Readability Review No. 4: A Single Man
When the book opens the door to the story within | Plus, our Rekindle Creativity retreat returns from Manitoulin Island
Readability Reviews is a special department of my newsletter, The Book Case. Here, I review how engaging books can be, from first glance to the final page. If that’s what you’re here for, click here to jump down. First, I want to tell you about our writing retreat last week!
Writing goals, rekindled
The 2nd Rekindle Creativity Women’s Writing Retreat
Honestly, what better place is there to spend a week in fall than Manitoulin Island? It has already been a week since I returned from our 2nd Rekindle Creativity Women’s Writing Retreat with a happy heart.
and I hosted four writers at our retreat in Gore Bay, and we spent the days writing, wandering and gathering.This time, on advice from participants from our January retreat in Huntsville, we extended the retreat by a day and loosened up the daytime schedule for more extended writing periods. As hosts, we liked the new format, and we saw our writers take advantage of the time to work earnestly and enthusiastically on their manuscript goals. What excellent work they did! I feel honoured to be part of their writing process, even for a few days.
While we did “retreat,” our days filled up. Amid walks on the boardwalk and excursions for food and refreshment, we also:
fit in an info session with the Northern Arts Representative of the Ontario Arts Council, Alana Forslund
took part in a webinar organized by
that featured advice from literary agent Sam Hiyate of The Rights Factorytoured the bean-to-bar chocolate-making process at my sister Lisabeth’s chocolate shop Finnia Chocolate & Cacao. (Yes, chocolate again!)
We picked out treasures from artists and artisans at the Harbourfront Centre, took lessons from oracles, and enjoyed the meals at the Watersedge Restaurant at the Inn at Gore Bay (I recommend the candied pecan rainbow trout). And we watched the birds and deer — the deer appeared each morning and evening, right there outside of our rooms.
I want to thank the writers who joined us last week for bringing their good humour and good intentions. Each of you took great care in our feedback sessions to fan the spark of creativity in the others. With you, we can do the work we love as book coaches. It was a pleasure to get to know all of you and support you in your writing projects, and I can’t wait to hear about your progress!
Will we do it again? It’s likely! What would convince you to join us at the next Rekindle Creativity writing retreat? You can send me or
a message to let us know. Our inbox is open at rekindlecreativity[at]gmail.com.
READABILITY: Readers, Engaged
Book reviews that measure my engagement with the book, not just the writing.
Readability Review:
A Single Man, by Christopher Isherwood
Examining the pocket-sized Picador Modern Classics edition of this 1964 work of autofiction
Type of book: Print
Bought or borrowed: Bought
Provenance: I like to poke around the clearance tables at Chapters. Excellent books can be found despite the rock-bottom pricing. This one was marked down to $3. I held this tiny volume in my hands, ran my hands over it, and admired it as a piece of art. What pleasure to hold it in my hands!
I walked away. I returned. Being a bibliophile, I couldn’t help myself. I bought it. I mean, really, I thought, it’s so small. It will hardly take up any room on my nightstand.
The book’s promise:
The author - I knew Christopher Isherwood as the author of The Berlin Stories, one of the books on my Modern Literature class’s syllabus over thirty years ago. I loved that book, and I read it a few times, passing it along to friends later. Since then, I hadn’t come across his works, and I hadn’t sought them out. Still, I had high expectations.
The beautiful product - This edition is pocket-sized hardcover (paper over board, to be precise), close to the size of a cell phone. The cover is printed with a beautiful, subtle sheen, and you want to run your hands over it. It features a simple, modern graphic illustration of a man swimming. The paper quality is good. The volume is slim, despite its 215+ pages, and it is easy to carry.
The publisher’s page - In the pages of the frontmatter, the publisher explained the inclusion of A Single Man it is modern classics library. It offered me context: “it shocked many with its frank, sympathetic, and moving portrayal of a gay man in maturity.” The setting, I saw, was the 1960s, before the Stonewall Riots and before the Toronto Bathhouse Raids, key moments in North American LGBTQ+ history that brought broader awareness and change. I wanted to see how Isherwood would approach the subject.
What the cover tells us: The cover relies on the author’s name and the promise that it is a modern classic. . The title is simply represented in a serif typeface, with “Picador Modern Classics” sitting neatly at the bottom right. A simple, modern illustration of a swimmer is featured. On the back, a brief blurb from a Guardian review: “A Single Man is widely recognized as [Isherwood’s] supreme achievement, as much a work of compressed brilliance as Chopin’s Ballade No. 4.”
Readability qualities:
The exploration of universal experiences - George, an aging academic, encounters intense moments of living while moving through grief and loneliness. He is seeking a way out of the pain of loss, something to spark joy in a life of routine and mundanity. His sexual orientation must remain private, which leaves him grieving for his long-time partner in silence, with no one as witness. Life, death, and the taxes of daily life; it’s universal and timeless. Mind you, this novel is sixty years old, and despite Isherwood’s moving depictions of a gay man’s life in the Sixties, which must have been, um, illuminating to readers of the time, there are dated views of race and ethnicity, so I do point that out as a caution to readers.
The writing - We follow George through his day, intimately, and the setting of Southern California shines a bald light on George’s life. We wake with him, we hear his thoughts, we see through this eyes and understand his body. Through him, we understand how he encounters the world. We are deeply embedded journalists. Isherwood is cool, and seemingly unvarnished, yet I was taken down again and again with a turn of phrase.
The tactile experience - The physical experience of this book was enjoyable. I take delight small things, in general, and I could carry this book in my small purse beside my wallet. Its simple typeface, it size, and its slimness presented as accessibility. I knew I wouldn’t be overcome by the weightiness of a classic work of capital-L literature. I wanted to read it; it would not be a chore.
Verdict: Masterful writing and an influential author may elevate a novel to a classic, but book design can convince readers to pick it up. A Single Man is sad yet stunning in its use of language; in only a few pages, I recalled my early admiration of Isherwood’s style and mastery of language. In the end, my tactile experience was nearly as pleasurable.
My reader engagement score: 5 out of 5
This is for you if:
you enjoy books as objects of design
you need a masterclass is writing
the quest to be whole again is what you must read about right now.
If you want to read it:
Publisher: Picador Modern Classics Date: 2019 ISBN: 978-1-250-23937-2
Buy it on Amazon
Buy it at Indigo
Look for it in a library near you
If you want to know more about Isherwood beyond what you learned in college or university, take a gander:
“Exploring the Love Letters of Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy,” by Michael Cirigliano II, February 7, 2018 in The Met. Link here
The Animals Podcast. Link here
Biography, Christopher Isherwood, in Brittanica.com. Link here
More Readability reviews coming soon:
Watch for my reader engagement reviews of Karen Slaughter’s False Witness, The Hole by Oyvind Torseter, and Radical Acts of Love by Janie Brown. Which do you want to read first? Leave a comment below!
Do you want to submit your own Readability Review? Email me at hello@dinahlaprairie.com
Coming soon in The Book Case
I’m launching a new 6-week book-planning group for busy people in November. Details coming this week!
Thanks for showing up, readers. I’m grateful for your support.
Thanks for your review, Dinah, I am prompted to pick up a copy. What aspiring author can’t use a book that’s a master class in writing?
Gary