Lost Years

Aside from his novels (which include Goodbye to Berlin and The World in the Evening), the British-born and later naturalized American writer Isherwood published five autobiographical volumes during his lifetime (1904-1986). This memoir complements his project of lifelong public self-reflection and sociocultural commentary. Written in the early 1970s but unavailable to the public until now, the memoir, which reconstructs Isherwood's life in California, London and New York from 1945-1951, is based on minimal entries in his appointment books. To distinguish his 1940s persona from that of the 1970s, Isherwood wrote his account in the third person, using the first person primarily to question the authenticity of his memories. This stylistic device for separating "objective" and "subjective" voice seems charmingly awkward but does have the benefit of making the reader aware of the several layers of reconstruction at work here. This book will primarily interest those already familiar with Isherwood, to whom it will provide insight into his turning away from Hinduism and his subsequent long-term relationship with the photographer William Caskey. But the book also provides a very outspoken portrait of gay life during a period when most of the interactions depicted could still land their participants in prison. Particularly remarkable are nuanced descriptions of relations that transcend conventional boundaries of acquaintance, friendship, love and sex. When commenting on the benefits of explicit self-assertion, Isherwood once hints at parallels in the experience of queers and Jews as oppressed minorities. Unfortunately, this insight does not seem to prompt him to question his ownnegative stereotyping of Jews in this book.
—Beate Sissenich

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

English expat novelist and autobiographer Isherwood (1904-1986) may be best known for The Berlin Stories, the basis for the musical Cabaret; he spent most of his later life in southern California, where his productions included the groundbreaking gay-themed 1976 memoir Christopher and His Kind. Bucknell edited Isherwood's Diaries Volume One 1939--1960, which appeared in America in 1997; those diaries gave day-by-day accounts of Isherwood's WWII years and the '50s, but left the time in between sparsely covered. Begun in the 1970s and perhaps unfinished, this long, intimate, sometimes repetitive book was Isherwood's attempt to reconstruct those seven years; it takes the form of third-person diary entries ("On February 25, Christopher drove to Los Angeles"; "On September 6, Christopher went down to Trabuco"; and so on). During those years, "Christopher" investigated psychic powers and Indian mysticism; visited England, Italy, South America and New York; made contacts in the world of Hollywood film; worked on novels and autobiographies; and maintained a serious, if troubled, romance with William Caskey, with whom he lived for much of that time. The book is notable throughout for its portrayals of sex, sexuality and pre-Stonewall gay identity. It stands out, too, for its wealth of highbrow celebrities: prose writers E.M. Forster, Aldous Huxley and Ana s Nin; poet W.H. Auden; and spy Guy Burgess are among the diaries' famous figures. Individual episodes (especially one surrounding Isherwood's surgery) can be touching, or funny, or both; the diary structure, though, prevents the book from acquiring momentum or shape. While it lacks the artfulness of the memoirs Isherwood chose to publish, it will nevertheless find grateful readers among those who care about his work. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Library Journal

Isherwood (1904-86), the author whose novels about pre-World War II Berlin led, most famously, to the Broadway smash hit Cabaret, referred to the current work as a "reconstructed diary." Using diary entries, appointment books, and correspondence, he attempted, some 30 years later, to record the life he lived from January 1945 to May 1951, a period that corresponds roughly with his liaison with photographer William Caskey. (Becoming busy with Christopher and His Kind, he never prepared The Lost Years for publication.) Centering on Isherwood's exploration of his homosexual identity, the book contains reflections on his romances, including graphic details of sexual encounters, as well as amusing anecdotes on friends and acquaintances in Hollywood, New York, and London. Katherine Hepburn, Charle Chaplin, Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, and E.M. Forster are but a few of the famous personalities that grace this memoir's pages. A nine-page chronology and a glossary of people, places, institutions, and Hindu religious terms are included. Highly detailed and heavily footnoted, this work will appeal chiefly to Isherwood scholars and more generally to students interested in gay studies. Recommended for academic libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/00.]--William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Felice Picano

Lost Years is as sexy, gossipy, and informational as any other three books of this era I've read. It's more probing and revealing of its author than anything he wrote. If you're a modest fan of gay history, this period, or Isherwood's work, you must read this.
—Lambda Book Report

Kirkus Reviews

A distanced memoir, mostly chronicling happenings among the gay literati half a century ago.