Mr Norris Changes Trains: Christopher Isherwood (Vintage classics)

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Towards the end of the novel, when the Nazis are in power and the Holocaust underway, anti-Semitism flows thick and fast, expressed by Bradshaw’s acquaintances as Jews ruining countries which aren’t theirs, Jews being guilty of causing Germany’s defeat in the First World War and the inflation that followed, Jews being the creators of the Weimar Constitution. An oculoplastic surgeon understands the complex relationship between the eye and the surrounding structures, which is particularly important when undergoing treatment in this region.

Hamilton was served time in prison for bankruptcy, theft, being a threat to national security, and, interestingly, numbered amongst his friends not only Isherwood himself, but the unlikely combination of Winston Churchill and Aleister Crowley! The discussion of politics is prevalent but more from the Communist cast as they are almost unwittingly strangled out of existence by the predominantly faceless Nazis. This review is perfectly timed for me Jacqui, as I bought this novel at the weekend :-) It sounds completely wonderful, I’m really looking forward to reading it! 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.My copy of Mr Norris Changes Trains was published by Vintage Books in an edition which also contains Goodbye to Berlin, Together the two books are known as Isherwood’s Berlin Novels. He also has an interest in training and is currently Training Programme Director for the Thames Valley Deanery for Ophthalmology.

First published in 1933 Mr Norris Changes Trains piquantly evokes the atmosphere of Berlin during the rise of the Nazis.Norris’s fastidious oddness - the wearing of bizarre wigs and an obsessive attention to prinkings and powderings not usually found at that time openly engaged in by English men, certainly not in England, is typical of the Berlin experience – decadent, sophisticated and utterly unprovincial, which proved alluring about to those seeking a more colourful, even dangerous, European experience. It made me wonder whether NYC’s Germanic past was a reason for the present day culture having similarities to that of interwar Berlin.

Characters are either not quite what they seem, or are employing a persona to get what they want from others or, like Bradshaw, don’t quite know yet who they are.Mr Norris will offer a clear individualised management plan, so that patients know exactly what to expect from the outset. On his arrival at Norris’ flat, Bradshaw soon discovers that his new friend runs an import-export business. He becomes involved with the Communists, along with one of the young men who run the girls that Norris employs to indulge his masochistic fantasies. I had such a good time with this novel, and I really hope you enjoy it too – it strikes me as being right up your street.