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A review by travelsandbooks
A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
4.0
This book was a nice little nibble - it's short and easy to read and I was expecting something dark and poignant but it was instead contemplative and fascinating. It started off soaked in sadness and humanity - I really liked how honest the descriptions of the main character's daily life were. The description of his leading the class was fantastic, also, and of his feelings towards his friends. I personally couldn't relate too well to George: I can't imagine acting like that when someone I love has died. But that's not a fault with the book, it's a fault with my perception of it.
I was expecting a shorter and sweeter Revolutionary Road, and indeed, a lot of the prose reminded me of that in style and internal monologue. But what I got was something less gloomy and introspective and was instead calmer and brighter. The character's acceptance of circumstances and refusal to give up - and the fact that that was also shared by those closest to him - was refreshing. I'm giving this four stars not because I enjoyed it four stars but because it is written with four stars of quality. I'd love to read more of this author. I think a bigger bite on a similar subject would reveal something I would treasure.
"But George knows he can't do that. Because, absurdly, inadequately, in spite of himself almost, he is a representative of the hope. And the hope is not false. No. It's just that George is like a man trying to sell a real diamond for a nickel, on the street. The diamond is protected from all but the tiniest few, because the great hurrying majority can never stop to dare to believe that it could conceivably be real."
"Alexander Mong smiles enigmatically, too; though his beautiful head almost certainly contains nothing but clotted oil paint."
"Gottlieb probably knows every bit as much about Quarles as the don does. But Oxford, towering up in all its majesty behind this don, its child, utterly overawes poor little Gottlieb, who was born in one of the wrong parts of Chicago. ... Gottlieb obviously wishes, above all else in life, that he could turn himself into that miserable don and learn to write his spiteful-playful tight-assed vinegar prose."
"As if there weren't far too much understanding in the world already; above all, that understanding between lovers, celebrated in song and story, which is actually such torture that no two of them can bear it without frequent separations or fights."
I was expecting a shorter and sweeter Revolutionary Road, and indeed, a lot of the prose reminded me of that in style and internal monologue. But what I got was something less gloomy and introspective and was instead calmer and brighter. The character's acceptance of circumstances and refusal to give up - and the fact that that was also shared by those closest to him - was refreshing. I'm giving this four stars not because I enjoyed it four stars but because it is written with four stars of quality. I'd love to read more of this author. I think a bigger bite on a similar subject would reveal something I would treasure.
"But George knows he can't do that. Because, absurdly, inadequately, in spite of himself almost, he is a representative of the hope. And the hope is not false. No. It's just that George is like a man trying to sell a real diamond for a nickel, on the street. The diamond is protected from all but the tiniest few, because the great hurrying majority can never stop to dare to believe that it could conceivably be real."
"Alexander Mong smiles enigmatically, too; though his beautiful head almost certainly contains nothing but clotted oil paint."
"Gottlieb probably knows every bit as much about Quarles as the don does. But Oxford, towering up in all its majesty behind this don, its child, utterly overawes poor little Gottlieb, who was born in one of the wrong parts of Chicago. ... Gottlieb obviously wishes, above all else in life, that he could turn himself into that miserable don and learn to write his spiteful-playful tight-assed vinegar prose."
"As if there weren't far too much understanding in the world already; above all, that understanding between lovers, celebrated in song and story, which is actually such torture that no two of them can bear it without frequent separations or fights."