Christopher Isherwood Inside Out

If you have read Isherwood's diaries, this is a good companion to them and amazingly there is good explanatory and supplementary material in it.

First time through this book: pick and choose the part of his life in which you are interested. Then go back and read more. Connects a lot of dots re: the Auden Group.

Biographies about writers are tricky things, since so many writers spend so much time at their desks that their lives can be a bit humdrum. Not so with Isherwood! His life is even more interesting than his fiction, and Inside Out succeeds in brilliantly placing him and his writing within the context of his times. Plus, it is fun to read!

I really wanted to like this biography because I've always been a fan of Isherwood's writing. What irritated me most about it was the Freudian psychological jargon overlaid on things so often. Does the author have training in the field? It was most evident in the chapters on his childhood and youth and then lessened up, though towards the end we find something about his riding in a white sports car linking back to a white pram he was pushed in as an infant/toddler. Seriously? The author also seems to have medical training because she knows when Isherwood was really sick (he was sick a lot) and when it was just in his head (that happened a lot too). She edited his diaries so she's on intimate terms with his day to day ups and downs, but even so, how does one truly know and over this distance of time. Some of the breakdowns of the books drag on too long and I'd skip ahead. It's a typical biography in that after abundant detail on his day to day activities it suddenly surfs over his last year or two, and poof! he died. The end. Editing also could have been stronger at times. Despite my issues with it, it's very well written, very detailed, and will be appreciated by most Isherwood fans.

This is a very well-done, very detailed and comprehensive biography of Christopher Isherwood, the writer upon whose works the stage musical and the film “Cabaret” are based.“Inside Out” goes far beyond the scope of Mr. Isherwood’s Berlin experiences during the 1930s and covers, among other things, his childhood, his boarding school and university days, his relationships with various family members and poet W.H. Auden, his immigration to the United States, his work as a writer in Hollywood and his advocacy of LGBQT rights.Author Katherine Bucknell has done an excellent job of telling the story of Isherwood’s life, even explaining to readers how some of that life's events affected, or are reflected in, his fiction.Before beginning “Inside Out,” I had never read any of Mr. Isherwood’s works. At the very least, I’ll be adding “The Berlin Stories” to my “TBR” pile.My thanks to NetGalley, author Katherine Bucknell, and publisher Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for providing me with a complimentary ARC. The foregoing is my independent opinion.

One only needs to begin reading the Prologue to this extraordinary biography to realize that this book is the most thorough and beautifully written biography of the gifted author and activist Christopher Isherwood before the public today. Katherine Bucknell has examined all the diaries of Isherwood and has spoken with key figures from his past, and combined with her excellent writing skills as a novelist, she makes this hefty volume celebrate even the most evanescent moments of Isherwood’s richly colorful life read like a novel – indeed, a gift!All aspects of Isherwood’s life and creativity are covered, from birth and early days in England to his time in Germany (yes, ‘Goodbye to Berlin’ aka ‘I Am a Camera’ aka ‘Cabaret’ are descriptions of his life there!) to his move to the US – California particularly – and his impressive role in advocating gay liberation in addition to his continued writing are all examined by Bucknell in the most genuinely informative and entertaining manner. Having visited his home in Santa Monica, sitting for a portrait by Isherwood’s artist lover Don Bachardy, this reader is especially impressed with the genuine realism the author displays: remembering Bachardy’s conversations while painting underscores the invaluable credibility of the author’s work. The added photographs enhance this journey.Laudable scholarship, empathy, insights into history, and appreciation for the enormous multifaceted gifts of Christopher Isherwood make this one of the finest books of the decade

Bucknell’s authoritative, insightful and entertaining biography of Isherwood shows how important his life as well as his literature was in his times and remains so today. A really engrossing read - how exciting to be in the company of two phenomenally intelligent people - Isherwood and his biographer, Bucknell.