Summary

In the fourth section of A Single Man, Isherwood provides his readers the activities George undertakes following his visit with Doris. 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 — "As George drives down the boulevard . . ." is divided into three sections: pages 102-109 concern George's journey to the gym, and subsequent experience there; pages 110-117 detail George's experience at the supermarket and then at home, when Mrs. Strunk comes to the door; and pages 117-128 narrates the first portion of George's conversation with Charley.

Leaving the hospital, George drives about aimlessly, his mind wandering from the Christmas decorations that crowd the sidewalks to the cuban missile crisis, which was...