Less (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize): A Novel

I pride myself on completing books. Once I start a novel I complete it, even if I am not a fan. This is the first book I’m putting down. I read the rave reviews, saw it’s a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and was getting ready to love it. But it’s slow and painful. There is no comedy. It’s a novel of a broken man. I’m on page 65 and cannot bring myself to continue. It’s just one long sob story of numerous failed relationships. Too many descriptions and metaphors without enough substance. Maybe there’s actual comedy later on but this is just depressing and I can’t bring myself to continue.

This book is brilliant. I read a lot of books and this stands out from all of them. It is not always engrossing - but it has this odd quality of stripping you naked when you least expect it. The language is rich and laugh out loud funny. The type of language that makes you want to read passages to the people around you, but then you realize you'd probably have to start much earlier in the book to give them context and they probably won't have the time for you to read them the entire book. But, you are almost tempted to try - as it is so clever and witty that you are compelled to share it. Wonderful. This is a book I will read again, and probably revisit more times after that, as I suspect every read will offer up new observations to the reader.

Milestone birthdays are hard, but turning fifty for Arthur Less is especially difficult. So what does he do? He plans a multi-nation journey, not to celebrate, but to escape. His former lover is getting married, and he’s trying to run away from the heartbreak of it all. Less is a good-looking, charming fellow, but he’s a real mess.
This is a beautifully rendered, gorgeous love story. The author, Andrew Sean Greer, is a very talented writer. His prose is smart and elegant. I was most impressed with his metaphors. They really are splendid. For most of the book, the narrator’s identity is unknown. I had my suspicions, and they were confirmed on the last few pages. An excellent read, I even thought it was ingenious the way he used the main character’s name in a clever play-on-words

I first read a sample of Less and felt it wasn't for me. Something about it stayed with me however and I read the sample again. While I wasn't completely captivated I ordered the novel and began a reading experience that I will always remember.

I don't have the words to adequately explain my connection to this novel but I will say that I was amused, deeply moved and fascinated by its style, content and originality.

I promise, it will sneak up on you in a special way.

You know this dinner parties where everyone has had just the right amount of wine. Where the stories are long and winding and you never want them to end. This book is like that. Forward and backward in time. Each moment in the current timeline a possible link to a memory of something before.

I was very disappointed. I was expecting a book that was light, easy to read and funny. This is far from funny unless you believe going around the world and having an sexual affair at every stop, taking drugs and drinking booze as "funny". That seems to be the main plot! Whether you are homo or heterosexual, it is a bizarre story. I can't understand why this book was rated with 4.5 stars. I am becoming very disappointed in the store's book ratings. How many times have you seen a book rating less than three stars?

Opting to vary our reading selections, our book club chose this book based on the multiple reviews, award, and recommendation lists. It was time for something humorous and from a writer unknown to the group. Well, this book left us disappointed. The writing was tedious, the characters shallow and uninteresting to the point where we did not care who slept with who, why, or what happened to them next. Hoping for humor, we found a string of sad, unhealthy relationships in awkward situations. And the ending, where we find young guy pining over old guy who will eventually become the old guy pining over the young guy, left us unsatisfied. A cycle of seemingly shallow relationships based on sex, attractiveness, and ego-cradling with little development of self-awareness and personal growth. My guess it you will either love it or hate it.

Almost couldn't put it down after a slow start. Did not realize it was about a gay man, life, and love. Being a straight man age seventy-one I really did not think that I would enjoy it so much.
I know gay men haven't lives, and needs just like I do, but still.
At first I read on because the book won the Pulitzer prize, so it must be good, then I became engrossed in the universal story of life, and love.
I found some parts very touching, and others are me laugh out loud. At the end of the book I wanted to read more, and also had an alternate ending, or additional snippet I would shave liked to see.

Agree with the other low reviews. Was lured by the Pulitzer plus I thought it would be funny. But it was neither funny, nor an engaging high quality read. I couldn’t really connect with Less’s character. The story was silly - it was all too superficial and seemed fake. I didn’t laugh once… Was an easy and quick read though but would not recommend.

In a sense, a two-star review is unfair, as I didn't make it very far into the book, but after reading some of the negative reviews, I'm tempted to give the book one star, as I almost did to begin with and probably would have done if I had read it to the end. Indeed the negative reviews were more entertaining and enlightening than this book portended to be. The first few pages did elicit a laugh, which made me think the book was going to be as funny as advertised, but both the style and the story line were unengaging and surprisingly thin. Pulitzer Prize???

A delight! You'll laugh out loud, read sentences out loud just to feel them on your tongue, and ultimately be moved by this loopy story of emotional truths. A fine and thoroughly enjoyable achievement in modern literary technique!

I really wanted to like this book; but this book did nothing for me. I was bored after the first 30 pages and struggled to read it through. I did not care about the characters at all. The writing falls for me in the "trying-too-hard" category.

Early on as the characters developed I began to really genuinely like them all. I could picture everywhere Less traveled even though I had not done so myself. I could identify with his character, his mood and feel his sadness at the loss of his true love by his own doing. I loved the ending!!

Self-indulgent to the max. Only another author could find a book about a failed author running away from his failures in love and life of any interest. It purports to be a comedy of sorts, yet fails to deliver anything either original or witty. As one reads along, one hopes for a last minute pay-off. No. The end is predictable. What was Little Brown thinking when they put this to press?

This book reminds me of why I read. To experience a character from the inside out, and to actually LIKE him, which has become all too rare in the books I've read recently.
This book is part travelogue, part tragedy and part love story, but completely honest, unassuming and authentically charming. Filled with small wisdoms, we accompany the author Arthur Less from San Francisco to New York to Italy, Berlin, Paris, Morocco, India and Japan.
Maybe we could call it the "coming of age" story of a soon to be middle aged adult as he ponders the meaning of love.
Sweet and satisfying.

When I read the preview I was kind of sold on the idea of a guy turning fifty, frustrated with his work, taking a trip around the world on his own to avoid having to go to a wedding and to bump himself out of his midlife crises. I have to admit that if I saw the part about this being a gay romance-or any romance for that matter—I probably wouldn’t have bought it. With that said, the story was well put together and the characters were all interesting. I ended up enjoying the book.

