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jakemartens 's review for:
A Single Man
by Christopher Isherwood
A Single Man was the second book I listened to during my drive back from Minnesota to Massachusetts. It covered The final leg of my journey, from Buffalo to Milton. I don’t have many thoughts with regards to the audiobook format here; I did not like or dislike the voice actor—he was just some British man.
The tone at the beginning of the book is pretentious and annoying, but once it gets past that it greatly improves. This novel is probably the closest I have gotten to reading one of those modernist stream of consciousness novels. This is not actually one, but it is completely wrapped up in the mind of the narrator George as it covers a single day in his life as he grapples with the death of his partner. It is completely made up of his own opinions and biases—sometimes they’re funny or horrible or both, but he’s very honest. The way we get so close to his thoughts while he briefly forgets about his mourning before the death snaps back into focus feels realistic. Moreover, his reflections on aging and his relationships with others are full, revealing satisfaction, annoyance, disappointment, and more.
This book reads like an artifact with its look at a California that is still being developed and envisioning a prosperous future. I will note here also that George is racist, which is not surprising, but be ready for it if you should pick this up.
Spoiler warning for what is below:
I hated the end, wherein he goes to sleep, has a heart attack, and dies. The final scenes seemed to suggest that this novel was meant as an affirmation of life, so his death kind of ruined my reading and added nothing for me. In fact, I had to go back and relisten to make sure I understood it correctly. Personally I think he should have just gone to sleep and left it there—one emotional day followed by relief and a new day. I think the author just want the ending to be sad and deep, but it just felt contrived.
The tone at the beginning of the book is pretentious and annoying, but once it gets past that it greatly improves. This novel is probably the closest I have gotten to reading one of those modernist stream of consciousness novels. This is not actually one, but it is completely wrapped up in the mind of the narrator George as it covers a single day in his life as he grapples with the death of his partner. It is completely made up of his own opinions and biases—sometimes they’re funny or horrible or both, but he’s very honest. The way we get so close to his thoughts while he briefly forgets about his mourning before the death snaps back into focus feels realistic. Moreover, his reflections on aging and his relationships with others are full, revealing satisfaction, annoyance, disappointment, and more.
This book reads like an artifact with its look at a California that is still being developed and envisioning a prosperous future. I will note here also that George is racist, which is not surprising, but be ready for it if you should pick this up.
Spoiler warning for what is below:
I hated the end, wherein he goes to sleep, has a heart attack, and dies. The final scenes seemed to suggest that this novel was meant as an affirmation of life, so his death kind of ruined my reading and added nothing for me. In fact, I had to go back and relisten to make sure I understood it correctly. Personally I think he should have just gone to sleep and left it there—one emotional day followed by relief and a new day. I think the author just want the ending to be sad and deep, but it just felt contrived.