“When A Single Man was originally published, it shocked many by its frank, sympathetic, and moving portrayal of a gay man in midlife. George, the protagonist, is adjusting to life on his own after the sudden death of his partner, and determines to persist in the routines of his daily life: the course of A Single Man spans twenty-four hours in an ordinary day.
“Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) was a novelist, playwright, screen-writer, autobiographer, and diarist. He was also homosexual and made this a theme of some of his writing. He was born near Manchester in the north of England in 1904, [and] became a U.S. citizen in 1946, (…).
A Single Man is a novel about a single day in the life of George Falconer, an Englishman living in California. On a deeper level the novel is about the melancholic sadness of getting by in the daily rhythm after the loss of one’s loved one. But the grief and mourning is intensified on a personal level since George’s mourning occurs in the private sphere. The society does not acknowledge his mourning of the love lost forever.
In a sense, George is a double outsider, a gay foreigner without connections to his old homeland in England. It is the time not long after the almost nuclear crisis at Bay of Pigs in 1961. The Cold War is in its full blossom, the youth is getting hippier by the day and drugs are commodities. Well, that’s a rather limited view of the times but it bears some truth, although who am I to say. I was not there to witness the whole ordeal.
The novel reflects the meaningless in general and the meaning of small things in life that bring the meaning, if you know what I mean. Christopher Isherwood is candid in his portrayal of caricatures, e.g. in his Berlin novels, but with George he is more careful. In the characterization of George, Isherwood is proportionately sized: he is not over the top but very human in his feelings and struggles.
Isherwood’s other novels take the reader on magnificent journeys into Europe of a different time and place. In his travel novels one can only admire the elegance with which one, if you had the proper financial means to express yourself, could explore Europe in the inter-war period and make the most out of touristic experiences. I would highlight Goodbye to Berlin (1939), Down There on a Visit (1962) and Christopher and His Kind (1976).
What makes Isherwood’s novels so great is the fact that he uses such an eloquent language and his character portrayal are so precise that the characters spring to life. It is also intriguing to make mental journeys into a life style of elegant travelling as well as a Europe that no longer exist but in our minds.