A well spun romp, packed with keen observation, a humorous command of prose, and linguistic hi-jinx. Taking a trip around the world with Arthur Less is worth every mounting moment, pang, pitfall, and promise for... we won't spoil the ending! LESS raises the bar for exuberant storytelling, with barely a lull to catch your breath.

This book is simply a literary masterpiece. Greer's writing is exquisite, his sentences so beautifully crafted that you want to read them over and over again. At first this story about a rather unusual hero didn't grab me. In fact I put the book down. But after reading a few more good reviews I picked it back up again, started from the beginning, and got right in. This story of a man who deals with a personal trauma by splicing together a trip with multiple stops (and engagements) around the world, introspective from start to finish as the main character is forced to deal with what he was running from, as well as the approach of his fiftieth birthday, is masterful. If you appreciate good literature, this is it.

I just finished this book with tears running down my face. What beautiful prose, what insights. Oh boy, I am emailing my reading friends right now to recommend LESS. 'So looking forward to reading more from this author. Wonderful book.

Disappointed. It make me lower the expectation/recommendations of the Pulitzer Price choices. Have not finished yet, boring reading. It will end in the trash can. Usually a pass the books I read to friends, this one won't make it.

Such a wonderful novel-- I want to go back and read his other books. Beautifully written, a compelling character I was rooting for (and laughing at) and a beautiful surprise at the end. The trip around the world was a wonderful plot device.

I didn't really care for it. I had a difficult time getting into the story line. But each must make their own decision...i did try to find humor and fun in it as well as enjoy the writing style. Sorry, but it didn't work for me.

This is a masterwork. A novel about very little things, and about the biggest thing there is. A novel containing the misty brushstrokes of Cezanne and the meaty slap of Pollack. It's an astonishing work of art, and a joy to read.
Bravo! Bravo ! Bravo!

As other reviewers have stated, it is a complete mystery how this book can win any prize let alone a Pulitzer. But then prize giving, as this reader has learned over the decades, is not an indication of literary worthiness. It is extremely difficult to read, in a style that is impossible to absorb. Time lines are fractured, if they are present at all - in the same paragraph the 'narrator' goes from being in a bar in NYC to then being on a 'plane to Mexico. I was completely lost. Images are described that defy any kind of meaning or relevance. Who is this mysterious 7yr old boy sitting in an Indian airport ? How is it possible he has access to watching the book's 'hero', Arthur Less through a window outside in a traffic jam ? It's an image that just doesn't work nor does it have any relevance. But perhaps the most irritating feature is how the story switches from first person to third. Again, I was lost. Unlike those who have felt the book is worthy of five stars, I disagree that the characters are well formed. Although I did plough through to the end, Arthur Less remained as inconclusive and wayward as he was at the start. The story is fragmented and gets lost in ramblings that stall whatever action there is. It is over written, as though the author is trying to show how clever he is; this reader is not impressed.

This is a great book. -- it makes you laugh and also your heart ache as the characters bumble through the confusion of love. There are a lot of very good lines and descriptions; and the perspective provided on the last page and in the last line lingers in a good way.

This is a fun book about a gay man moving towards his 50s. In order to avoid everything related to his birthday, he takes a book tour, wins a prize, confuses a funny group of German students and wins back the heart of his true love. That's a good story, right?

The author is a craftsman, as many reviews have noted; still, I was left cold by this book. The characters seem to be roleplaying their lives. I kept waiting for one to emerge as human, or for the protagonist to wake up. I get the feeling that the author lives the same way.
One more point: reviews keep lauding the "comedic" aspects of the book. It is not funny; rather, the author uses a light touch which does succeed in pacing a novel that otherwise would have been stultifyingly dull.

The read was exhausting. it was like a 7 yr old ADHD in the back seat going look thats ...over there oh look ,and on and on. Trivializing the bent ...its why i gave up golf. Sorry Pulitzer but i didnt find the inner world of any depth.

Simple but beautiful. Painful but funny. Easily read, yet weighty; I found myself underlining more passages than I’d expect. And I suspect there’s an inside joke the author may have with himself about likable protagonists.

A quiet start and an eloquent and poignant finish; in between, the writer's masterful use of metaphor and the love for his characters add up to a satisfying, deeply emotional read. I so enjoyed this book.

How on earth did such a trivial, superficial book ever win a Pulitzer prize? It bored me silly. I had to force myself to finish it. There are many, many authors out there far more deserving of such an award than Mr. Greer.

Amazing writing, a very human story about what it is like to age and long for youth and rue the regrettable choices you have made. Great character depictions and a ton of wit. Deserved the Pulitzer prize.

Less, the titular character, arrives as colourless and reactive and leaves much the same way. An engaging enough character (just,) makes his way around the globe in order to avoid a marriage and then ends up...well, that would be a spoiler, (though not much of one.)

I am not sure this is worthy of a Pulitzer, its ideas are not new and the writer's voice is workmanlike.

This quirky story, and particularly the ending, is a bit confusing and hard to follow, but I really enjoyed it. The writer had a wonderful way of putting words together and I will be reading more of his work.

I found this hilarious, thoughtful and well written. The Russian River period was familiar to me, which helped to understand the joys and sorrows for Les and his friends.I hope the author writes more as he is certainly talented.

How this book weaves itself around and into the reader is a mystery only understood by the best of writers, and even Greer may not know how he did this magic. I’ll have to read more of him to satisfy this hunger he has created in me. Bravo.

Will pay little attention to Pulitzer Prize winners in future. This one of most boring books have ever tried to read. Tried jumping ahead to see if got better but had to give up. Reviews used words like “funny”, “ hilarious “. Nothing funny to me.

There was nothing in this book that would make my life more bearable. It was anxiety-ridden and somewhat tedious. I did however, appreciate the quality of the writing. I was also amused when the main character spoke about reading Proust and then the author waxes Proustian! Overall, it was a decent read with a predictable ending. I just wish it was more.

About the best I can say for this novel is that it is well written. If you like a constant diet of homosexual trysts, and a character who is so inept as to almost be a burlesque, this is the book of you. For me, I could have used a lot less (yes, intended) of both. The novel had come to me highly recommended by a friend and I was very disappointed.

