The Isherwood Century: Essays on the Life and Work of Christopher Isherwood

Filled with passionate tributes, this reader-friendly volume offers a sturdy collection of wonderful writings. In four sections--""Meeting Isherwood,"" ""Artist and Companion,"" ""The Writer in Context"" and ""Finding a Path""--friends, acquaintances, biographers and critics of the late Isherwood (whom, the editors maintain, stands as ""the pivotal figure of his generation"") cast keen light on the man and his work. Essayists cover the writer's influence and unstable place in English and American literature, his spiritual beliefs (especially the influence of Vedanta, a branch of Hinduism based on the ancient teachings of the Vedas, on his life and work) and his personal life. Michael S. Harper contributes a memoir in the form of a poem; feminist scholar Carolyn G. Heilbrun weighs in with an unlikely essay; and there are moving and humorous excerpts from the diary of Don Bachardy, Isherwood's longtime lover, an interview with the writer himself and a handful of critical essays informed by gender theory and gay/lesbian scholarship. However, as a whole, the book does not effectively counter the view that Isherwood was ""both remote and obscure"" (as the editors say he felt himself to be in 1941). There's no question that Isherwood influenced a number of subsequent writers, particularly gay men searching for the means to make their voices heard; but the claim that he was central to the development of literature in the 20th century--this excellent collection of writings on his life notwithstanding--remains unconvincing. B&w illustrations. (Apr.)