Andrew Sean Greer

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018 'You will sob little tears of joy' Nell Zink 'I recommend it with my whole heart' Ann Patchett 'I adore this book' Armistead Maupin 'Charming, languid and incredibly funny, I absolutely adored Arthur' Jenny Colgan 'Marvellously, endearingly, unexpectedly funny' Gary Shteyngart 'Bedazzling, bewitching and be-wonderful' New York Times Book Review 'A fast and rocketing read . . . a wonderful, wonderful book!' Karen Joy Fowler 'Hilarious, and wise, and abundantly funny' Adam Haslett 'Ideal for holiday reading' The Lady WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM YOUR PROBLEMS? Arthur Less is a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the post: it is from an ex-boyfriend of nine years who is engaged to someone else. Arthur can't say yes - it would be too awkward; he can't say no - it would look like defeat. So, he begins to accept the invitations on his desk to half-baked literary events around the world. From France to India, Germany to Japan, Arthur almost falls in love, almost falls to his death, and puts miles between him and the plight he refuses to face. Less is a novel about mishaps, misunderstandings and the depths of the human heart.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2018

Less

Daniel Lindquist

“The key to speaking a new language,” she told them, “is to be bold instead of perfect.”

And there is his three- vear-old daughter, who runs around wearing nothing but a rhinestone necklace (who wouldn't, if they could?). 

Zohra's voice comes loudly from her camel: "Shut the fuck up! Enjoy the fucking sunset on your fucking camels! Jesus!"

It's a sad little cockfight they arrange because they have no talent themselves.

"How did they even know I was gay?" He asked this from his front porch, wearing a kimono. 

Any twenty five year old who says the word refinance should be taken out and shot. Talk about love and music and poetry. Things everyone forgets they ever thought were important. Waste every day, that's what I say. 

Mescal turns out to be a drink that tastes as if someone has put their cigarette out in it. 

Was this how men felt? Straight men? Alone so often, but if they faltered if they lost a wedding ring! then the whole band of brothers would descend to fix the problem? Life was not hard; you shouldered it bravely, knowing all the time that if you sent the signal, help would arrive. How wonderful to be part of such a club. Half a dozen men gathered around, engaged in the task. To save his narriage and his pride. So they did have hearts, after all. They were not cold, cruel dominators; they were not high school bullies to be avoided in the halls. They were good; they were kind; they came to the rescue. And today Less was one of them. 

There was wonderful sex, and no talk aferward of I forgot to tell you Janet called, or Did you put the parking permit on the car? or Remember, I'm going to LA tomorrow. Just sex and a smile: Isn't it wonderful to get what you want and pay no price? 

Why did he always assume Mexico City would be like Phoenix on a smoggy day? Why did no one tell him it would be Madrid? 

Jenny Qian

ash b

spent weeks on the first 50 pages but finished the next 200 in two sessions. what a delightful, funny, tenderhearted story. our protagonist’s memories being doled out as he travels the globe to avoid an awkward wedding of his ex-lover, his self-deprecating cynicism matched only by his hopeful innocence; i loved it all. complex relationships, beauty in mundanity, and a sense of humor about it all. unexpectedly sweet with a string of hope throughout all of the follies and anxieties.

Sarah Pitts

Kate

I don't know why this won a Pulitzer....... #dnf

Just not for me. It felt very stale and dry. The longer I read the more I found myself not caring what happens to the main character. But who knows I may re-read some day and enjoy it more. 

deacon

Quinn Tenorio

What an amazing book. I enjoyed the playfulness of the story and ridiculousness of it all. Greer really captures issues surrounding gay men. I couldn't help but laugh throughout the book and see the struggles Arthur Less went through. Bravo! I recommend to anyone looking for a ridiculously fun story and heartwarming as well.

kyra

** spoiler alert **
           Reading this book feels like having a long conversation with your best friend. Some depth, a lot of fun, a little bit of awkwardness, some surprising reveals, but both of you are going to remain the same people at the end of it.

