni future.

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.

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:
“E’ storto?”
Arrossii vivamente. Mi sentivo terribilmente imbarazzato.
“Un pochino appena, forse”.
Poi, scoppiai a ridere. Ridemmo ambedue. In quel momento l’avrei abbracciato. Avevamo, come si suol dire, messo il dito sulla piaga, una buona volta, e il nostro sollievo era così grande che eravamo come due giovani che si fossero fatti una dichiarazione d’amore.

Disordine, miseria, lezioni private di inglese, riunioni di comunisti, sedute private masochistiche con frusta e stivali, interrogatori di polizia, orge, raggiri e misteri, fughe e ritorni: “I am a camera”, ha scritto Isherwood.

Nei primi giorni di marzo, dopo le elezioni, il tempo si fece d’improvviso mite e caldo. “E’ il clima di Hitler” diceva la moglie del portinaio; e suo figlio osservava scherzosamente che dovevamo essere grati al giovane Van der Lubbe, perché l’incendio del Reichstag aveva sciolto la neve. “Un così bel ragazzo” osservò la signora Schroeder con un sospiro. “Come mai può aver fatto una cosa tanto terribile?”. La moglie del portinaio sbuffò.
La nostra via sembrava molto gaia, quando vi si entrava e si vedevano le bandiere nere bianche e rosse che pendevano immobili dalle finestre, contro il cielo azzurro di primavera. Sulla Nollendorfplatz, la gente sedeva in soprabito all’aperto davanti ai caffè, e leggeva i particolari del colpo di Stato in Baviera. Goering parlava alla radio, e la sua voce echeggiava dall’altoparlante all’angolo della strada. La Germania è pronta, diceva. Una gelateria era già aperta. Alcuni nazisti in uniforme passeggiavano su e giù, con visi seri e intenti, come incaricati di importanti missioni. I lettori di giornali, seduti fuori dai caffè, volgevano il capo a vederli passare, sorridevano, e sembravano contenti.
Sorridevano con aria di approvazione a quei giovani, dai grossi stivali da spaccamontagne, che si preparavano a buttare all’aria il Trattato di Versailles. Erano contenti perché sarebbe venuta presto l’estate, perché Hitler aveva promesso di proteggere i piccoli commercianti, perché i loro giornali dicevano che sarebbero venuti i tempi buoni. Si sentivano improvvisamente orgogliosi di essere biondi. E si rallegravano, con un piacere furtivo e sensuale, come ragazzetti di scuola, perché gli ebrei, i loro rivali, e i marxisti, una minoranza vagamente definita che li riguardava ben poco, erano giustamente stati dichiarati colpevoli della disfatta e dell’inflazione, e sarebbero stati puniti.

[notgettingenough · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I read Goodbye to Berlin, I innocently thought that the anti-semitism in it belonged to the characters. Now, reading Mr Norris Changes Trains, I see that isn’t so. The anti-semitic comments are gratuitously those of the author. Still, I wondered. If he were living in Germany, was it that he felt it made him safe throwing in just a few words in a few places to prove his credentials?

But now I see that his private words have always been littered with this abhorrent attitude, the more so since he lived in Berlin and must have known what was happening.

rest here: https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpre...

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr Norris Changes Trains was written in that twilight period of the 1930s when it did not pay to admit that one was gay. Consequently, there is a lot of shuffling around of characters who are made to appear moderately, if not actively heterosexual -- very much like Marcel Proust earlier on, whose Albertine was actually his Italian chauffeur Alfred Agostinelli.

I am convinced that Christopher Isherwood would have livened up even an edition of Bradshaw -- a regularly published columnar railroad timetable that curiously bore the same name as the narrator of Mr Norris Changes Trains, one William Bradshaw, who stands in for Isherwood.

The novel takes place in the last days of Weimar Germany and, in fact, ends after the Reichstag fire that marked Hitler's official ascension to the post of Der Fuehrer. He describes the era thus:

Berlin was in a state of civil war. Hate exploded suddenly, without warning, out of nowhere; at street corners, in restaurants, cinemas, dance halls, swimming baths; at midnight, after breakfast, in the middle of the afternoon. Knives were whipped out, blows were dealt with spiked rings, beer-mugs, chair-legs, or leaded clubs; bullets slashed the advertisements on the poster-columns, rebounded from the iron roofs of latrines. In the middle of a crowded street a young man would be attacked, stripped, thrashed, and left bleeding on the pavement; in fifteen seconds it was all over and the assailants had disappeared.

