{"id":20614,"date":"2023-02-20T13:02:53","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T13:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/ldantza\/a-single-man-christopher-isherwood\/"},"modified":"2023-02-20T13:02:53","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T12:02:53","slug":"a-single-man-christopher-isherwood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/a-single-man-christopher-isherwood\/","title":{"rendered":"A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Writtten by: Slawka Grabowska<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood<\/a><\/p>\n

London: Vintage 2010<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

152<\/span> pages<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

ISBN 9780099541288<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe first truly liberated gay novel in English\u201d. That’s how a novelist and essayist, Edmund White<\/strong> described Christopher Isherwood’<\/strong>s A Single Man<\/i><\/strong> published in 1964. The vivid, frank, moving and empathetic description of the life of a homosexual in his fifties caused a sensation, and its author is considered a forerunner of gay fiction in America. The book is a true delight for its style and the way it reflects the oppression of homosexuals in the 1960s in the US. Only a masterpiece can in so few pages touch on such important topics as mourning, death, aging.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

George Falconer, a middle-aged English teacher, is adjusting to living alone after the sudden death of his partner in a car accident. Determined to continue with the routines, he tries to lead a life as before: he teaches classes on Aldous Huxley, drinks too much, is agitated by seeing a young tennis player, and is excited about a date with one of his students. But under this facade he hides the pain of not being able to openly live neither his emotional life nor his mourning.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s worth noting the scene from one of George’s classes: the teacher talks to his students about After Many a Summer, Dies the Swan<\/i> by Aldous Huxley only to realize that he was carried away by passion, that they do not follow him and he feels ashamed for it. It’s one of the most elaborate scenes in the book.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Donostia Book Club has read and discussed the book on February 13<\/strong>th<\/sup>. In case you would like to read it too, below we leave some questions for you. Also, you can compare the book with its cinematic adaptation starring Colin Firth<\/strong> and directed by Tom Ford<\/strong>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
- What does this novel tell us about the way gay people were treated\n   at the time?<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n- Isherwood called his novel A Single Man<\/i>. We know that George has\n  lost his partner, Jim, in a car accident. But is that the only way in\n  which George is \u201csingle\u201d? How else does the title apply to the\n  character?\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>- The novel presents a day in the life of George. There are some famous\n  examples of novels like this \u2014 James Joyce\u2019s Ulysses<\/i> and Virginia\n  Woolf\u2019s Mrs. Dalloway<\/i>. One common interpretation of this type of\n  novel is that the main character is meant to be an Everyman\n  (or Everywoman)\n  that all readers identify with. In what ways can you identify with\n  George?\n  In what ways is this story one of everyday people, not just George,\n  but Jim, Doris, Charlotte, etc.?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\n- How does this novel differ in its handling of George\u2019s sexuality\n  from other books that you\u2019ve read? What do you think about the\n  way the movie handles George\u2019s sexuality? What surprises you\n  about George as a gay man in the 1960s?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/pre>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Writtten by: Slawka Grabowska A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood London: Vintage 2010 152 pages ISBN 9780099541288     \u201cThe first truly liberated gay novel in English\u201d. That’s how a novelist and essayist, Edmund White described Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man published in 1964. The vivid, frank, moving and empathetic description of the life of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eleberria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}