From the first lines of the novel: “But now is simply not now. Now it's also a cold reminder: a full day later than yesterday, a year later than last year. Each hour is labeled with its date, making all past hours obsolete, until – later or sooner – perhaps – no, perhaps not – almost certainly: it will arrive” (9). The idea of ​​now is extremely complicated and subjective, and not one that Isherwood is prepared to concretely answer, hence the stuttering back and forth in observing his protagonists. Even still, Isherwood wants to give his opinion in A Single Man and does so by granting his now without a last day of life protagonist, thus connecting his unawareness to something: time. George's supposedly average day of getting up, going to work, going to the gym and spending time with a friend suddenly has new meaning because now it's the last time he'll brush his teeth and go to teach, now is the last time he will sculpt his body and drink with friends, and now is the last time Jim and the past will hurt