Less

This is a delightfully self-aware, funny, and poignant story of Arthur Less, an author who is taking a trip around the world to distract himself from the fact that he is turning 50 and that his much younger lover is marrying someone else.

"Man dealing with midlife crisis" is one of the least appealing plotlines in the world to me, but this book is wonderful.

First of all, Greer's writing is amazing. I would happily read his shopping list. The book is laugh-out-loud funny. But as much as you find yourself laughing at Less and his charming, blundering naivete, it is a laughter that is full of compassion for this lovably flawed man. Greer lets us laugh at him without losing respect for him. The narrator occasionally intrudes to share with show more us how much he loves Less, and it's impossible not to share that love.

The humor is there to cover up a lot of pain. Less has a lot of flashbacks to both good and bad times with former lovers, to the joys and pains of being gay in San Francisco during the AIDS crisis.

The book is charmingly self-aware: Less is in the process of rewriting a rejected novel about a middle-aged gay man wandering around San Francisco, and the reader can't help but compare Less's failed novel to "Less" itself. It's especially ironic then, that "Less" won a Pulitzer Prize when one of the big scenes in the book is when Less's lover wins the Pulitzer. show less

To read Andrew Sean Greer who is funny and witty and has the most wonderful metaphors restores my love of fiction. I put pages of quotes in my commonplace book. In telling the story of a self-effacing, lovable, heartbroken mid-list novelist named Arthur Less and his journey around the world, I fell in love with the protagonist and the story and even the hardest heart softens with the affection and smiles in this story. Insightful, funny, endearing, the perfect antidote to the times we live in.

I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did. Famous white male writer travels around the world, contemplating his mid-life crisis? Okay. No wonder it won the Pulitzer.
As the book progressed, my attitude shifted. I found myself chuckling at the tongue-in-cheek jibes about Less' white male writer status. Less' latest book, which is about a white gay man in modern San Francisco walking the street in existential angst, gets him dropped by his publisher. Nobody is searching for a story like Less', and yet, here I am, thoroughly enjoying Less against my better judgment.
It's funny, charming, and witty. I would recommend it for those who once had a love for John Updike, but who are tired of reading him.

This book is supposed to be funny, but it doesn’t align with my sense of humor, since it is largely the humor of embarrassment, secondhand cringing, and laughing at. It’s supposed to be a lighthearted junket, but I hated every second of reading it. And the voice. So cute! So self-referential! So proud of itself!

Every second, this book is deeply aware of its own cleverness and ridiculousness, and it makes damn sure you are, too, so that reading it becomes not reading a story, but rather being forced to meditate on the act of reading a novel. It’s like going to a play where there is someone standing front and center on the stage, blocking much of the action, holding up a sign that reads “You are attending a Great Play.” show more Occasionally they wave it, to be sure they have your attention. This book constantly wants your attention on the fact that it is Such a Book, rather than on the story or any part of it, and it’s just exhausting and dull.

I’m sure it’s a wonderful book, but it is most definitely not for me. show less

From Amazon:

Who says you can't run away from your problems? You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can't say yes--it would be too awkward--and you can't say no--it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world.

QUESTION: How do you arrange to skip town?

ANSWER: You accept them all.

What would possibly go wrong? Arthur Less will almost fall in love in Paris, almost fall to his death in Berlin, barely escape to a Moroccan ski chalet from a Saharan sandstorm, accidentally book himself as the (only) writer-in-residence at a Christian Retreat Center in Southern show more India, and encounter, on a desert island in the Arabian Sea, the last person on Earth he wants to face. Somewhere in there: he will turn fifty. Through it all, there is his first love. And there is his last.

Because, despite all these mishaps, missteps, misunderstandings and mistakes, Less is, above all, a love story.

A scintillating satire of the American abroad, a rumination on time and the human heart, a bittersweet romance of chances lost, by an author The New York Times has hailed as "inspired, lyrical," "elegiac," "ingenious," as well as "too sappy by half," Less shows a writer at the peak of his talents raising the curtain on our shared human comedy.

Why I wanted to read it: Pulitzer Prize winner? Second time’s a charm? (I abandoned it in Montana after reading 20 pages.) Other?

I was rather irritated with this book for the first 100 pages or so but persevered because I’ve abandoned too many books this year and felt it would have been self-indulgent to abandon this one, too. I mean, really. A Pulitzer Prize winner abandoned?

I’m very glad I didn’t abandon it. I ended up with tears in my eyes.

As I got to about page 150 or so I thought – there are some very serious Thoughts About Life here. About page 238 or so I thought – I should be noting page numbers to write Interesting Quotes into my review. Didn’t happen, but I’ve opened to 3 random pages and here are a few morsels.

