Book Review: A Single Man

I can talk about my book now, I read A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood.

Here's the back cover description:

After the sudden death of his longtime lover, George must adjust to life on his own as a professor in Southern California in the early 1960s. During the course of an ordinary day, George is haunted by memories as he seeks connections with the world around him. Wry, funny and melancholy, A Single Man is a moving portrait of a gay man in midlife.

I actually watched the movie first on this not knowing it was based on a book. The movie is directed by Tom Ford (the fashion giant who saved the Gucci fashion house) it stars Colin Firth and Julianne Moore. I describe the movie as a "pretty movie" its a well done movie and I rated it a 5 because I like movies that change your perspective on something. The movie differs a bit from the book with the story line. It was critically acclaimed and won several awards and earned Colin Firth an Oscar nomination.

The book is written in a third person narrative and goes through one day in the life of George. The memories of his partner Jim who died in a car accident are like ghosts that pepper his daily routine. He is struggling between letting the grief take him over and fighting to find the good in the everyday simple things and you really fight for him to find that peace. He is a British transplant to America and he is often questioning the notion of going back to England to live to try and outrun the ghostly memories of Jim.

In the movie you are following George through the day he decides he can no longer escape the grief of losing Jim and has decided to commit suicide and you follow him through the day knowing this and hoping that he will see the little things in life that make it worth living. This adds a different urgency to the movie as opposed to the book where you are just reading an ordinary day and him struggling to fit into the "straight" way of life and find peace with his own demons.

This book wasn't the book picked for our November meeting but it is going to be my next host month pick which I think will be February which will be perfect because it is a short book of only 186 pages and February is a short month. I think this will be a good book to step out of our comfort zone as a group to discuss this book, I think there is a lot you can take away from this book.

An interesting note about the book:
Don Bachardy, Isherwood's surviving partner said in an interview that at one point in their relationship he was considering ending it. Thinking about life without Don became the inspiration for the novel.  Isherwood began writing the book during one of the most difficult parts of their relationship and was so upset that he began imagining what life would be like without him. After learning that about the book you can see that it was really a day in the life of the author and him outwardly expressing the difficulty of going through life with out Don. I can see how he would relate so well and the painfully ordinary details of minute daily tasks seem so huge when you are overcoming such a loss.

It's a very moving book and I'm excited to hear what the group will say about it, I've got several months before that will happen but it's my pick. I also encourage you to see the movie but read the book first.

Our November book club read is Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.