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meditative, moving, thoughtful, poignant. A short, powerful novel; a gentle rumination on death and life and the small pleasures you can get from simply living, even when tragedy strikes. I wasn’t expecting something quite like this, after The Berlin Novels, as this is very different in tone, much more elegaic. If anything, as good as Goodbye to Berlin is, this is even more accomplishedly written, and is certainly more beautiful, in a restrained, reserved way. Highly recommended. (I haven’t seen the film, I’m not a film fan, but after reading this I just might.)
Rating: 5 / 5
This is Isherwood’s finest piece of writing. Chanced upon it in a library, having heard about his Berlin novels and decided to give “Single Man” a go.
Isherwood’s brilliance is his attention to detail, bringing to the reader’s attention the world with an almost visceral quality, whilst retaining a resounding subtlety that makes this book really stand out. It is truly outstanding and a book for those who know about books.
Easily read in one sitting it is a book you can return to every now and again without feeling like you could be doing something better with your time.
The story revolves around an old man, lecturer at an LA university and a stranger to his neighbours. The people he meets during his routine are cause for much of the story’s development, addressing key themes in the process.
This is my favourite book. It is well worth a read. If at all interested in North American literature (J.D. Salinger, Sylvia Plath, Douglas Coupland to name a few) and its concern with lonliness and the search for meaning and identity then this will be a book for you.
Rating: 5 / 5
When I told a friend about this book, I said “it’s very well written” and she said “Well, der! Isherwood!” and I laughed. But then I’ve only read Goodbye to Berlin and I was very young then, and didn’t know good from bad.
It’s possibly one of the most perfect little books I’ve read, absorbing from the first page and written in such a way that it feels like first person but it’s actually written in third, astoundingly clever to my eyes. You get as easily into George’s head as if it were first person.
Set over 24 hours, it simply covers his thought processes as he moves through the day and you learn a lot about him and the world in which he lives. From the first section he touches your heart as – as anyone who has suffered bereavement will understand – he wakes up and remembers again that his lover is dead. But he’s not pessimistic about his outlook – he doesn’t like the way that conservatism is encroaching upon the once bohemian area where he lives – once where there was artists and poets and easy sexual values, families are moving in, with more straight-laced ideals, but in juxtaposition to this, he loves youth.
He teaches at the University and the scenes with the Gidget-era youth are rather sweet and truly give a window into a lost American world. He does watch the athletes for his own enjoyment which was a nice touch.
I loved his optimism, despite how much he missed Jim, and the way that he finds the light and the dark in his life. He interacts with many people throughout the day, he’s not at all an isolated person, but I was left feeling that he was spinning on the spot, lonely despite all the people who know and care from him. Without the one intimate friend he needed.
And really – that’s about it apart from(spoilers below) He’s a truly likeable guy, and towards the end of the book he’s feeling optimistic about life. He had a lovely drunken evening first with a neighbour and then with a student friend, skinny dipping and a lot of drink. It’s difficult to tell whether anything happened, but I don’t think it did. He goes to bed at the end of his 24 hours feeling that it was time that he moved on with his life and that he was ready to look for love again. What would have been far more realistic and upbeat would have been if Isherwood had left it there. It would have been lovely to think that’s what George does next. But – whether for literary merit – or for the tradition that – in books of this period – all gay guys MUST die at the end – he doesn’t. And it was the ending that spoiled it for me and made me want to throw the book across the room, and made it lose a five star ranking.
Rating: 4 / 5
`A Single Man’ is the tale of a day in the life of George. A British man teaching English and living in California who’s life has changed through the complex emotions grief bestows upon someone since loosing his partner Jim. Though you are never quite told when the book is meant to be set I got a feel of the late 1950’s, the book was written in the early 1960’s a time when homosexuality really wasn’t still accepted though there was a slight change in the air. We follow George through his day and in doing so learn how a man copes with the loss of a loved one, for he is technically a widower, when he cannot discuss it.
For such a short book it is brimming with ideas, emotions, and people. It’s utterly remarkable. Through George’s ordinary day as he gets up, gets ready, drives to work, works, visits a hospital, has a dinner with a friend and gets very drunk Isherwood crams different emotions behind all his actions. Sometimes bitter, inept, nostalgic, angry, sad, aroused, giddy – basically the whole gambit that grief with put you through and so far in my ready experience I have never read it better and though its not written in first person you can feel it all. We also get his back story, Jim’s too and then we have the wonderful character of Charlotte a fairly close neighbour.
I could go on and on about this book but really what I should simply do is urge you to read it. It’s a small book filled with subtlety and a such a deep and clever internal dialogue which says so much you feel you want to read it again and see what you missed.
Rating: 5 / 5
When I told a friend about this book, I said “it’s very well written” and she said “Well, der! Isherwood!” and I laughed. But then I’ve only read Goodbye to Berlin and I was very young then, and didn’t know good from bad.
It’s possibly one of the most perfect little books I’ve read, absorbing from the first page and written in such a way that it feels like first person but it’s actually written in third, astoundingly clever to my eyes. You get as easily into George’s head as if it were first person.
Set over 24 hours, it simply covers his thought processes as he moves through the day and you learn a lot about him and the world in which he lives. From the first section he touches your heart as – as anyone who has suffered bereavement will understand – he wakes up and remembers again that his lover is dead. But he’s not pessimistic about his outlook – he doesn’t like the way that conservatism is encroaching upon the once bohemian area where he lives – once where there was artists and poets and easy sexual values, families are moving in, with more straight-laced ideals, but in juxtoposition to this, he loves youth.
He teaches at the University and the scenes with the Gidget-era youth are rather sweet and truly give a window into a lost American world. He does watch the athletes for his own enjoyment which was a nice touch.
I loved his optimism, despite how much he missed Jim, and the way that he finds the light and the dark in his life. He interacts with many people throughout the day, he’s not at all an isolated person, but I was left feeling that he was spinning on the spot, lonely despite all the people who know and care from him. Without the one intimate friend he needed.
And really – that’s about it apart from(spoilers below) He’s a truly likeable guy, and towards the end of the book he’s feeling optimistic about life. He had a lovely drunken evening first with a neighbour and then with a student friend, skinny dipping and a lot of drink. It’s difficult to tell whether anything happened, but I don’t think it did. He goes to bed at the end of his 24 hours feeling that it was time that he moved on with his life and that he was ready to look for love again. What would have been far more realistic and upbeat would have been if Isherwood had left it there. It would have been lovely to think that’s what George does next. But – whether for literary merit – or for the tradition that – in books of this period – all gay guys MUST die at the end – he doesn’t. And it was the ending that spoiled it for me and made me want to throw the book across the room, and made it lose a five star ranking.
Rating: 4 / 5