book_busy 's review for:

A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood

4.0

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This novel is tricky because I can't say I emotionally connected to it in the way that would imply a 4 star read. Yet, it's construction, narrative voice and the humanity of those that surround its protagonist meant ,once I could sit down and give it a good chance, I was drawn into this oddly miserable and naturalistic impression of a gay man's life. There's something of "Cather in the Rye" or "Mrs Dalloway" in the near meaningless deeds of the novel which open up psychoanalytical possibilities for the reader as in reality all that happens is a sad and somewhat lusty gay man teaches a class, sees a friend and has a heart attack etc. but the existential panic and corporal dissociation which occupies this very self-conscious third person semi-omniscient (better said presumptuous?) narrator is certainly compelling for me in a way that's hard to describe. Despite the intro by Tom Ford in my edition, I don't find this some kind of ultimately relatable tale like the homoerotic writings of Baldwin, instead this feels distinctly Isherwood-> not autobiographical but perhaps shaped more strongly by personal experience? the admiration of the animal arousal of boys, the dismissal of women, the vanity and preoccupation of George with almost camply preserving his boyhood doesn't strike as a universal standpoint but it simply doesn't have to be for it to still be good reading. I particularly adored the classroom "performance" and the extended metaphor of performance that perforates the text which seems to compete with the almost robotic characterisation of George's body as cut off from his mind and operating on autopilot. His death didn't strike me as a shock given the obsession with death which this novel is steeped in. However, the narrative voice shift to an almost hypothetical tone made me question whether George truly had died, though that does seem to be the case, plainly. 

Would love to read some criticism on Isherwood to see whether my first interpretations are too dismissive...