Cannot begin to fathom why this won the Pulitzer Prize with so many other books out there worthy of the honor. Sorry I spent money on it and wasted time reading it before I gave up. Usually donate/share books when done...will not bother with this one.

I hated this book. It’s basically about this guy who remenices about his love life with other men. I was looking for more of a summer, adventure, action type of book and definitely didn’t get that. It is well written however. Just not what I was looking for. That’s what I get for ordering late at night.

I just finished LESS I am crying and I love love love this book.
I can’t call all my book group people bc we don’t read this until January next year (we read the Pulitzer’s prize for fiction in January but since I select all the books I read everything for this year so I picked it up yesterday and just finished).
I don’t want to spoil it for anyone else but I love this little book. His trip around the world (I ordered Mugwart Tea—will arrive on Saturday) was worth the read alone but the story oh the story I loved it with all my heart. Like the ending of MIDDLESEX (Cal oh how all my Book Group loves Cal) or A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY ( I read it 3 times before I would read the ending )or ANGELA’S ASHES (‘Tis)
The ending LESS. is so perfect so wonderful!
I read the last pages to my husband and he said” OH BARBARA HOW YOU LOVE YOUR BOOKS”
I hope you love it as well!!!!

Ah, the bait-and-switch of an award. Sure I finished it because I hoped it'd get better...nope. Unfortunately, from about Page 20 couldn't wait for it to be done. Lousy book, not funny, uninteresting "plot".

How this book won the Pulitzer is totally beyond me — except that a jury of men decided a man should win this prize for “dude lit.” There are so many extraordinarily better books written by women about their experiences that get labeled “chick lit” that should have won this award and accolades. The only reason “Less” won a major award is because men love to praise other men

Like his writer protagonist’s fourth novel --- the one that prompts his publisher of 15 years to sever their relationship --- the premise of Andrew Sean Greer’s fifth novel, LESS, doesn’t sound especially promising. And yet Greer manages to turn this story of a novelist on the cusp of his 50th birthday, who decides to embark on a round-the-world trip to bury his grief when the man who’s been his partner for nine years abandons him to marry another man, into a funny, touching and insightful story. No matter how far we travel, this gentle novel reminds us, the most perilous journey we face is the one into ourselves.

Arthur Less is “an author too old to be fresh and too young to be rediscovered, one who never sits next to anyone on a plane who has heard of his books.” In fact, his main claim to fame surrounds the years he spent as the lover of a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet 25 years his senior. From his time with Robert Brownburn, Less learns that living with genius is “Like living alone. Like living with a tiger.” And he knows his own career can’t begin to measure up to that unforgiving standard.

Fresh from the news that his younger (by 15 years) lover Freddy Pelu has decided to marry another man, Less cobbles together a journey only a writer could create, featuring literary festivals, a teaching post, a retreat and an article assignment, that takes him from his home in San Francisco to Mexico City, Turin, Berlin, Morocco, India and Japan. Apart from the ordinary indignities of travel --- cancelled flights, lost luggage and less than impressive accommodations --- Less is forced to endure more than his share of unique personal and professional embarrassments.

In tracing the arc of Less’ odyssey, Greer studiously avoids overstepping the line between skillful satire and heavy-handed humor. That’s evident in his account of the Italian literary contest (judged by a panel of high school students) where Less’ novel faces off against several other works in translation, as he wonders “what god has enough free time to arrange this very special humiliation, to fly a minor novelist across the world so that he can feel, in some seventh sense, the minusculitude of his own work?” Less’ mangling of the German language --- the only foreign one in which he professes any fluency --- during the stint in Berlin when he teaches a course entitled “Read like a Vampire, Write like Frankenstein” is rife with comic material.

Then there’s the scene at a Paris literary party, where a fellow gay writer explains to Less that he’s not in the “gay canon,” not because he’s a bad writer, but because he’s a “bad gay.” “It is our duty to show something beautiful from our world. The gay world.” the writer admonishes him. But in your books, you make the characters suffer without reward. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were a Republican.”

Greer lingers just long enough in each of the venues where Less alights. Whether it’s his encounter with a sandstorm in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains or the quiet residency he anticipates at a “place full of art, providing three vegetarian meals a day, a yoga mat, and Aryuvedic tea” on the Arabian Sea in India that instead turns out to be a not entirely placid Christian retreat center, Less repeatedly is given ample reason to question his choice to flee his life in San Francisco. He can run from that life, but no matter how hard he tries, he can’t seem to escape it.

Less’ regrets aren’t limited to his relative literary insignificance. Even in the midst of his long-term relationships, he’s placed fidelity low on the list of virtues. Now that he’s deep into middle age with no prospect of a new partner in his life, he rues that lack of faithfulness even more strongly.

Though Greer is quick with a quip, LESS (which inevitably will invoke comparisons to John Updike’s Henry Bech novels) is not simply a light entertainment. Greer, who’s approaching his protagonist’s age, wrestles with vexing questions about life in the middle years, the difficulty of responding to the demands of art, and what it means to be committed to another human being. LESS ends with its protagonist attaining a level of self-knowledge, and perhaps even self-forgiveness, he didn’t possess when the story began. Greer also tosses in a satisfying twist that reveals the identity of the story’s narrator, while giving us hope that Arthur Less may yet be able to write his masterpiece, perhaps a work that shares some of this novel’s charm.

Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg.

A deeply self-absorbed, tall, handsome, white guy frets about turning 50 because he has absolutely nothing else in his life to worry about, and cannot see beyond his own nose. Poetically written in parts with some slightly amusing sketches of a litfic writer’s life abroad. Not a romance but has romantic elements, and also everyone wants to kiss the hero.

This book is by far the most boring book I have ever struggled through. I bought it with the hope of something light and comical. I saw a protagonist that was pathetic and completely hopeless. The one saving grace was the description of the garden which came towards the end of the book. Even a happy ending made me feel cheated. So sorry I ever picked up this book.

