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Product Description
Review
A lyrical narrative that humanizes [the protagonist], and this is where Prebble s narration shines. His voice captures all of George s loneliness . . . his frustration with his students . . . and his sometimes-awkward interactions with friends, finally culminating in a wonderfully ambiguous ending. AudioFile (Audiofile )
Simon Prebble s voice is a perfect conduit for Isherwood s lyricism, and he assumes the role of George so naturally and with such raw feeling that listeners will feel as if they are hearing the words straight from the protagonist. Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly ) --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
Simon Prebble s voice is a perfect conduit for Isherwood s lyricism, and he assumes the role of George so naturally and with such raw feeling that listeners will feel as if they are hearing the words straight from the protagonist. Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly ) --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
Book 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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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
MESMERIZING AND MEANINGFUL,
By
This review is from: A Single Man (Preloaded Digital Audio Player)
If you have not read Christopher Isherwood you have missed the work of a brilliant author. This particular book was praised by the NY Times as "...a sad, sly report on the predicament of the human animal." Isherwood's prose is spare, mesmerizing; his words well chosen, succinct, meaningful. Most importantly, his writings are true.When first published about a half century ago A SINGLE MAN was considered shocking as it portrayed for the first time the life of a gay man, George, who was recently bereaved and trying to adjust to life without his partner. George is a college professor, careful, thoughtful. The all too brief story covers just 24 hours from the moment he awakens in the morning and remembers that he has lost his partner to his studied, sometimes painful navigation of the day. We are privy not only to his actions but to his thoughts, thus we share his predicament, a very human one. George is an Englishman living in southern California, a place a bit inhospitable to a middle-aged scholar yet he perseveres by observing routine. Haven't many of us found ourselves left with that as our one means of coping? For this reader/listener that is the beauty of Isherwood as A SINGLE MAN is not solely a drama of gay life but of all humanity. Reader Simon Prebble gives voice to George with understanding, and skillful narration. British born his voice is perfectly suited for this role. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the hugely successful movie version of A SINGLE MAN by Tom Ford - don't miss this. And hearty recommendations also for Isherwood's Christopher and His Kind and Prater Violet also found on audio from HighBridge. - Gail Cooke
5.0 out of 5 stars
A drop in the ocean of consciousness,
By
This review is from: Single Man (Paperback)
All the praise this novel receives just greatly deserved. The prose is beautiful and Isherwood writes with the ability of one who sees humanity in all its foibles, insecurities, masks, moments of beauty and madness. He can capture the essence of the smallest move of the mind and emotions, the twists and turns of conflicting thoughts and contradictory emotions.A day in the life of George, the English professor who is grieving the loss of his love, Jim, proves itself to be mundane, yet moving. There is a sense of melancholy and loss that pervades each scene, from George's awakening in the morning, after which he puts on his external "self" as he puts on his suit for work. One gets the impression of a soul clothed in a body, clothed in a suit, clothed in persona designed to function in a world in which he does not quite fit, and is not quite accepted. The lecture on Huxley's "After Many A Summer Dies the Swan" is both enjoyable and insightful. George's passion breaks through his reserved demeanor as he tells his students: "But the worst of it is, we now run into another liberal heresy. Because the persecuting majority is vile, says the liberal, therefore the persecuted minority must be stainlessly pure. Can't you see what nonsense that is? What's to prevent the bad from being persecuted by the worse? Did all the Christian victims in the arena have to be saints?" The closing sections of the book are perhaps the most beautiful: "The waters of consciousness - so to speak - are swarming with hunted anxieties, grim-jawed greeds, dartingly vivid intuitions, old crusty-shelled rock-gripping obstinacies, deep-down sparkling undiscovered secrets, ominous protean organisms motioning mysteriously, perhaps warningly, toward the surface light. How can such a variety of creatures coexist at all? Because they have to. The rocks of the pool hold their world together. And, throughout the day of the ebb tide, they know no other. "But that long day ends at last; yields to the nighttime of the flood. And, just as the waters of the ocean come flooding, darkening over the pools, so over George and the others in sleep come the waters of that other ocean - that consciousness which is no one in particular but which contains everyone and everything, past, present and future, and extends unbroken beyond the uttermost stars. We may surely suppose that, in the darkness of the full flood, some of these creatures are lifted from their pools to drift far out over the deep waters. But do they ever bring back, when the daytime of the ebb returns, any kind of catch with them? Can they tell us, in any manner, about their journey? Is there, indeed, anything for them to tell - except that the waters of the ocean are not really other than the waters of the pool?"
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply put, one of the best I've ever read,
By
This review is from: Single Man (Paperback)
A sincere and intimate look into the life of a man coping with the loss of his lover.George is written as a wonderfully quirky character, with thoughtful insight into his day-to-day life leaving the reader feeling as though they were looking through his eyes. As George goes through the motions of everyday life, he experiences 'spasms' of pain, internally torn at the memories of Jim which continually seem to interrupt his day, no matter what he's doing at that moment in time. Every time George feels a spasm, you feel it, too, the words jumping off of the page and tugging at you until you're experiencing the same complex emotions this character -- truly, this man -- is feeling. That takes excellent description and over all wonderful writing. If I have one beef with this splendid, touching, raw novel, it would simply be that it is far too short; indeed, finishing it in just a scant few hours, I felt myself longing for more.
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