| A Single Man |  | Author: Christopher Isherwood
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Seller: marcusart
Rating:  44 reviews
Sales Rank: 11,459
Media: Paperback
Pages: 186
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.4
ISBN: 0816638624
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780816638628
ASIN: 0816638624
Publication Date: April 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Fiction The author's favorite of his own novels, now back in print! When A Single Man was originally published, it shocked many by its frank, sympathetic, and moving portrayal of a gay man in midlife. George, the protagonist, is adjusting to life on his own after the sudden death of his partner, and determines to persist in the routines of his daily life; the course of A Single Man spans twenty-four hours in an ordinary day. An Englishman and a professor living in suburban Southern California, he is an outsider in every way, and his internal reflections and interactions with others reveal a man who loves being alive despite everyday injustices and loneliness. Wry, suddenly manic, constantly funny, surprisingly sad, this novel catches the texture of life itself. "A testimony to Isherwood's undiminished brilliance as a novelist." Anthony Burgess "An absolutely devastating, unnerving, brilliant book." Stephen Spender "Just as his Prater Violet is the best novel I know about the movies, Isherwood's A Single Man, published in 1964, is one of the first and best novels of the modern gay liberation movement." Edmund White
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 44
 An Important, but Poorly Executed Novel August 21, 2010
James F. Mueller
Of course, I read this book with deep interest and profound curiosity. And, like many on here I suspect, I was led to this book by Tom Ford's film (which attracted me not because it explored gay themes, but because of the Mr. Ford's fashion sense). I thought the film was excellent, and Mr. Ford's use of color throughout the film to highlight important spiritual moments was very well done.
But, like many on here have already pointed out, the book is very different from the movie, often in very dramatic ways. The George we see in the film is very different from the George of the novel. I liked Mr. Ford's George much better (and I sense that it is, much like Isherwood's George, partly autobiographical). For one thing, the George in the novel groups people into two --- and only two! --- categries: allies and enemies. He is of course referring to his homosexuality, but I found this attitude somewhat off-putting; and I do appreciate that it is partly a reflection of the public attitude toward homosexuality in the 1960's, but I just didn't take to it very well.
And I didn't like the stream of consciousness prose style at all either. For example, in one scene where George is driving, we spend several pages listening to how George would like to destroy a hotel building. I thought this was rather dull. But in other respects, George makes some very important observations. I liked his thoughts about his students at the university. He says something like they look as if they are ready at any moment to switch from studying to ditch-digging! He makes other great observations about heterosexual couples and American intellectual pretensions. So those parts were great.
But in the end, the book didn't capture me in the way Tom Ford's film did. The major difference, for me, was this: In the book it doesn't appear that George is consumed by the loss of his partner Jim like the way he is in the film. I suppose I was looking for that same theme in the book, which, I understand, is unfair, but that is just the way I approached, and responded, to the book.
a quiet and subtle page turner July 10, 2010
A. M. Lathia (London, UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
From the back of the book: "In this brilliantly perceptive novel, a middle-aged professor living in California is alienated from his students by differences in age and nationality, and from the rest of society by his homosexuality. Isherwood explores the depths of the human soul and its ability to triumph over loneliness, alienation, and loss."
As you can perhaps tell from the plot summary, this book doesn't have a plot. It is actually not my kind of book at all, and yet despite my misgivings I found myself enjoying the story more than expected.
A Single Man is the recounting of one day in George the professor's life, literally from the moment he wakes up to when he goes back to bed. It's slice of life fiction, the snapshot of time. George is in an unusual situation: his longterm partner Jim has recently passed away and he is in a society where being gay is seen at best as an oddity.
George's only recourse to his bereavement is to keep on going as he always has, and find a safety net in that routine. As such the book very much focuses on the mundane details of George's day to day life -- his walk to university, lecturing the students, the small interactions he has with people.... And I think that's a strength of the book. The story is a very intimate portrayal of grief and loneliness, and how these emotions can touch even the smallest things.
The writing is sparse, succinct, and most of all very honest; we get to see George, warts and all. And yet there is a distance, too -- George is still numb, and being an intellectual he views things often dispassionately. The end result is a touching and dark portrayal of the human condition which reaches out even to the modern reader with its fumbling attempts to create relationships in order to give some meaning to existence.
In sum, it's a stark narrative, but a quiet and subtle page turner. George feels like he could be your next door neighbour, your friend, or even you.
 Amateur Critique July 7, 2010
debi (CA)
Like many great books, Single Man comes together at the end, and is best in retrospect. I put the book down at one point. I was bored when he was in his office, and then picked it up again a week later, and was magically transported, like in the beginning. It helps to resemble the lead, at least in some ways, as his humor is dry and middle age (great), and this is Southern California, and America, before all the protest. I think I'll read it again...
 Interesting read May 3, 2010
W. Castaneda (San Francisco, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
So I purchased this book after seeing the movie and have to say that this is one of the few instances when the film is actually better than the novel. Don't get me wrong, I liked the book and the elements included there in that did not make their way onto the screen, but reading it really highlighted the great work that Ford et.al. did on the film.
A Different Perspective April 9, 2010
Elliott Cohen (Atlanta, Georgia)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I read the book to get a deeper understanding of the movie, and instead got a different perspective. The characters are the same, but they have different messages for the reader. The movie and the book give two somewhat different versions of the main characters and reveal what a screenwriter can do when translating a book into a movie. Both versions are plausible.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 44
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