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A Single Man
by Christopher Isherwood
| List Price: |
$11.00 |
Unavailable for
purchase at this time |
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Paperback
Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
A wondrously conceived story spanning twenty-four hours in the life of a middle-aged expatriate British professor of English at a California university, A Single Man was described by Stephen Spender as "an absolutely devastating, unnerving, brillant book." George is a man of intellect and humor, simultaneously brash and sensitive, gentle but with a streak of benign mischief, an enjoyer and a pessimist. Consumed with grief over the recent death of his companion, he determinedly persists in the routine of his daily life. Equal parts Prufrock and Lucky Jim, George is one of the more memorable comic anti-heroes of modern literature, and A Single Man one of the strongest efforts of a major writer of the post-war generation.
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| A classic, and worth reading before the movie comes out |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This is a classic novel of early gay literature -- and it is a very good read at that. Basically following a gay widower over the course of one day, it includes typical events and thoughts that occur during the course of that time, and the observations are keen and insightful.
I would recommend reading the book BEFORE the movie comes out (Tom Ford directing Colin Firth in the lead role) because there is really no logical way to just adapt this into a screenplay. It's a work of an internal thought process. It will be interesting to see how it translates to the screen). The book itself is highly recommended.
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| a slender tome that speaks volumes |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This novel is marked for being one of the first where the main character/narrator is unapologetically and openly gay. But I encourage the reader to come to it without viewing it as a "gay" novel. This day-in-the-life story of a college professor who recently lost the love of his life is written in a spare style but filled with emotional resonance to which any human being with an honest heart can relate. A brief but powerful read.
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| Very easy read |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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The book I had was a collection of his works (Berlin Stories)and found them all very easy to read. I read A single man twice getting more out of it each time I read it.
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| Top of the Top |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This is THE GREAT AMERICAN GAY NOVEL, and every gay man (and probably every thinking man or woman, too) should experience it. Period.
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| A single man as Everyman |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Because of "Cabaret," Christopher Isherwood is mostly remembered for his "Berlin Stories" and its inimitable Sally Bowles. But "A Single Man" is, I think, far and away his masterpiece--a Southern Californian counterpoint to "Ulysses" and (especially) "Mrs. Dalloway." But, if you're intimidated by stream-of-consciousness prose, don't let the references to Joyce and Woolf put you off; this novel is nearly a breezy Malibu beach read by comparison.
Isherwood details twenty-four hours in the life of an aging college professor who had lost his younger lover the previous year. "Waking up begins with saying 'am' and 'now,'" opens the first chapter, which describes the emerging corporal awareness of this initially anonymous id and which closes with the line, "It knows its name. It is called George."
The novel sticks to the mind of its protagonist as he embarks on his daily rituals: preparing for a class he must teach (Huxley's "After Many a Summer" is the subject and the students' apathetic ignorance provides much of this section's mirth); lunching with his colleagues; visiting a dying friend in the hospital; going to the gym and flirting with its teenaged patrons.
His routine begins to leave its expected track when he meets an old friend for dinner and they get uproariously drunk. Afterwards, he intends to head home but, "How to explain, then, that, with his foot actually on the bridge over the creek, George suddenly turns, chuckles to himself, and with the movement of a child wriggling free of a grownup," he heads to the local "nonconformist" dive--and runs into one of his students.
Like Clarissa Dalloway readying for a party, George lives a lonely, lackluster existence occupied with petty details, inconsequential annoyances, and unanticipated pleasures. But Isherwood instills every sentence with beauty, every character with immediate empathy, and every encounter with so much tension that "A Single Man" is, indeed, Everyman. The unique particulars of George's declining years may not be familiar to many of us, but the struggle between hopefulness and disenchantment is.
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