I'll tell you how bad this book is. Years ago I gave myself the challenge of reading every Pulitzer prize winning fiction book published in my lifetime, and I achieved this goal, reading every one from 1949 to 2017. Anxious to read this year's, I made it to page 15, then glanced here and there to see if it gets any better, which it doesn't, and sadly put it down for good. I won't be getting a Pulitzer prize winning fiction book again. I feel guilty that my wife bought it for me, including the six dollars for shipping. It's well written squalor. I've got several more of Clyde Brion Davis' books to read instead. They're out of print and didn't receive any Pulitzer prizes, but they're certainly better than this one.

I didn't find this book funny: I did find the humor strained. I had
little interest in finishing it, but I did, thinking it would get better.
In my opinion, it didn't. How it won the Pulitzer Prize is a mystery
to me.

After reading this, I'll never buy another novel because it won the Pulitzer Prize.
Funny? Nope. It got tedious very quickly.
Engaging? I just could not relate to this tale of a cliche-ridden, middle-aged gay writer with no responsibilities (no job, no children, no pets, no elderly parents to care for, and apparently not even a plant that needs watering) traveling around the world on someone else's dime. There was nothing interesting or universal about the main character. He elicited zero sympathy from me. The premise and character were razor thin. I easily imagined the author having little or no experience of life's real struggles or people outside of his literary artsy fartsy crowd.
Well written? No more, nor less than dozens of other mediocre novels out there. Get this awful amateurish line: The wall was as barren as a toothless old woman. Ugh. Sure. I bet the plain wall reminded him of a toothless old woman. It's what any normal person thinks about when they see a wall without tiles. Ridiculous.
This book destroyed the Pulitzer Prize award's credibility with me. I have to wonder if this was nothing but a diversity give away. This is sure to be quickly forgotten.
So the average person now only reads one book a year? It's no wonder if this is the best the Pulitzer committee could find. If the Pulitzers are no longer to be awarded based on merit, but on a politically correct inclusiveness campaign, they will become irrelevant and a humorless eye-rolling joke among book lovers. I can't imagine being an artist or author and taking any pride in an award given to me not because of some artistic excellence I created but because of my race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, or gender identification.

Spoiler Alert (though there's not much to spoil, anyway)

I liked the premise of the book. A heartbroken writer, struggling to finish his latest novel, goes in search for himself. I expected some depth and perhaps interesting deliberations about aging, missed opportunities, nostalgia. But instead, what I got was the travel journal of a jet setter that can be whimsical at times, but which loses its charm after a couple of chapters. Any substance that it could have had (and it definitely had some) is drowned in a sea of either lead-to-nowhere anecdotes, or a style that is trying too hard to be funny.

The formula grows old really fast. It goes something like: "1) Main Character travels somewhere unexpected; 2) He flirts with love. Could this be the one? (oh, surprise, it's not); 3) Someone is really mean to him 4) Insert funny accident; 5) Time to board the next plane". The final chapter "surprises" us by reconnecting the main character with the love of his life (how's that for originality?).

After a few pages, I could not care Less (pun intended) if the protagonist is trapped in a sand storm, has drank too much champagne, is trapped in a Japanese restaurant, or has his favorite suit destroyed by a dog. I just wanted it badly to end so I could move on to the next thing on my reading list. Do yourself a favor and pass on this one.

While well-crafted, "Less" didn't seem authentic. A "small" novel about a man facing his age, without emotional intensity, or intellectual sparkle, or even humor, though the hero tells us in no uncertain terms how to read it: as a grand gay Ulysses, significant to the PC crowd because it shows how the post-AIDS gay male generation deals with turning 50. Turns out, like everyone else!

In reality, it's more of a lesser "Eat, Pray, Love" with an intellectual gay character and a lighthearted touch. While Elisabeth Gilbert comes across as a natural, intense, brutally honest writer, Greer seems to be the opposite type. Deliberate and mild and self-conscious, pushing all the right social and literary buttons while pretending to humbly avoid them. Arthur Less is an empty and average human being, desolate after a long casual affair with a younger man ended, and, with it, a decade of his living at the surface of life...The style is a mix of fresh metaphors and beautiful sentences, with some passages that felt contrived and unnecessary. Some chapters were quite good, at least half were dull. The substance never dives deep; the hero stays on the debonair surface, he is always conveniently lucky, like the author who received a Pulitzer for a modest book that could have been easily passed unnoticed.

The Pulitzer is going the PC way of the Oscars: searching minority works to award even if they are just so and so, as a nod toward that community as a whole. Unlike "The Sympathizer," my favorite Pulitzer in recent years, this novel failed to make a great impact on me. I skipped many pages in the second half, just to see how the novel ended. It's the type of book where if you remove half of the pages or chapters the "whole" remains pretty much the same. Since the days of Aristotle's Poetics, this is the biggest faux-pas of literary composition, but either the Pulitzer Board is lowering the standards to ensure it sends the "right" message, or the Pulitzer Board members themselves fail to know the basics these days and whoever appointed them had lowered the standards.

One of my most favorite authors of all times, Oscar Wilde, was gay, therefore I was expecting more!

Disappointed on so many levels. Less humor, less charm, and less of a storyline than what was promoted. I forced my way through it, much to my chagrin. I should have stopped before I started. Bleh at best.

Andrew Sean Greer’s new novel, Less, starts out engagingly enough, but the flippancy and glibness of his narrator’s tone soon wear thin.

That’s a shame, because at his best Greer really knows how to lay fresh language on us: “No one could rival Arthur Less for his ability to exit a room while remaining inside it.”

With two guys involved in a contest of defining each other’s characters, one says: “Freddy Pelu is a man who doesn’t need to be told before take-off to secure his own oxygen mask before assisting others.”

And here’s another: “The Russian novelist pulls his lush eyebrows together like the parts of a modular sofa.”

So the book is by no means a total bust, but a better bet with Greer is the book that put him on the map, his improbable and deeply satisfying 2004 novel The Confessions of Max Tivoli, in which a character is born old and ages backward to childhood. A huge fictive risk, but Greer’s art in that one wins the reader’s suspension of disbelief, and his prose is a wonder. I don’t recall encountering any of the qualities that bothered me in Less.

One of the many pleasure of reading is discovering an author whose voice speaks to your soul and realizing, “They have a backlist!” So it is for me with Andrew Sean Greer and his most recent novel, his sixth published work, Less.

There are novels with indelible opening lines, for me, the ideal being Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays:

What makes Iago evil? some people ask. I never ask.