-> Conversations with the side characters could have been more than just surface level thoughts.
-> I probably missed it, or it was possibly not the purpose of the book, but the lack of character growth in Less is slightly bewildering; it is possible that Greer wasn't going for a character development journey...

Excited for the sequel!

A Novel

Jule

This was nice and light in drama, lots of reflections on love, commitment, aging. An interesting trip and funny moments made this a good relaxing and fun read.

Omar Fernandez

Receiving an invitation to his ex-boyfriend's wedding, Arthur, a failed novelist on the eve of his fiftieth birthday, embarks on an international journey that finds him falling in love, risking his life, reinventing himself, and making connections with the past.

Isabella

absolutely loved this book. review to follow

a novel

Lynn

This was lovely. Even though this book didn’t live up to its “funny” reputation, for me personally, it was a perfectly lovely read. The global trotting around looking for something that is waiting for you right at home, combined with the beautiful prose and capability of the author to paint a vivid picture with words made this worth the read. Surprisingly, a book for optimists and happy-ending-lovers.

Miguel Marqués Muñoz

Midori Kobayashi

story- all over the place
writing- trying really hard to be quirky™️
overall- boring and dry.
am i missing something or did this not feel pulitzer-y?

Nick Gracilla

Avoid the ache, embarrassment, and pain of loss and love by accepting every meaningless literary invitation in the drawer—Less regrets he cannot attend. So we as readers are taken on an untidy, beautiful, deeply flawed road trip, loosing luggage along the way, to finally understand that “happiness is not bullshit.” Highly recommended.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018 'You will sob little tears of joy' Nell Zink 'I recommend it with my whole heart' Ann Patchett 'I adore this book' Armistead Maupin 'Charming, languid and incredibly funny, I absolutely adored Arthur' Jenny Colgan 'Marvellously, endearingly, unexpectedly funny' Gary Shteyngart 'Bedazzling, bewitching and be-wonderful' New York Times Book Review 'A fast and rocketing read . . . a wonderful, wonderful book!' Karen Joy Fowler 'Hilarious, and wise, and abundantly funny' Adam Haslett WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM YOUR PROBLEMS? Arthur Less is a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the post: it is from an ex-boyfriend of nine years who is engaged to someone else. Arthur can't say yes - it would be too awkward; he can't say no - it would look like defeat. So, he begins to accept the invitations on his desk to half-baked literary events around the world. From France to India, Germany to Japan, Arthur almost falls in love, almost falls to his death, and puts miles between him and the plight he refuses to face. Less is a novel about mishaps, misunderstandings and the depths of the human heart.

Taylor

** spoiler alert **
           I’m a real sucker for a happy ending.

Kathy Jedrzejczyk

Siya S

/ he kisses—how do i explain it? like someone in love. like he has nothing to lose. like someone who has just learned a foreign language and can use only the present tense and only the second person. only now, only you. / 

this novel was… beautiful. i loved the prose, which is always the first thing i look for in a book. and it wasn’t just passable: it was lovely. so very lovely. i think that there’s a certain kind of grief that invariably accompanies aging—even at the relatively young age of seventeen, i worry—and the way greer explores something so delicate, and all of the intricacies of it, through arthur’s introspection is so relatable, and so vivid. i don’t think i’ve ever read a protagonist—except maybe theo—who’s so human, so vivid, as arthur less.

there’s so many lines that stand out to me, but especially 

we’re too old to think we’ll ever meet again

. there’s so much to love with the characters—zohra, javier, and, of course, arthur—and so much to feel: the gravity of aging and the gravity of relationships fallen apart and the gravity of being perceived all at once. and love. (after all, what could be more important than love?) I think we knew all along who the narrator was—who else could it be?—but the ending, oh the ending. anyway it is 4:04 am as i type this absolutely scattered and incoherent review that does not in the slightest do andrew sean greer justice. but i do think it is worth mentioning that this is the fifth book in four years to really impact me in any way. for what it's worth. 

