Currently (re-)Reading: Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man
A human portrait of private grief, of Otherness, sympathy, of moving beyond tragedy, and mundane beauty’s indomitability. An early gem of the Gay Liberation Moment.
Hidden, though, in it’s subtext, is a deep spirituality. A novel about being present. Traumas of the War awoke Isherwood’s spirituality; he became a devotee to Vedenta, a sect of Hindu philosophy focused on the teachings of the Upanishads. A Single Man’s subtle genius is its seamless pairing of Vedantic thought to modern themes and anxieties.
The single man lives in the world of things, and feels alone in it. A day’s string of moments unties him: he captures Now. The Now allows perception of the connectedness of each to all. Pure being comes in a massive, Atherosclerotic attack. Aloness of being is overtaken by everything.