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kayaldrich 's review for:
A Single Man
by Christopher Isherwood
It always feels like such an honor to stumble upon a queer book from before the 80s. Few things can replicate the feeling of reading a voice from fifty, sixty, seventy years ago perfectly relay a sensation or a sentiment you, yourself, are enduring in the now. Looking forward to all the classic queer lit that comes my way in 2025!
edit: just did some research on Isherwood and finding out he met his life partner, who was 30 years his junior, at the beach ON VALENTINES DAY (and likely drew directly inspiration for the george and kenny sequence at that bar/beach ohhhhh god bring back real lovers man)
Some favorite quotes:
'Think of two people, living together day after day, year after year, in this small space, standing elbow to elbow cooking at the same small stove, squeezing past each other on the narrow stairs, shaving in front of the same small bathroom mirror, constantly jogging, jostling, bumping against each other's bodies by mistake or on purpose, sensually, aggressively, awkwardly, impatiently, in rage or in love - think what deep though invisible tracks they must leave, everywhere, behind them! The doorway into the kitchen has been built too narrow. Two people in a hurry, with plates of food in their hands, are apt to keep colliding here. And it is here, nearly every morning, that George, having reached the bottom of the stairs, has this sensation of suddenly finding himself on an abrupt, brutally broken off, jagged edge - as though the track had disappeared down a landslide. It is here that he stops short and knows, with a sick newness, almost as though it were for the first time: Jim is dead. Is dead.
He stands quite still, silent, or at most uttering a brief animal grunt, as he waits for the spasm to pass. Then he walks into the kitchen. These mornings spasms are too painful to be treated sentimentally. After them, he feels relief, merely. It is like getting over a bad attack of cramp.'
(Read this quote at like 2am and I had to stare at my ceiling for ten minutes. What the hell.)
*
"I would love to come. How about tomorrow?"
Her face falls. "Oh well, tomorrow. Tomorrow wouldn't be so good, I'm afraid. You see, tomorrow we have some friends coming over from the Valley, and..."
And they might notice something queer about me, and you'd feel ashamed, George thinks, okay, okay.'
(Something about the "okay, okay" made me PHYSICALLY ill like this quiet devastation buried under this fast acceptance because this is just something he's used to as a gay man in the 60s ohhhhhhh my god)
*
'For a moment, Kenny's face is quite distinct. It grins, dazzlingly. Then his grin breaks up, is refracted, or whatever you call it, into rainbows of light. The rainbows blaze. George is blinded by them. He shuts his eyes. And now the buzzing in his ears is the roar of Niagara.'
(In context, this is just George slipping into an alcohol-induced sleep BUT! THIS!!! THIS IS STUNNING!!!)
edit: just did some research on Isherwood and finding out he met his life partner, who was 30 years his junior, at the beach ON VALENTINES DAY (and likely drew directly inspiration for the george and kenny sequence at that bar/beach ohhhhh god bring back real lovers man)
Some favorite quotes:
'Think of two people, living together day after day, year after year, in this small space, standing elbow to elbow cooking at the same small stove, squeezing past each other on the narrow stairs, shaving in front of the same small bathroom mirror, constantly jogging, jostling, bumping against each other's bodies by mistake or on purpose, sensually, aggressively, awkwardly, impatiently, in rage or in love - think what deep though invisible tracks they must leave, everywhere, behind them! The doorway into the kitchen has been built too narrow. Two people in a hurry, with plates of food in their hands, are apt to keep colliding here. And it is here, nearly every morning, that George, having reached the bottom of the stairs, has this sensation of suddenly finding himself on an abrupt, brutally broken off, jagged edge - as though the track had disappeared down a landslide. It is here that he stops short and knows, with a sick newness, almost as though it were for the first time: Jim is dead. Is dead.
He stands quite still, silent, or at most uttering a brief animal grunt, as he waits for the spasm to pass. Then he walks into the kitchen. These mornings spasms are too painful to be treated sentimentally. After them, he feels relief, merely. It is like getting over a bad attack of cramp.'
(Read this quote at like 2am and I had to stare at my ceiling for ten minutes. What the hell.)
*
"I would love to come. How about tomorrow?"
Her face falls. "Oh well, tomorrow. Tomorrow wouldn't be so good, I'm afraid. You see, tomorrow we have some friends coming over from the Valley, and..."
And they might notice something queer about me, and you'd feel ashamed, George thinks, okay, okay.'
(Something about the "okay, okay" made me PHYSICALLY ill like this quiet devastation buried under this fast acceptance because this is just something he's used to as a gay man in the 60s ohhhhhhh my god)
*
'For a moment, Kenny's face is quite distinct. It grins, dazzlingly. Then his grin breaks up, is refracted, or whatever you call it, into rainbows of light. The rainbows blaze. George is blinded by them. He shuts his eyes. And now the buzzing in his ears is the roar of Niagara.'
(In context, this is just George slipping into an alcohol-induced sleep BUT! THIS!!! THIS IS STUNNING!!!)