It was almost as if the rise of Hitler were associated with the simultaneous settlement of thousands of scores that had festered over decades.

One must not forget the character of the fey Arthur Norris, who succeeds only in getting himself into messes under the watchful eye of his young English friend Bradshaw. He may have changed trains, but they never take him anyplace where he is not in the soup.

[George K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Νοέμβριος του 2011 ήταν όταν αγόρασα το βιβλίο αυτό από κάποιο παλαιοβιβλιοπωλείο και τώρα, οχτώ χρόνια μετά, αποφάσισα επιτέλους να το διαβάσω. Πρώτη φορά διαβάζω βιβλίο του Κρίστοφερ Ίσεργουντ και δηλώνω εξαιρετικά ικανοποιημένος, τόσο από τη γραφή και το όλο στιλ και ύφος, όσο και από τους χαρακτήρες και τη γενικότερη ατμόσφαιρα της ιστορίας.

Από πλοκή μπορεί να μην λέει και πολλά πράγματα, όμως ο συγγραφέας καταφέρνει να μεταφέρει την ατμόσφαιρα του Βερολίνου της δεκαετίας του '30, καθώς επίσης την έκρυθμη κατάσταση μεταξύ Κομμουνιστών και Ναζί, αλλά και την παρακμή της μεσοαστικής τάξης. Το βιβλίο περιέχει διάφορες τραγελαφικές σκηνές, ομοφυλοφιλικές υπόνοιες, απάτες κάθε είδους και εικόνες ενός Βερολίνου χαμένου στη λήθη της ιστορίας.

Ο χαρακτήρας του κυρίου Νόρις είναι πραγματικά πολύ ενδιαφέρων, μιας και πρόκειται για έναν παράξενο τυχοδιώκτη που μπλέκεται σε περίεργες υποθέσεις και έχει ορισμένα εξεζητημένα σεξουαλικά βίτσια, αλλάζοντας συχνά διαθέσεις (και όχι τρένα). Είμαι σίγουρος ότι πρόκειται για υπαρκτό πρόσωπο, που γνώρισε κάποια στιγμή στη ζωή του ο συγγραφέας του βιβλίου. Όσον αφορά τη γραφή, είναι πραγματικά πολύ καλή, οξυδερκής και κοφτερή, με γλαφυρές περιγραφές ανθρώπων και σκηνικών, αλλά και με πολύ πειστικούς διαλόγους.

Γενικά, πρόκειται για ένα πολύ καλό μυθιστόρημα, βασικό προσόν του οποίου είναι η γραφή, οι χαρακτήρες και η όλη ατμόσφαιρα. Ουσιαστικά για λεπτομέρειες δεν τσιμπάει πέμπτο αστεράκι. Χαίρομαι που έχω στη βιβλιοθήκη μου τα "Αντίο Βερολίνο" και "Ένας άνδρας μόνος", κρίμα όμως που δεν έχουν μεταφραστεί περισσότερα βιβλία του στα ελληνικά.

[Lorenzo Berardi · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a friend of mine heard that I was reading a book titled "Mr Norris Changes Trains", the first thing he said was "Chuck, I suppose?".

Poor Christopher Isherwood! Had he known about the main badass character of Walker Texas Ranger kicking his Arthur Norris out of common knowledge, I'm sure he would have chosen to call him differently.
By the way, popular culture betrayed Isherwood twice here. Just tell a female friend of yours what given name the surname "Bradshaw" (the main narrator of this novel) brings to her mind and there you are: Carrie.

Does this ring a bell? I sincerely hope it doesn't.
But I'm afraid it does. Now, don't deny it!

Anyways, let's put first and second names aside for a moment. And let's forget that - Chuck or not Chuck - "Mr Norris Changes Trains" is a very unfortunate title. If I could rechristen this book, I would call it "The Fairy Godfather" (sorry Daniel Pennac) or, on a more silly note, "The Wig and the Moustache". But Mr Isherwood thought it otherwise.

This is an odd novel. Here we have a book which is at the same time a relic from the past and something modern.
Whereas Arthur Norris' look, speech and manners wouldn't displease Thackeray, the little Isherwood tells us about the foreign correspondent Helen Pratt is enough to make a Orianna Fallaci or a Katie Adie out of her.

This contrast is just the effect Isherwood wants.
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.
And that Berlin was caught between the carefree hedonism of its cabarets (heirloom of the 1920s) and an economic and political crisis which quite helped the Nazis to kidnap Germany and throw it to the dogs.

