Less
/
A little about the book
Follow a ‘failed’ novelist about to turn fifty around the world. Arthur Less visits Mexico, Italy, Germany, Morocco, India and Japan and puts thousands of miles between him and the problems he refuses to face, including an ex-boyfriend who’s now engaged to someone else.
Arthur will almost fall in love in Paris, almost fall to his death in Berlin, barely escape to a Moroccan ski chalet from a Sahara sandstorm, accidentally book himself as the (only) writer-in-residence at a Christian Retreat Center in Southern India, and arrive in Japan too late for the cherry blossoms. In between: science fiction fans, crazed academics, emergency rooms, starlets, doctors, exes and, on a desert island in the Arabian Sea, the last person on Earth he wants to see. Somewhere in there: he will turn fifty. The second phase of life, as he thinks of it, falling behind him like the second phase of a rocket. There will be his first love. And there will be his last.
A love story, a satire of the American abroad, a rumination on time and the human heart, 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.
A little about the author
Andrew Sean Greer is the author of five works of fiction, including the bestseller The Confessions of Max Tivoli, which was named a best book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune. He is the recipient of the Northern California Book Award, the California Book Award, the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, and the O. Henry Prize for short fiction, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Public Library. He lives in San Francisco and Tuscany.
Less book review
This book, for me, was hard to get into at first. The main character, Arthur Less, was a bit too whiny for my taste — especially given all of the success he had enjoyed. But after a book club discussion (to which I called into the Zoom gathering unprepared as I DNF), I decided I’d give it another try.
While it didn’t become my MOST favorite book I’ve ever read, I was happy I ended up actually reading and finishing the book — there’s a reason it won the Pulitzer Prize. Less is a highly relatable, self-conscious, self-deprecating character. Always thinking LESS of himself and also always wanting MORE out of life, Less finds it difficult to live in the moment. I’m not saying it’s me, but… it’s me — at least sometimes. I mean, can’t we all relate to being self-conscious, critically self-deprecating, and not-super-present?
Yes, Less, for me, was hard to get into at first. But if you’re having the same issue, I encourage you to try again. You may just find, like I did, that underneath all of his flaws, Less is a pretty lovable, goofy character and you’ll find yourself cheering for him (even if he is sometimes annoying). ★ ★ ★ ★
