Summary

In the first section of A Single Man, Isherwood provides his readers with the necessary contextual information required to comprehend the forthcoming narrative; this contextual information includes information about George's routine, home, and potential love life. Told from the perspective of a third person omniscient narrator, who occasionally veers into free indirect discourse — speech which, in brief, can be read as occurring either from the narrator or from the characters which he narrates — "Waking up begins with saying am and now" is divided into three movements: pages 9-11 concern waking up; pages 12-20 involve George's routine, and his thoughts about his home; and pages 20-31 narrate George's thoughts about queerness and his neighbourhood.

"Waking up begins with saying am and now," reads the first line of A Single Man (9). The omniscient speaker is narrating the...