"Ich sehe zu. Ist das nichts?"
"Wem ist damit geholfen?"
"Wem ist zu helfen?" ( )

My booty on a recent trip to Berlin was more yarn than print, but this was one of the books that made it into my bag for the trip home.

I bought it from St George's English bookshop and if you would like more detail about the wonderful bookshops in Berlin, I wrote something about them here.

It has a quote on the back from The Times Literary Supplement

Damned for its improper subject matter, Going to the Dogs showed the crumbling Berlin of Christopher Isherwood's stories with something of Isherwood's sharp intelligence, but a far more tragic sense of implication.

It's a comparison I'm looking forward to making for myself, having acquired the relevant Isherwood volume, also a slim affair, at the same time. One can certainly agree that Kästner has an eerie feel for what is happening in Germany and what the outcome will be, an outcome he knows will be far more widespread. In 1931 he is well aware that he is watching the downfall, the disintegration, the degeneration of Europe. It's horrifying to be aware, reading it now, and seeing the ways in which it compares with Europe now, that there was no hindsight on the author's. He was calling it as he saw it day by day.

Rest here:

https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2015/09/24/going-to-the-dogs-the-sto... ( )

My booty on a recent trip to Berlin was more yarn than print, but this was one of the books that made it into my bag for the trip home.

I bought it from St George's English bookshop and if you would like more detail about the wonderful bookshops in Berlin, I wrote something about them here.

It has a quote on the back from The Times Literary Supplement

Damned for its improper subject matter, Going to the Dogs showed the crumbling Berlin of Christopher Isherwood's stories with something of Isherwood's sharp intelligence, but a far more tragic sense of implication.

It's a comparison I'm looking forward to making for myself, having acquired the relevant Isherwood volume, also a slim affair, at the same time. One can certainly agree that Kästner has an eerie feel for what is happening in Germany and what the outcome will be, an outcome he knows will be far more widespread. In 1931 he is well aware that he is watching the downfall, the disintegration, the degeneration of Europe. It's horrifying to be aware, reading it now, and seeing the ways in which it compares with Europe now, that there was no hindsight on the author's. He was calling it as he saw it day by day.

Rest here:

https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2015/09/24/going-to-the-dogs-the-sto... ( )

My booty on a recent trip to Berlin was more yarn than print, but this was one of the books that made it into my bag for the trip home.

I bought it from St George's English bookshop and if you would like more detail about the wonderful bookshops in Berlin, I wrote something about them here.

It has a quote on the back from The Times Literary Supplement

Damned for its improper subject matter, Going to the Dogs showed the crumbling Berlin of Christopher Isherwood's stories with something of Isherwood's sharp intelligence, but a far more tragic sense of implication.

It's a comparison I'm looking forward to making for myself, having acquired the relevant Isherwood volume, also a slim affair, at the same time. One can certainly agree that Kästner has an eerie feel for what is happening in Germany and what the outcome will be, an outcome he knows will be far more widespread. In 1931 he is well aware that he is watching the downfall, the disintegration, the degeneration of Europe. It's horrifying to be aware, reading it now, and seeing the ways in which it compares with Europe now, that there was no hindsight on the author's. He was calling it as he saw it day by day.

Rest here:

https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2015/09/24/going-to-the-dogs-the-sto... ( )

Bien, mais encore? Vers l'abîme, titre a postériori... C'est bien de ressentir une époque malheureuse, mais en rester là, c'est discutable. Toutefois, le personnage principal est beaucoup plus profond qu'il en a l'air. A découvrir. ( )