It has stuck with me since the first time I read it. Of course, it’s followed by another 200-some wide margined, amply spaced pages of exquisite genius during which Joan Didion manages with her precision of language and laser focus what most novels — no matter the page count — never even hint at.

Point being, I remember Play It As It Lays not just because of its opening line — which is brilliant — but because what follows is equal to the opening.

With Andrew Sean Greer’s Less, the order is twisted: when you reach what seems the inevitable, only possible final line, the preceding 250-some pages — which might have seemed twee or gimmicky in less skilled literary hands — feel earned and right and have that heft of, “Oh, I’ll always remember this.”

And what more can one ask of a book but that it gives you something you will always remember?

So, perhaps I ought synopsize rather than babble. Our hero, Arthur, a self-defined failed (or failing) author about to turn 50 receives an invitation to his boyfriend of the past nine years wedding. To someone else. Desperate to avoid the ceremony without saying no and seeming broken, he accepts a motley deluge of invitations to literary events and opportunities which will take him around the world, making it impossible to attend his long-loved one’s nuptials to someone else.

On the trek which takes him through Mexico, Italy, Germany, Morocco, India and Japan, he falls in love (maybe) and suffers humiliations real and imagined and faces his fears about and the realities of being a gay man alone, turning 50, which equals being a corpse in the youth-oriented world of modern gay life and hookups. Listen:

Arthur Less is the first homosexual ever to grow old. That is, at least, how he feels at times like these. Here, in this tub, he should be twenty-five or thirty, a beautiful young man naked in a bathtub. Enjoying the pleasures of life. How dreadful if someone came upon naked Less today: pink to his middle, gray to his scalp, like those old double erasers for pen and ink. He has never seen another gay man age past fifty, none except Robert. He met them all at forty or so but never saw them make it much beyond; they died of AIDS, that generation. Less’s generation often feels like the first to explore the land beyond fifty. How are they meant to do it? Do you stay a boy forever, and dye your hair and diet to stay lean and wear tight shirts and jeans and go out dancing until you drop dead at eighty? Or do you do the opposite — do you forswear all that, and let your hair go gray, and wear elegant sweaters that cover your belly, and smile on past pleasures that will never come up again?

It goes on, even more eloquently, in ways that made this 50-something, aging gay man with no role models, none of the cohorts I knew when young having survived (in life, or in my life) to show me how to age, especially how to age alone; and age alone here, in a location where the gay community is of limited scope, limited imagination, and just as youth obsessed as the WB network. So, there, on page 22 of a novel mostly funny and warm and comforting, I cried in recognition.

There are so many funny, touching, glorious, beautifully structured, recognizable moments in this skillfully, artfully written novel, I could spend pages and pages quoting, but that would waste the time you ought to spend reading this remarkable, moving novel in which the angst of aging, regret, and self-delusion are described full-blown with humor and warmth and compassion. This novel is uplifting without being saccharine and I could not have loved Less more.

Arthur Less, a midlist novelist who is about to turn 50, is determined to avoid the upcoming wedding of Freddy, a much younger man who recently dumped Arthur after nine years of romance and cohabitation. To do so, Arthur cobbles together a world tour—a literary conference in Mexico City, a book competition in Turin, a teaching gig in Berlin, and so on—that provides an I-can’t-possibly-make-it excuse and cover. This enables Arthur to miss the wedding of Freddy, who he still loves.

Freddy, by the way, describes Arthur as an author who in KALIPSO, his most successful novel, and in SWIFT, his current work-in-progress, is continually rewriting the ODYSSEY. “All you do is write the gay ULYSSES,” he says. And this observation certainly applies to Andrew Greer in LESS, as his protagonist—Less like in Ulysses—travels from here to there, before returning home, in this episodic book.

There are many things in LESS that Greer does extremely well. He has, for example, a great knack for describing the process of editing and polishing a novel. For example: “As Less lies sleepless in bed, his novel appears in his mind. SWIFT. What a title. What a mess. SWIFT. Where is his editor when he needs her? His editrix, as he used to call her… Less recalls how she took his first novels, shaggy with magniloquent prose, and made them into books. So clever, so artful, so good at persuading him of what to cut. ‘This paragraph is so beautiful, so special,’ she might say… ‘that I’m keeping it all to myself.’” And: “’I think the chapter’s absence will echo throughout the novel.’”

Further, Greer produces exceptional travel writing throughout LESS. For example: “Would you believe Morocco has a Swiss ski town? For that is where Mohammed has taken them, driving them out of the sandstorm and through deep canyons where hotels are carved into the rock…; past villages that, as in a folktale, seem inhabited only by sheep; past waterfalls and weirs, madrassas and mosques, casbahs and ksars; … through limestone plateaus; up the spiraling ziggurat roads of the Middle Atlas until the vegetation changes from fronds to needles, where passing through a chilly pine forest…”

Finally, I think Greer does provide a persuasive but troubling view of the plasticity of some gay relationships. Here, I can reveal, without ruining the story, that Arthur Less, as a young man, lived with the older and accomplished Robert, who assumed Arthur would be tactful but have affairs. Then Robert and Arthur split and Arthur takes up with the younger Freddy, who, playing by the rules, also cheats and eventually attaches to a younger man. Meanwhile, something equivalent happens to an older gay couple—Lewis and Clark—and the lesbian Zohra. Of course, Greer uses the vicissitudes in these relationships to ruminate about love, which is the novel’s big subject. But for me, a straight guy, this fluidity within couples is eye-opening, since the gays and lesbians that I know are married to peers, committed to their relationships, and raising families. Of course, Arthur Less is a bit older and from another era... and so probably...

In LESS, Greer narrates from two points of view. Most of the time, his narrative is omniscient. And then, Arthur Less appears as a lonely bumbler, sometimes lucky and sometimes unlucky, who, say, visits museums when they are closed or mistakenly sojourns at a Christian, not a writer’s, retreat. But sometimes, Greer lets Freddy narrate. This is a good move since Freddy finds clarity in Arthur Less that is otherwise absent in this gentle but involving satire.

Rounded up and recommended.