1. Less has, for years, traveled with a set of rubber bands that he thinks of as his portable gym. The set is multicolored, with interchangeable handles, and he always imagines, when he coils them into his luggage, how toned and fit he will be when he returns. The ambitious routine begins in earnest the first night, with dozens of special techniques recommended in the manual (lost long ago in Los Angeles but remembered in parts), Less wrapping the bands around the legs of beds, columns, rafters, and performing what the manual called “lumberjacks,” “trophies,” and “action heroes.” He ends his workout lacquered in sweat, feeling he has beat back another day from time’s assault. Fifty is further than ever. The second night, he advises himself to let his muscles repair. The third, he remembers the set and begins the routine with half a heart; the thin walls of the room might tremble with a neighbor’s television, or the dead bathroom light might depress him, or the thought of an unfinished article. Less promises himself a better workout in two days. In return for this promise: a dollhouse whiskey from the room’s dollhouse bar. And then the set is forgotten, abandoned on the hotel’s side table: a slain dragon. P 84

2. But you. You had comedy in your youth. You were the ridiculous one then, the one everyone laughed at. You just walked into everything, like someone blindfolded. I’ve known you longer than most of your friends, and I’ve certainly watched you more closely. I am the world’s leading expert on Arthur Less. I remember when we met. You were so skinny, all clavicle and hip bone! And innocent. The rest of us were so far from being innocent, I don’t think we even thought about pretending. You were different. P 224

3. A phone call, translated from German into English:

“Good afternoon, Pegasus Publications. This is Petra.”

“Good morning. Here is Mr. Arthur Less. I have concern about tonight.”

“Oh, hello, Mr. Less! Yes, we talked earlier. I assure you everything’s fine.”

“But to double…trip-check about the time…”

“Yes, it is still at twenty-three hours.”

“Okay. Twenty-three hours. To be correct, this is eleven at night.”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s an evening event. It’s going to be fun!”

“But it is a mental illness! Who will come to me at eleven at night?”

“Oh trust us, Mr. Less. This isn’t the United States. This is Berlin.” P 117

I became invested in Arthur Less’s around-the-world trip, intrigued with his attempts at NOT being at the wedding, his flailing around airports, hotel rooms, restaurants. I was enchanted by his innocence, his willingness to be anywhere, get into strange cars, bravely look at himself in the mirror and wonder who, exactly, this man is?

A wonderful book, bitchy, perceptive, and a delicious book. My only regret is that I didn’t like it from page one, because I’m going to need to re-read it one of these days. It’s just that good. show less

Arthur, frankly, is a bit annoying. He's heart broken but what irritated me was his Eeyore-like woe-is-me mentality which even the humour had a tough time breaking. I did laugh out loud - some passages are pure burlesque. And I did enjoy Arthur's travels. I would simply have preferred fewer pity parties.
In the end what saved the book for me was the mise-en abyme and the revelation of the narrator, which was subtly done. Then, the last chapter was pure magic and brilliance: it brought in a light that was missing all along - dreamers have a place and innocence is beautiful and life is magical.

Remarkable Read, Beautiful Prose, Full of Universal Truth

Reading this novel felt to me like looking at a masterpiece of art that I slowly came to understand the longer I stared at it. It also showed me why some books, like this one, deserve a Pulitzer Prize and most others don’t.

What makes this book so wonderful is not simply a creative storyline, or a sympathetic protagonist, or important and well-integrated universal themes. It’s how Greer managed to so perfectly weaves all three together to create something so unique, so beautiful, and so full of truth.

His central character is 50ish, moderately successful writer Arthur Less, whose latest manuscript has just been rejected by his long-time publisher. Deeply discouraged, show more preoccupied about turning 50, and fearful that the best part of his life may be over, Less cobbles together a trip around the world out of a pile of nearly-forgotten invitations. This will give him a chance to rewrite his manuscript, as well as providing an acceptable excuse for not attending a recent lover’s wedding.

As I traveled with Less —to Italy, Germany, France, Morocco, India, and Japan — and he is reacquainted with aging friends, grabbing a few brief sexual encounters and suffering some personal humiliations, I came to care for him so deeply. Because throughout this mid-life crisis, he demonstrates such honesty, humor, and humanity — all the while struggling to give his life enough meaning to keep going.

The voice that the author gives Less is distinctive and insightful, often quirky, and so full of grace that each sentence is a pleasure to read. And you will find Less full of profound observations which will strike a cord with your own. The life questions he ponders and the deep longing for love that is at his core are so universal that I came to identify with him completely. Despite the face that I am a retired heterosexual female and Less is a mid-life gay male. The similarities between us were so overwhelming that the differences simply didn’t matter.

The novel left me crying at the end and so sorry it was over. LESS is fresh, engaging, and deeply emotional. Congratulations, Mr. Greer, on a well-deserved Pulitzer! show less