Book Review: "My Guru and His Disciple" by Christopher Isherwood

I have read many books by Christopher Isherwood and have enjoyed a lot of them. Books such as Goodbye to Berlin, The Memorial and Mr Norris Changes Trains have been some of my favourite books by him. Isherwood's own experiences are often the subjects of his novels and though this can often work in his favour, I do feel like sometimes it dwindles into a sort of self-absorption. Recently, I read two books by him: Down There on a Visit and The World in the Evening, and I have to admit that I enjoyed them both thoroughly. However, the self-absorption seems to try to push its way in and I think I have finally seen it in full force for the first time. This review is on the book My Guru and His Disciple.

Often, we associate the Eastern ideas and teachings upon Western shores with the era of the Beatles and the Hippy Movements, to which we have a reaction of mostly tiredness. The term 'cultural appropriation' gets thrown around over and over again but I beg to differ that what Christopher Isherwood is doing is not actually cultural appropriation. Instead, it is just a little self-absorbed. He makes comments on his learnings and the way he passes on said messages of spirituality and often, you do question where he stands in a larger context because by the time he's doing this, it isn't that new. Unfortunately, Isherwood often suggests that it is a new idea and often regards it as, at least in the earlier sections of the book, as novelty.

Some reviewers have stated that this book comes off as terribly 'colonial'. This is slightly different to cultural appropriation in which someone makes a living or is famous for someone else's culture, the 'colonial' nature of this is to simply infiltrate and take over. Again, I have to disagree as this does not seem like what Isherwood is doing at all. I would however, argue, that how he normally centres himself in his novels works for those other novels - unfortunately I think I have found the only one it seems not to work for.

The writing style is typical Isherwood. Everything is dark and glamorous, everything has a double meaning, everything is symbolic and most importantly, there are themes of the identity of our narrator put in clues all over the place. For example: Isherwood's frankness about his own homosexuality is a hint at a bigger context in which sexuality requires to become more accepted in all of its forms. A sort of social comment through the openess of the book on the topic makes for Isherwood's writing to become a kind of snaring activism in which he challenges the critics to stop him. Of course, they cannot.

The writing style is also a little bit on the more intellectual side in this novel and I don't know whether I actually like it. I normally enjoy Isherwood for his emotional depth of language and to have things that are overtly far more philosophical than usual in the novel is something that is different to me. I cannot comment on whether I really do enjoy it or not. I am currently on the fence.

In conclusion, Isherwood's attempt at the novelty and self-absorption of spiritual awareness may be somewhat misplaced and difficult to come to terms with for a more modern audience but, his writing style can be seen as both a typical of Isherwood and as a change to his base-style. I can honestly say it may not be his best and yet, it is still not as bad as others make it out to be.