Summary

In the fifth section of A Single Man, Isherwood narrates the remainder of George's rendezvous with Charley. 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 — "'So here we are . . . 'just the two of us. Just you and me'" is divided into two sections: pages 128-136 concern a drunken conversation Charley and George share about Jim; and pages 137-146 concern the final stages of Charley and George's drunken evening.

"'So here we are . . . 'just the two of us. Just you and me'" is the first thing Charley says to George after the two have had dinner (128). George smiles in response, unsure as...