/ he kisses—how do i explain it? like someone in love. like he has nothing to lose. like someone who has just learned a foreign language and can use only the present tense and only the second person. only now, only you. / 

this novel was… beautiful. i loved the prose, which is always the first thing i look for in a book. and it wasn’t just passable: it was lovely. so very lovely. i think that there’s a certain kind of grief that invariably accompanies aging—even at the relatively young age of seventeen, i worry—and the way greer explores something so delicate, and all of the intricacies of it, through arthur’s introspection is so relatable, and so vivid. i don’t think i’ve ever read a protagonist—except maybe theo—who’s so human, so vivid, as arthur less.

there’s so many lines that stand out to me, but especially we’re too old to think we’ll ever meet again. there’s so much to love with the characters—zohra, javier, and, of course, arthur—and so much to feel: the gravity of aging and the gravity of relationships fallen apart and the gravity of being perceived all at once. and love. (after all, what could be more important than love?) I think we knew all along who the narrator was—who else could it be?—but the ending, oh the ending. anyway it is 4:04 am as i type this absolutely scattered and incoherent review that does not in the slightest do andrew sean greer justice. but i do think it is worth mentioning that this is the fifth book in four years to really impact me in any way. for what it's worth. 

Sonja H

„Less“ von Andrew Sean Geer hat 2018 den Pulitzer-Preis gewonnen, eine Auszeichnung, der ich ehrlich gesagt wenig Beachtung schenken. Über dieses Buch bin ich eher zufällig im lokalen Buchhandel gestolpert und der Klappentext klang recht interessant.

Anfangs fiel es mir schwer, einen Einstieg in die Geschichte zu finden. Arthur Less ist fast 50, ein Mann und homosexuell Ich bin etwas über 40, eine Frau und hetero. Viele Gemeinsamkeiten gab es zwischen mir und dem Protagonisten nicht.

Dennoch ist mir Arthur im Laufe seiner Erlebnisse ans Herz gewachsen. Er ist ein sehr freundlicher, zurückhaltender und bescheidener Mensch, der allen anderen den Vortritt im Rampenlicht lässt und sich eher als Anhängsel bedeutsamer Leute sieht, jemand, der nur in Verbindung mit anderen Personen wahrgenommen wird, nie als er selbst.

Less hat außerdem, so sieht er es zumindest, kein Glück in der Liebe und als sein letzter Partner ihn für einen anderen verlässt, flieht er vor einer unangenehmen Situation, vor der Liebe und vor seinen Gefühlen. Doch wo immer er auf dem Erdball auch ist – seine Vergangenheit holt ihn überall ein, zwingt ihn dazu, sich mit seinem Innenleben auseinanderzusetzen und seine Leben aus anderen Blickwinkeln zu sehen.

Alles dreht sich in diesem Buch im Kreis: Vergangenheit und Gegenwart holen sich ein, Alter und Jugend, Verlassen- und Gefundenwerden.
Es ist eine sehr melancholische, aber liebevolle Erzählung mit einem sympathischen Charakter, dem zugegebenermaßen die Ecken und Kanten fehlen, aber er ist einfach ein bisschen „weniger“ als andere.

Eine nette, unaufgeregte Story für ein paar ruhige Lesestunden.

I had really hoped to like this book, but apparently my picks for the past couple months are not home runs lol. The prose is well done, but the story fell flat for me. Again, I had a problem with the pacing (which seems to be a running theme recently for the books I’ve picked up) and found myself wishing to dive a bit deeper into Arthur Less as a character. I didn’t get emotionally attached to him at all, but I really wanted to. The last thing that took me out of the book was the narrator and the POV that the book is written in. Sadly, this book wasn’t for me. 

Floofyflower

Addy A

Fraser Simons

https://medium.com/springboard-though...