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.
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.

Nevertheless, this is a good and enjoyable novel, if only for Arthur Norris' antics.
I would have liked Isherwood saying more about Berlin in the 1930s but the German capital stands pretty much in the background here with the exception of a chapter or two. I guess how I should pick up "Goodbye Berlin" by the same author or try the earlier "Berlin Stories" cooked up by Robert Walser to get more of what I want.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Καθώς ο Ναζισμός ανατέλλει στο Βερολίνο, μια τυχαία γνωριμία σε ένα τρένο εξελίσσεται σε μία ιδιότυπη φιλία, της οποίας παρακολουθούμε την πορεία στα χρόνια που έπονται.
Ο νεαρός Άγγλος Ουίλιαμ έρχεται για πρώτη φορά σε επαφή με τα ελαφρώς τρομαγμένα γαλανά μάτια του κυρίου Νόρις σε ένα τρένο με προορισμό το Βερολίνο. "Ήταν τα έκπληκτα μάτια ενός σχολειαρόπαιδου που το πιάνεις στα πράσα ενώ παραβαίνει έναν από τους κανόνες". Ο Ουίλιαμ αδυνατεί να λάβει αποστάσεις από αυτή τη φιλία, εντυπωσιασμένος από την προσωπικότητα του κ. Νόρις, που είναι εξίσου αντιφατική και γοητευτική. Μια φιλία που αποκαλύπτει πρόσωπα και καταστάσεις μέσα από μισόλογα και συνεχείς αποσιωπήσεις που σκοπό έχουν να συμπληρώσει η φαντασία όλα όσα δεν ομολογούνται.
Ο κ. Νόρις προσπαθεί να επιβιώσει κακήν κακώς μέσα στο πολιτικό κλίμα της εποχής που κλυδωνίζεται. Σαφώς προσκολημένος στις ανέσεις μιας ζωής που είχε συνηθίσει να απολαμβάνει αλλά μοιάζει ανεπιστρεπτί χαμένη, καταβάλλει άοκνες προσπάθειες να διατηρήσει ένα προφίλ bon viveur χρησιμοποιώντας θεμιτά και αθέμιτα μέσα.
Ο αναγνώστης έχει το ρόλο του μάντη σχεδόν σε όλο το βιβλίο, προσπαθώντας να παρεισφρύσει στα μισόλογα και στην κρυψίνοια του ήρωα για να συνάγει τα συμπεράσματα του. Ίσως αυτή είναι και η κύρια χάρη του βιβλίου. Το κλίμα της εποχής, έτσι όπως αναδύεται από την πένα του συγγραφέα, περιγράφεται εξαιρετικά. Και ο κ. Νόρις, ένας φτωχοδιάβολος ντυμένος στα μεταξωτά, κερδίζει τη συμπάθεια ομού με τη συμπόνια. 3.5/5.
Θα διαβάσω οπωσδήποτε και το "Αντίο Βερολίνο" του ίδιου συγγραφέα, το δεύτερο βιβλίο της άτυπης βερολινέζικης διλογίας του.

[Ourania Topa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Εξαιρετικά φιλοτεχνημένο, κεντημένο θα έλεγα, το πορτραίτο του ξεπεσμένου άγγλου αριστοκράτη κυρίου Νόρις που αγωνίζεται με μύριες ύποπτες δουλειές να διατηρήσει κάτι από τη χλιδή του αλλοτινού του βίου, έχοντας για background το πολύπαθο Βερολίνο των αρχών του '30 λίγο πριν την επιβολή της σβάστικας. Γλυκόπικρη η αίσθηση, διότι παρά τα μαύρα σύννεφα του χιτλερισμού και την αθλιότητα ενός λαού που επιβιώνει όπως όπως σε συνθήκες βαριάς οικονομικής κρίσης, το βρετανικού τύπου χιούμορ του συγγραφέα και οι ευφυείς περιγραφές των αντιδράσεων των πρωταγωνιστών συχνά προκαλούν το μειδίαμα και διασκεδάζουν τον αναγνώστη. Το απόλαυσα πραγματικά!
Υ.Γ. Όσο για τον τίτλο, ευφυέστατα αποδίδει τον τρόπο με τον οποίο ο Νόρις εισέρχεται και εξέρχεται από τη ζωή του αφηγητή (alter ego του συγγραφέα)!