beautiful colin firth

book: a single man
author: christopher isherwood
method: purchased
completion date: 01/06/10

colin firth. matthew goode. lovers. i was going to love this movie. however there was a hitch- it was based on a book. and i felt that based on the premise it would make a wonderful book, so in my head i told myself i had to read the book before i saw the movie (this was helped by the movies frustratingly limited release and run times). it made more sense to wait to rent it because even in toronto finding a theater running it at a time that was convenient was next to impossible during school time.
i was surprised to see that the premise of the novel and the movie were quite different. in the movie, colin firth has lost his lover and plans to kill himself, however the book just follows what would be colin firths character through one single day after his partner has died.
from the moment i picked up the novel i knew it was going to be heartbreaking either way- the image of colin firths face, combined with the small size (its only about 170 pages) and the velvety texture of the cover. all of these things told me this was not a feel good book. i was going to love it, but it was going to break my heart. and i did love it. and it did break my heart.
isherwood has this wonderfully poetic style. i would love to speak to him, because he seems to chew his words before he speaks them (or writes them). every sentence in this short book is meticulously chosen. this is something i love about novels under 200 pages- the authors have to be so careful. and in this case it shows.
george is grieving. however he seems to have told noone but his long time friend, charlotte, that he was a) gay and that b) jim was not just a roomate. he also chooses not to tell any of his neighbours that jim was killed only that he moved away (or maybe he was sent to a farm). so his grief is horribly internalized and is killing him. like any grieving being he goes about his day (this one day) fine until those moments, those horrible moments that we all know, when he realizes that jim is gone. this isn't by any means a constant reminder, its always in the little bits, hearing a phrase or seeing a certain shape. george is drawn to the life of the campus he lectures at but his own life is over.
it seems there are some loves that are so intense that one soul cannot function without its counterpoint. i saw something like this happen in my family , however geo's is long acting. his life is over, he just has to come to terms with that.
xo-ellebee