“Just for the record: happiness is not bullshit.”

Usually, I don’t like novels that are self-aware. Not too self-aware. Self-aware at all. Comedies depend heavily on my mood, more so in a novel.

Less, really shouldn’t have worked for me, then. It is perhaps the most self-aware novel I’ve ever read and the entire perspective from which the story of Arthur Less is narrated is one which goes out of its way to find the humor in any situation.

But if there’s one thing I can get behind, its self-deprecation.

“I know I’m out of your life / But the day that I die / I know you are going to cry.”

Arthur Less, 49, learns his boyfriend of 9 years is now engaged to someone else and that he is invited to the wedding. Rather than sit through the humiliation, he accepts the invitations from everyone else that he has received, ones which have come from all across the world. And so begins his travels. And the sprint that takes him away from his problems, or so he hopes.

What follows is a strange narrative style; often switching perspectives, sometimes jarringly. Sometimes the reader is privy to Less’s innermost thoughts, flashing back to his youth; Other times we see Arthur as others see him, or we are told the story in the form of actually communicating literary tropes from a sort-of writer’s room perspective.

This later one even occasionally makes its way into the mouths of characters Arthur interacts with. They criticize his life as a supposed middling white gay male author and the substance of said work, creating an uncanny effect and dissonance between character and story.

“You write what you are compelled to.”

Interestingly —and to varying degrees of success, arguably — this is by design.

Arthur stumbles from situation to situation. Almost falling in love. Almost dying. Almost being the star at a show. Almost almost almost. Arthur is unable to view himself as others see him. He is continually astounded by things working out quite well for him (a commentary on privilege if ever there was one). Each location he traverses: Paris, Berlin, Morocco, Tokyo — all have this magical-realism quality to them.

This structure and form of narration grant the narrator the ability to satirize queer literature tropes while contrasting them with the life of Less. His fictional novels apparently feature characters who bleed for the reader but are given no joy. Less defines himself by his pain and regret even when so many good things are constantly happening for him.

Our narrator’s thoughts and feelings appear to slip into the characters in order to poke fun at Less; sometimes critically, but always as a fan; cheering him on, hoping for the best, positive that more is yet to come.

“Here, all this time, Less thought he was merely a bad writer. A bad lover, a bad friend, a bad son. Apparently the condition is worse; he is bad at being himself.”

Less’s errors are then transformed by the narrator from the things which he believes makes him irrevocably unhappy, into the things that make him worthy of endearment. A byproduct is that this ultimately trivializes the stakes of the story but does make sense within the context of this god-like perspective the narrator engages the reader with.

Overall, I liked but didn’t love Less, but it does what it set out to do: a flipped perspective is exactly what some of us need.

Who knows who sees our errors as inconsequential. To the right person, these errors may be captivating or charming. To the right person, they are a comedy they want only to watch over and over and over, and over.

“I’ve got a theory. Now, hear me out. It’s that our lives are half comedy and half tragedy. And for some people, it just works out that the first entire half of their lives is tragedy and then the second half is comedy.”

Brigid prior 

It took me a long time to get into this book because I wasn’t relating to or empathizing with the protagonist. However, by the end, the writing made up for that and somehow grew in me a slow-burning love for Arthur Less.

elif sinem

3.5 / by far a story hardcarried by its impeccable prose and a gut punch ending. the novel says it too: white guy woes aren't all that interesting, and neither is Less as a character. But the prose... its worldbuilding (I stand by my thought that this is underrated in every genre except SF/F where it's overrated)... Freddy as a character... now these are all something to write home about. whew!

Skye Sherman

I didn’t even care what this book was about, it was such a pleasure to read. Superbly well written—every sentence—and hilarious. I’ve never laughed out loud so many times from reading a book! Also loved the travel aspect and following Less’s odyssey around the globe. I can tell it’s one of those books I’ll keep and likely end up re-reading (and that’s saying a lot!). A new favorite.

Less Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2018

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