About this title: 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.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Avon
Date Published: 1978
ISBN-13:9780380376896ISBN:038037689X
Description: Very Good. This book is in very good used condition. The binding is tight and pages are clean. There is a name written on the inside of the front cover. The cover has bumps, scuffs and a front cover crease. It has been corner bumped. There is no creasing on the spine. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Univ of Minnesota Pr
Date Published: 2001-04-01
ISBN-13:9780816638628ISBN:0816638624
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780816638628. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Methuen Publishing Company (Dump
Date Published: 1978
ISBN-13:9780417028507ISBN:0417028504
Description: Acceptable. A tan to the page edges. A few creases to the spine and cover of the book. (HENCE acceptable) Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Methuen, London
Date Published: 1965
Description: VG hardback in Good price-clipped dustjacket. Dust jacket a little yellowed, with slight wear to edges and surface damage on front flap. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Mandarin
Date Published: 1986
ISBN-13:9780413596307ISBN:0413596303
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Methuen and Co., London
Date Published: 1964
Description: 158p., first British edition, dj. This novel "of one man, during one day in 1962, in and around Los Angeles" (dj) is Young 1976*. read more
"George seems very much a gay man of his time, living an open secret but not free to declare who he is or who he loved. Of course, there are too many gay men who live this way, fiercely analytical but cut off from others most of the time, sometimes because they must, or maybe because it helps them feel safe.
I'm intrigued by the third person narration that moves closer to and further from the protagonist as necessary, and that sometimes transforms into first person narration."
"I thought this was wonderful. Poignant, sharp-tongued and bittersweet. The writing style and flow are a little high-minded but, as it's from the perspective of a college professor, that's only appropriate. I'd definitely recommend this to others."
"An intense, subtle page-turner that will so absorb you that you'll wonder if you've briefly become another person. Specifically, the keen main character, George, who we follow through a day in which he thinks about Jim, his recently deceased partner, while he walks through life: driving to Laurel Canyon, teaching an Aldous Huxley novel in a lecture hall, going to the gym, passionately opining, and observing others' awkwardness or obliviousness around his gayness. Isherwood's focus on careful observations and mundane details, and his faith that deep grief and love will shine through them (instead of through explicit exposition of thoughts and feelings), makes A Single Man evoke, diversely, Lydia Davis or Virginia Woolf in their interests in solitude and loneliness.
The university scenes are wonderfully detailed and verisimilar - Isherwood knows well the emotional give-and-take of lecturing.
This was Isherwood's favorite of his novels. I had ulterior motives for reading it, though:
At the age of twelve, I made an extraordinary sum of money. After a few days of stock market study, I opted against diversifying my stock portfolio, instead investing all my money in Gucci stocks. Though Gucci collected dust for decades, it had just named a young man named Tom Ford as creative director, and his ambition sparked a great deal of hope in the company's future. The stock price started very low, but after a few weeks, Tom Ford made me more money than any other student in my 7th-grade economics class, where this purely hypothetical stock market exercise unfurled.
For all that, Tom Ford still holds a sliver of my affection. Quelle surprise to hear that his new project is A Single Man, the movie. He's directing his own screenplay, with Colin Firth as George and Julianne Moore as daffy Charlotte. Exciting, non?"
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