Less

This book by Andrew Sean Greer was selected for this month's book group (4/11/23), it won a Pulitzer, and I have read favorable reviews; so I was looking forward to this. But I have to say that until the very end, I did not particularly like Arthur Less. Library Journal sums up the plot line this way: "This hilarious and touching novel follows Arthur Less, a gay man, as he travels around the world in order to avoid attending the wedding of his former lover. The wedding invitation was the final realization for Arthur that he never should have broken up with Freddy, and as Arthur's 50th birthday approaches, he realizes he may be alone forever."  In addition to providing an escape hatch from his emotional distress, the trip provides "both a parade of colourful characters and a voyage of self-discovery (The Guardian). Interestingly, because Arthur's latest manuscript was turned down by his publisher, he is in the process of rewriting it as he travels. And at the end we realize that the emotional arc of the rewritten novel mirrors the emotional arc of this book. Or at least that's how I saw it because, at the very end, I did finally experience some empathy towards Arthur, just as the fool of a protagonist in his book goes from being a despised character to one towards whom the reader feels compassion.

Publishers Weekly calls the novel "wistful," while Kirkus labels it a "literary picaresque." Hmmm, perhaps. Kirkus goes on to conclude, "this is a very funny and occasionally wise book." Booklist says the novel is Greer's "his finest yet" and goes on to conclude, "Less is a wondrous achievement, deserving an even larger audience than Greer's best-selling The Confessions of Max Tivoli (2004)." And finally, The New York Times offers a glowing review, in part: "Less is the funniest, smartest and most humane novel I’ve read since Tom Rachman’s 2010 debut...Arthur’s wanderings as he makes his way from disaster to disaster are hilariously, brilliantly harrowing. But laughter is only a part of the joy of reading this book. Greer writes sentences of arresting lyricism and beauty... Delights of language abound...Even Arthur’s random observations are entertaining. Why, he bitterly wonders, do today’s young gay men insist on marrying? 'Was this why we all threw stones at the police, for weddings?' And as for quaaludes, 'is there any more perfect spelling than with that lazy superfluous vowel?'...By the time Arthur reaches Japan, the reader isn’t just rooting for him but wants to give the poor guy a hug."