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US Mall 1 - A Single Man
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List Price: $15.95
Our Price: $9.49
Your Save: $ 6.46 ( 41% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: University of Minnesota Press
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780816638628
ISBN: 0816638624
Label: University of Minnesota Press
Manufacturer: University of Minnesota Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 186
Publication Date: 2001-04
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Studio: University of Minnesota Press
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Very easy read
Comment: The book I had was a collection of his works (Berlin Stories)and found them all very easy to read. I read A single man twice getting more out of it each time I read it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Top of the Top
Comment: This is THE GREAT AMERICAN GAY NOVEL, and every gay man (and probably every thinking man or woman, too) should experience it. Period.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A single man as Everyman
Comment: Because of "Cabaret," Christopher Isherwood is mostly remembered for his "Berlin Stories" and its inimitable Sally Bowles. But "A Single Man" is, I think, far and away his masterpiece--a Southern Californian counterpoint to "Ulysses" and (especially) "Mrs. Dalloway." But, if you're intimidated by stream-of-consciousness prose, don't let the references to Joyce and Woolf put you off; this novel is nearly a breezy Malibu beach read by comparison.
Isherwood details twenty-four hours in the life of an aging college professor who had lost his younger lover the previous year. "Waking up begins with saying 'am' and 'now,'" opens the first chapter, which describes the emerging corporal awareness of this initially anonymous id and which closes with the line, "It knows its name. It is called George."
The novel sticks to the mind of its protagonist as he embarks on his daily rituals: preparing for a class he must teach (Huxley's "After Many a Summer" is the subject and the students' apathetic ignorance provides much of this section's mirth); lunching with his colleagues; visiting a dying friend in the hospital; going to the gym and flirting with its teenaged patrons.
His routine begins to leave its expected track when he meets an old friend for dinner and they get uproariously drunk. Afterwards, he intends to head home but, "How to explain, then, that, with his foot actually on the bridge over the creek, George suddenly turns, chuckles to himself, and with the movement of a child wriggling free of a grownup," he heads to the local "nonconformist" dive--and runs into one of his students.
Like Clarissa Dalloway readying for a party, George lives a lonely, lackluster existence occupied with petty details, inconsequential annoyances, and unanticipated pleasures. But Isherwood instills every sentence with beauty, every character with immediate empathy, and every encounter with so much tension that "A Single Man" is, indeed, Everyman. The unique particulars of George's declining years may not be familiar to many of us, but the struggle between hopefulness and disenchantment is.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Identity Literature
Comment: Well written, certainly, but this is identity literature: if you want to step inside the world of an aging homosexual lecturer, grim, drinking, depressed, at a mediocre college, with an occasional crush on some of his students, this may be a suitable book. It is richly furnished with all the details, sensitivities and grumblings. I did find it excessively preoccupied with itself and that particular perspective. It is an account of a peculiar solitariness, with a few good moments. If you are trying to read something within this distinct genre -- perhaps only for a change of perspective -- this book may be worthwhile. But expect that you may not be swept off your feet if you cannot empathize sufficiently.
Customer Rating:
Summary: READ THIS BOOK!!!
Comment: Deceptively simple, this classic of gay literature from 1964 is a funny, sad, smart, political, and strangely prophetic read. A dynamic character study and day-in-the-life novel of cantankerous George, a 58 year-old gay widower and literature professor living, lusting, and loathing in California. The book engagingly explores the various roles he plays and displays to the world and hints at the reality of the role we all play as human beings. A SINGLE MAN is utterly fascinating, full of intriguing observations, poignant, and just as deep as you want it to be. It's a true work of genius.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Very easy read
Comment: The book I had was a collection of his works (Berlin Stories)and found them all very easy to read. I read A single man twice getting more out of it each time I read it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Top of the Top
Comment: This is THE GREAT AMERICAN GAY NOVEL, and every gay man (and probably every thinking man or woman, too) should experience it. Period.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A single man as Everyman
Comment: Because of "Cabaret," Christopher Isherwood is mostly remembered for his "Berlin Stories" and its inimitable Sally Bowles. But "A Single Man" is, I think, far and away his masterpiece--a Southern Californian counterpoint to "Ulysses" and (especially) "Mrs. Dalloway." But, if you're intimidated by stream-of-consciousness prose, don't let the references to Joyce and Woolf put you off; this novel is nearly a breezy Malibu beach read by comparison.
Isherwood details twenty-four hours in the life of an aging college professor who had lost his younger lover the previous year. "Waking up begins with saying 'am' and 'now,'" opens the first chapter, which describes the emerging corporal awareness of this initially anonymous id and which closes with the line, "It knows its name. It is called George."
The novel sticks to the mind of its protagonist as he embarks on his daily rituals: preparing for a class he must teach (Huxley's "After Many a Summer" is the subject and the students' apathetic ignorance provides much of this section's mirth); lunching with his colleagues; visiting a dying friend in the hospital; going to the gym and flirting with its teenaged patrons.
His routine begins to leave its expected track when he meets an old friend for dinner and they get uproariously drunk. Afterwards, he intends to head home but, "How to explain, then, that, with his foot actually on the bridge over the creek, George suddenly turns, chuckles to himself, and with the movement of a child wriggling free of a grownup," he heads to the local "nonconformist" dive--and runs into one of his students.
Like Clarissa Dalloway readying for a party, George lives a lonely, lackluster existence occupied with petty details, inconsequential annoyances, and unanticipated pleasures. But Isherwood instills every sentence with beauty, every character with immediate empathy, and every encounter with so much tension that "A Single Man" is, indeed, Everyman. The unique particulars of George's declining years may not be familiar to many of us, but the struggle between hopefulness and disenchantment is.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Identity Literature
Comment: Well written, certainly, but this is identity literature: if you want to step inside the world of an aging homosexual lecturer, grim, drinking, depressed, at a mediocre college, with an occasional crush on some of his students, this may be a suitable book. It is richly furnished with all the details, sensitivities and grumblings. I did find it excessively preoccupied with itself and that particular perspective. It is an account of a peculiar solitariness, with a few good moments. If you are trying to read something within this distinct genre -- perhaps only for a change of perspective -- this book may be worthwhile. But expect that you may not be swept off your feet if you cannot empathize sufficiently.
Customer Rating:
Summary: READ THIS BOOK!!!
Comment: Deceptively simple, this classic of gay literature from 1964 is a funny, sad, smart, political, and strangely prophetic read. A dynamic character study and day-in-the-life novel of cantankerous George, a 58 year-old gay widower and literature professor living, lusting, and loathing in California. The book engagingly explores the various roles he plays and displays to the world and hints at the reality of the role we all play as human beings. A SINGLE MAN is utterly fascinating, full of intriguing observations, poignant, and just as deep as you want it to be. It's a true work of genius.
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