“You have to find it out for yourself. I’m like a book you have to read. A book can’t read itself to you. It doesn’t even know what it’s about. I don’t know what I’m about.”

Christopher Isherwood’s ‘A Single Man’ follows George, a gay middle-aged English professor, around for a day during the grieving of his partner Jim, who died in a motor vehicle accident a few months prior. The novel takes place right after the Cuban Missile Crisis so it has fairly political statements like, “A place where the police are angels has to be an insane asylum,” which I love. But it is also quite romantic, with these long poetic sections that begin with “Think of two people living together,” and ending with “Jim is dead. Is dead.”

I would describe George as a grumpy old gay professor, and he has many reasons to be grumpy. Grumpy at society for how gay people are treated during the 60s. Grumpy at his students for not doing required reading. Grumpy at life for taking his love away from him. But in the course of these 24 hours, which is like a speed run of the grievance process, he gets a better understanding and appreciation of what it means to be living and what it means to continue living after someone you loved has died.

This is, I believe, the second Isherwood novel I’ve read to date, and he is slowly growing to be one of my favs.