Arthur Less is a writer whose latest novel has been rejected by his publisher and needs to be rewritten. His ex-lover is getting married and he doesn't want to go to the wedding. He concocts a trip around the world, made up of lectures, seminars, readings, book prize awards, and whatever else he can jam in so he has an excuse to avoid the wedding and work on his book.
I often think Pulitzer Prize or Booker Prize books are over-rated to some degree, but I wish I had more stars to give to Less. The writing is superb, often meandering long sentences that are perfectly descriptive or terse comments that made me laugh out loud.
Arthur himself is a mild, sad man, about to turn fifty and apprehensive about it. He could be boring yet he is so likable. He sees the humor in the various accidents and escapades that he falls into on his travels. He's reflective yet innocent, called Peter Pan by his students. His claim to fame is his earlier relationship with a famous poet. He and Robert are still friends, but Robert was much older than Arthur. Freddy, the younger man who is marrying someone else now, is still much on Arthur's mind.
The story travels from San Francisco to Mexico, Italy, Germany, France, Morocco, India, and Japan. Those settings are a delight as Arthur wanders like Odessyus around the globe, seeking his real home and purpose.
Arthur's failed book is about a man who wanders around San Francisco for a day. I loved how it parallels his global journey. When Arthur finally finds his real courage and purpose, he's able to rewrite his book.
Anyway, this is definitely a book I'll want to reread over and over.

Andrew Sean Greer’s peripatetic contemplation on love and self-worth is a pleasant and often lyrical experience. The Less of the title is one Arthur Less, the author of several lesser works, and himself a self-deprecating fellow. The novel follows him as he travels the world to lesser award presentations, lecture gigs, and retreats to redraft his latest novel that his long time publisher has rejected. His impetus for leaving is that his younger lover, Freddy Pelu, has left him for another man whom Freddy is about to marry; yet another indignity and punishment the world has inflicted on him. If there’s a literary conceit here it is that while Arthur things little of himself, believes that the world continually catches him in traps designed to pummel him with failure, the opposite appears to be true; that many do like him as a man, respect him as a writer (just not a loyal gay writer), and love him enough to give up other lovers and husbands for him. If we can find a lesson here, perhaps it is that we shouldn’t be quite as down on ourselves as some of us tend to be; that, really, we probably are better people than we give ourselves credit for being.

Greer possesses a skillful style that floats the story along and engages the reader. Even when not much happens, the little bit happens with charm. Greer’s also a keen observer of people, in particular people many readers probably don’t encounter much in their own lives. These are people steeped in the art of thinking about themselves, those around them, and translating their observations into essays, novels, and poems we read to sharpen our own insights not only into the workings of the world but ourselves as well. Greer has created a charming voice for the narrator. The narrator knows Arthur intimately, in fact, better than Arthur seems to know himself. Most readers will soon enough figure out who is telling the story of Arthur’s loves and writings and bouts with angst, but even so it’s pleasantly and warmly rewarding when that narrator steps from the shadows.

So, if you’re in the mood for a charming, witty, and insightful trip around the world that includes San Francisco, Mexico, Italy, Germany, France, Morocco, and India (containing some of the best passages in the novel), climb on board Less: A Novel.

I need to stay away from "award winning" books. Almost without exception, they are always disappointing. This one was boring, self indulgent, badly written dreck. I kept waiting for something interesting or at least funny to happen because it won the Pulitzer, but it was a complete waste of time. I hope the author is not encouraged to write more in this vein. The only mercy was that it is relatively short <300 pages. You would think a character who is an author and is traveling the world to avoid the wedding of a former paramour would have some interesting adventures but the best word for this book is un-engaging.

When the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is handed out I look and see if the novel will interest me. Sometimes yes and it gets put into a TBR pile and forgotten about with little reminders that I still have to eventually read it but most of the time I say pass. I consistently wish that novels I like to read are winners of awards or shortlisted. Many are not. So when I did a little research on Less: A Novel by Andrew Sean Greer I discovered several things. 1. This was a comedic novel about a gay man. 2. The cover had a blurb by Armistead Maupin who I could wax poetic about for hours. 3. Maria Semple author of one of the funniest books ever Where’d You Go Bernadette had loved it. I was intrigued and immediately downloaded it to the kindle. From the first page I was on board but it wasn’t until Germany that I couldn’t stop laughing. And laughing to the point where colleagues stopped conversations to find out why I was laughing uncontrollably. This novel is funny, heartwarming and also very poignant. We need more novels like this in the world and we need to think of these as award winning literature. Sharp and comedic this novel made me turn the page and turn the page. A true must read and I only hope that Andrew Sean Greer will continue to write these comedic novels with representation. Also the end made me cry!

I'm skipping the synopsis; enough other reviewers have covered that aspect. Instead I want to follow Greer's lead and focus on the words. I read "Less" without knowing it was a Pulitzer Prize winner so didn't have that hanging over me. No high bars to reach, just a slow enjoyment of his very excellent prose. I read it the way I believe it was meant to be - unrushed, re-reading certain passages, taking it up and putting it down so that I only read pages when I had time to devote.
I savored and lingered and finished it just as Arthur Less did, with many diversions until reaching a satisfying, if open, ending.
It was insightful and funny and refreshing and profited from being told from the perspective of different characters. Less is always your protagonist, there's no doubt about that. But to see him through the eyes of others gives him more depth. I feel that I really knew this man by the time he walked the last page.
If you wrote a negative review, you are entitled to your opinion, but I think it says a lot about you. This isn't for binge watchers who race to the next and the next; it isn't for intolerants; it isn't for those who believe all the answers should be at the back of the book like a Teacher's Edition. And whether it is worthy of a Pulitzer or not, who cares? There have been worthy winners I couldn't get through and unworthy ones given to the right author for the wrong book.
Open your mind, take your time and enjoy getting to know Arthur Less while relishing Greer's turn of phrase.

Barb bought me Less by Andrew Sean Greer for my birthday last month, and it has been waiting patiently until I had a chance to pick it up about a week ago.  Less comes with obvious recommendations, having won the Pulitzer Prize, and I was looking forward to reading it.

It is a great book, certainly deserving of all the praise.  The essential story is that Arthur Less is an author about to turn 50 who goes on an around the world tour after having his heart broken.  It's funny and charming and sad and funny and ultimately the kind of book that stays with you.

