Mr. Norris Changes Trains ~ Christopher Isherwood

I should have read this one before Goodbye to Berlin, as it is not as good. It’s hard to point out why exactly, maybe because this book is slower paced. And the writing didn’t make as big an impression; it seems a bit uneven in quality throughout the book.

Mr. Norris changes trains mainly deals with the strangely charming rogue Arthur Norris, who is first met by the somewhat naive narrator William Bradshaw on a Berlin bound train driving through the Netherlands. They keep in touch after that, though Norris flies the city from time to time, to escape from the people he conned.

For some reason it was disappointing that Isherwood reveals at the end of the book how Arthur Norris made his money. That probably should have been left to the imagination, I reckon.