The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 22 June 1999
by Christopher Isherwood
It is 1933, and there are ominous political winds blowing in Europe. In the midst of this uncertainty, a fictional Christopher Isherwood, who is a little complacent, is recruited to help write the screenplay for a romantic movie entitled Prater Violet. Isherwood works with Bergmann, an Austrian Jew who is an excellent film maker, but one who is deeply worried about the family he left behind in turbulent Vienna. The film is made in London, but is set in Vienna. Throughout, Bergmann tries to shake Isherwood from his complacency. The story of the movie is a metaphor for the changes going on back on the Continent. And Isherwood does seem to develop a sensitivity to the lives just beginning to be rocked by the winds that would become World War II. The book was published in 1945, after much of what is feared has come to pass. It is a deceptively little book, often funny, sometimes touching. It is remarkable how much the author has managed to pack into the little story. He clearly has a lot of experience with the movie industry and with German sensibility. The last few pages of the book take a somewhat inconsistent turn, but Isherwood, almost sweetly, brings across the dilemma of going on in life while gigantic events unfold around you.
Also by Isherwood: [A Single Man]