Reading Less was a very interesting experience.  I enjoyed the entire book.  As I was cruising through the first 90%, I was entertained and very satisfied.  The story moves along well and was constantly compelling.  Note that the trip-around-the-world frame is almost unbeatable because it provides access to a wide selection of exotic locales and people, because it by nature gives the story momentum, and because it is the perfect backdrop for a character whose deeper voyage is to explore himself.

So the first 90% was really good.  I was, however, reading it and thinking in the back of my mind that as good as the book is, it didn't seem like the kind of thing that wins Pulitzer Prizes.

And then in the last 10%, Greer gives us magic.  I've read books like this before, though I can't remember an example.  The last ten pages of Less are a literary explosion.  They open your head up and you see vistas of open water and you hear cool breezes.  The previous pages, where the reader was on a pleasure cruise down a canal, now come back to life and are experienced again in a single burst.  The book is transcendent.

When you are finished, you understand the awards.  The writing is brilliant.  The ability--the control--to carry a reader along with a deft touch, entertaining and even delighting them while resisting the urge to unleash the crescendo, that's an incredible piece of storytelling.  It's a huge gamble.  If the end isn't a crescendo, the book is merely good or even worse.  The mastery to set that trap for yourself and then escape is brilliant.  It's a gift to the reader.

A couple other notes.  One thing that literary fiction often loses is the idea of a story.  Greer succeeds here.  Less is, above all, a story.  Even better, it is a simple story.  One main character and the moons around him.  There are flashbacks, but natural, like you would use if you were telling a story verbally.

Lastly, Greer has a world-class grasp of language.  He has a writer's grasp of detail and the ability to create a sense of place.  His visual metaphors are just perfect--novel and accessible at the same time.

This book deserves to be read.

I really enjoy well-written books that have great use of language, and humor. it's no surprise that Less won the coveted Pulitzer Prize this last year. Not only is it very well written, but interesting, a great mix of an on the road novel, with interesting things to say about different locations in the world, and written using instances about the past written into the present story and done very well. As a result of reading this book, I just purchased another of Greer's novels about a marriage in the 50's in San Francisco.

I would have given the book 5 stars, but was wanting more as I finished the novel, and wish it had gone on another 100 pages or so.As with several of my friends who have also read Less, I had a really difficult time just reading one chapter at a time. I wanted to know what happened next, and what Less' experience of his next travel destination was going to be. I was not disappointed with any of them.

Bravo to great writing!

a friend bought this for me, i told her just send me a gift card next time like you usually do. I read across many genres and can appreciate Pulitzer prize works and lesser works( not really lesser); were the Pulitzer Prize judges smoking or eating something wierd when they voted for this? Don't buy it, wait for your library if you must read it. No depth, just whiney litany and so very far from funny. There are better books that capture the angst and humor of aging and this is not that book. I prefer to re-read Ann Lamott's non fiction for tears, laughter and insight into the human condition. Oy vey. Pulitzer Prize what has happened to you? Where did you go? Are you only reading beach books covered in sand?

This book was a Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction in 2018 and is named after our main protagonist, Arthur Less, a fumbly, insecure gay man about to turn 50 and whose latest manuscript has just been rejected by his long-time publisher.

To make matters worse, a wedding invitation arrives in the mail announcing that Arthur's boyfriend of the past nine years, Freddy, is marrying someone else. Hell, Arthur didn't even realize that their relationship was over.

So he certainly wasn't about to attend the wedding as that would be majorly awkward. But to refuse would look petty. Deeply discouraged and more than a bit heartbroken, Arthur does what anyone else would do in such as situation:

Run Away!!

As it turns out, he has a stack of nearly-forgotten bookish invites to various literary events all around the world: Italy, France, Morocco, Japan, India, Germany…. so Less decides to accept every invitation, award ceremony, speaking engagement and teaching opportunity that was sent his way and embark on an around-the-world adventure.

After all, what could possibly go wrong?

What follows is a zany series of misadventures, misunderstandings, missteps, and more than a few personal humiliations as Arthur attempts to run away from his problems — or at least momentarily forget about them which he discovers isn't easy to do.

Along the way, he reminisces about his life, he meets up with former lovers and aging friends, makes new friends and even comes close to falling in love.

The story takes bits and pieces of his current life and his memories and weaves them together into a compelling, insightful narrative — and the author does it with wit and humor.

You know, this quirky book ponders many of life's important questions — universal questions — so that in this way, it was entirely relatable.

It was especially relatable for me, being a gay male in his 50's but I think that the universal nature of the themes in this book such as love, loss, nostalgia, lost opportunities, growing older, disappointment, searching for meaning in our life, and acceptance would render it relatable to most people.

This poignant and thought-provoking book had me from the get-go. I thought this was a beautifully written and meaningful book with wondrously descriptive scenes and lush, vibrant prose.

It was an intoxicating and profoundly engaging read with plenty of humor and heart, and I ended up loving the quirky character of Arthur Less. The writing was clever, witty, sophisticated, and utterly charming. I was also pleased with the emotional and entirely satisfying ending which cinched its 5-star rating for me.

This review originally appeared on my book review blog at rogersreads.com.

Arthur Less is a middle aged failed novelist who just broke up with his boyfriend of nine years. When he finds out his ex is going to get married, he accepts a series of invitations to conferences, speaking engagements, teaching posts, and even birthday celebrations around the world -- just to avoid attending the wedding.

If this book were a movie, it would be a rom-com. It is not the grand epic that one would normally expect to be awarded a Pulitzer. It can be best described as "wistful" and "poignant" (These are two adjectives applied within the book itself to the protagonist's latest failed novel, which closely resembles the plot of Less, in a bit of self-referential humor).

Less features a remarkable amount of world-building, a detailed and authentic-feeling depiction of a very unique American subculture: the community of gay male writers living in San Francisco. The community has its own values and generational history. Arthur notes that his generation is the first, post-AIDS, where everyone lives past fifty. Much of the narrative is devoted to flashbacks of two great love affairs, one with a much older (and more famous) writer and the other with a much younger man. Arthur Less is completely immersed in this world; he has nothing to anchor him to the rest of American culture--no living parents or siblings, no straight friends, no close professional alliances.

