When you put four well-read, middle-aged, opinionated women together to discuss a book, it’s rare you get any kind of unanimity of opinion, but Less, the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, was the exception. We all rated it 5/5.
Many people, I think, fall into the trap of believing a “great” book cannot be funny. For a book to be considered worthy it must be ponderous and serious. It has to deal with “heavy’ issues. Well, Less deals with one of life’s heaviest issues: love. And it does so with humor.
Arthur Less, a gay novelist with a minor literary success to his credit, is about to turn 50, which is difficult enough, but he also has to deal with his former (much younger) lover’s marriage to someone else. Arthur can neither attend the wedding nor refuse to attend, so he searches through his collection of mail and takes out every invitation to a conference or award presentation he has received in the prior year and decides to accept them all. This takes him literally around the world to Mexico, Italy, France, Morocco, Japan, and India giving him an excuse not to have to see the love of his life say “I do” to someone else.
His travels bring him into contact with a number of “characters” while he deals with his memories of past loves, and the pain of losing his most recent lover, Freddy, to someone else. All these vignettes allow the reader to get a firmer grasp on Arthur Less as a person, and he turns out to be both enigmatic and endearing. The one trait that is clear is he truly loves FreddEdity. Truly, madly, deeply. His travels to avoid attending the marriage don’t allow him to avoid his feelings and memories.
Less has a satisfying ending (which I would never spoil), and that isn’t easy.
When you put four well-read, middle-aged, opinionated women together to discuss a book, it’s rare you get any kind of unanimity of opinion, but Less, the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, was the exception. We all rated it 5/5.
Many people, I think, fall into the trap of believing a “great” book cannot be funny. For a book to be considered worthy it must be ponderous and serious. It has to deal with “heavy’ issues. Well, Less deals with one of life’s heaviest issues: love. And it does so with humor.
Arthur Less, a gay novelist with a minor literary success to his credit, is about to turn 50, which is difficult enough, but he also has to deal with his former (much younger) lover’s marriage to someone else. Arthur can neither attend the wedding nor refuse to attend, so he searches through his collection of mail and takes out every invitation to a conference or award presentation he has received in the prior year and decides to accept them all. This takes him literally around the world to Mexico, Italy, France, Morocco, Japan, and India giving him an excuse not to have to see the love of his life say “I do” to someone else.
His travels bring him into contact with a number of “characters” while he deals with his memories of past loves, and the pain of losing his most recent lover, Freddy, to someone else. All these vignettes allow the reader to get a firmer grasp on Arthur Less as a person, and he turns out to be both enigmatic and endearing. The one trait that is clear is he truly loves Freddy. Truly, madly, deeply. His travels to avoid attending the marriage don’t allow him to avoid his feelings and memories.
Less has a satisfying ending (which I would never spoil), and that isn’t easy.
(Linda)
You could say it's a gay story. Others have. But really it's a love story, universal in its theme of love, loss, aging, triumph, acceptance and resolution. So please don't let that stop you from reading this wonderful, funny, heartbreaking book. Arthur Less is Everyman, or even Everywoman, who has ever been in love.
And the descriptive writing! A marvel of beautiful run on sentences dripping with similes and metaphors. I felt the narrator, revealed at the end of the book, literally drilled me into each new scene with machine gun speed and accuracy. Masterful!
(Barbara)
I was reading a piece in the LA Times by Quinn Cummings as she paid tribute to the great Neil Simon. As a 9-year-old she starred in the stage production of The Goodbye Girl with Marsha Mason as her mother. She remarked that “to be meaningful, comedy needs to be about discomfort, about being the outsider……..” And certainly Andrew Sean Greer succeeded when he wrote Less. The subtle humor made me smile throughout the book, from his backwards laugh (ah ah ah) to his brilliant blue suit to the bumbling happenings in each of the countries traveled. And in each of those countries he began to find himself.
I loved the beautifully written prose from the very beginning of the book. How can you not love this: “By his forties, all he has managed to grow is a gentle sense of himself, akin to the transparent carapace of a soft-shelled crab.” The metaphors and similes throughout the book were memorable as were his reminiscences of having lived with a genius in his early adulthood.
My friend Barbara once explained to me that the most difficult part about writing a story is writing the ending, and after having read hundreds of books I can see that few really achieve this well. Greer is an exception because the ending here is perfect.
(Marianne)
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From the Publisher
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| Less | Less is Lost | |
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| Price | $9.99 | $11.99 |
| A struggling novelist travels the world to avoid an awkward wedding | Less returns in an unforgettable road trip across America |
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I ordered a "like new" copy of this book and received what could barely be considered "good". Immediately sent back.