I was underwhelmed for many reasons.

This is a book full of in-jokes. The author satirizes the insecurities of writers and their pretentious literary awards, but always half-lovingly, in a manner that never questions the seriousness of the novel as art. He plays up stereotypes and gay jokes, some of which would probably be offensive if they came from a straight writer, but here it is all wink-and-nod because the author is part of the in-crowd.

The emotional highlights of the book were the rooftop scene in Paris and his conversation with a female friend on the eve of his fiftieth birthday in a ski resort in Morocco. However, much of the American-living-abroad satire becomes tiresome. Cue the obligatory jokes about the metric system, bad translations, and airport mishaps. On the plus side, it did make me want to visit Marrakech and a certain 400-year old garden in Kyoto.

The ending was entirely predictable, and just felt very wrong: wrong for the story as a whole, and wrong for the characters.

This was my bookclub's choice. I would never have finished it if it were not. Who was on the Pulitzer Prize nominating committee? I cannot believe this book won the Pulitzer, or any prize, for that matter. It is a totally predictable romantic comedy. Unfortunately, contrary to the comments on the book jacket, I did not “sob little tears of joy” or find it “endearingly funny” or find it “a fast and rocketing read”. I plowed through it because I was on a plane with nothing else to read.
On page 32 of the book the main character “Less”, an author, is told by his publisher that his new book is “too wistful, too poignant, these walk around town books, these day in the life stories; I know writers love them, but I think it’s hard to feel bad for this Swift fellow of yours, I mean he has the best life of anyone I know.” I guess that was supposed to be humorous foreshadowing, as that describes exactly what the prior 31 and next 230 pages of this book were. Tedious dribble from a man having a pity party. I couldn’t wait for it to end. (See also page 170, “it was about a middle aged gay man walking around San Francisco and you know his sorrows…”
In addition, I found the book pretentious. I don’t recall turning a page without reading yet another allusion to a work that is included in the literary canon. I do acknowledge these allusions were well-written, and I have a favorite, comparing bringing life to his dead book to the creation of Frankenstein, on page 203, “tear out the flesh that he wants, stitch it to all-new material, electrocute it with inspiration, and make it rise from the slab and stumble toward Comorant Publishing.” But, Geer’s ability to use words well still doesn’t make the story interesting.
Regarding authenticity, I was offended by the author’s believe of what it is to be 50 years old. He’s not 50; he has no real knowledge, he just has his fear. When he describes, on page 125, packing “the mess of his middle-aged bedside table” I question what mess that is? I don’t believe the bedside table of healthy 50 year old is any different than that of 40 year old. Maybe his is – maybe he is the narcissist I imagine him to be.

That "Less" is not a page-turner is the only criticism I can imagine levying, and it’s almost certainly an unfair one. Major and minor characters alike are multifaceted and true. The plot is both as expected and not. The subject matter of personal and professional numbness spiked with yearning, followed by awakening, is eminently relatable. And the prose. Oh, those words. Greer is like a jeweler stringing precious gems together in ways that should be overwhelming and gaudy but instead maximize brilliance—which is how we won the crown jewel of fiction, the Pulitzer Prize.

I’m in the habit of including particularly lovely quotes in book reviews. Perhaps this fact says more about “Less” than any other: I highlighted nearly 100 passages and could find no better way to trim the list than selecting several at random. If you already plan to read the book, please don’t ruin the experience even a little by reading these turns of phrase here. For those not yet convinced:

"Arthur Less has, for the past decade and a half, remained a bachelor. This came after a long period of living with the older poet Robert Brownburn, a tunnel of love he entered at twenty-one and exited, blinking in the sunlight, in his thirties."

"One could sit back with a bag of popcorn and watch the romances and comedies of his mind projected onto his face."

“Mrs. Dennis gave a sequined laugh.”

“They might have done, many of them. So many people will do. But once you’ve actually been in love, you can’t live with ‘will do’; it’s worse than living with yourself.”

“Arthur Less is the first homosexual ever to grow old. That is, at least, how he feels at times like these. Here, in this tub, he should be twenty-five or thirty, a beautiful young man naked in a bathtub. Enjoying the pleasures of life. How dreadful if someone came upon naked Less today: pink to his middle, gray to his scalp, like those old double erasers for pencil and ink. He has never seen another gay man age past fifty, none except Robert. He met them all at forty or so but never saw them make it much beyond; they died of AIDS, that generation. Less’s generation often feels like the first to explore the land beyond fifty. How are they meant to do it? Do you stay a boy forever, and dye your hair and diet to stay lean and wear tight shirts and jeans and go out dancing until you drop dead at eighty? Or do you do the opposite—do you forswear all that, and let your hair go gray, and wear elegant sweaters that cover your belly, and smile on past pleasures that will never come again?”

“Has he been to Italy before? He has, twice. Once when he was twelve, on a family trip that took the path of a Pachinko game by beginning in Rome, shooting up to London, and falling back and forth among various countries until they landed, at last, in Italy’s slot…. The second time he went with Robert. It was in the middle of their time together, when Less was finally worldly enough to be of help with travel and Robert had not become so filled with bitterness that he was a hindrance, the time when any couple has found its balance, and passion has quieted from its early scream, but gratitude is still abundant; what no one realizes are the golden years.”

“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.”

“The silence is broken only by the sound of a glass, also broken, dropped by Finley Dwyer onto the slate floor.”

“‘Strange to be almost fifty, no? I feel like I just understood how to be young.’ ‘Yes! It’s like the last day in a foreign country. You finally figure out where to get coffee, and drinks, and a good steak. And then you have to leave. And you won’t ever be back.’”

“‘Twenty years of joy and support and friendship, that’s a success…. If a band stays together twenty years, it’s a miracle. If a comedy duo stays together twenty years, they’re a triumph. Is this night a failure because it will end in an hour? Is the sun a failure because it’s going to end in a billion years? No, it’s the ... sun. Why does a marriage not count? It isn’t in us, it isn’t in human beings, to be tied to one person forever…. It’s true things can go on till you die. And people use the same old table, even though it’s falling apart and it’s been repaired and repaired, just because it was their grandmother’s. That’s how towns become ghost towns. It’s how houses become junk stores. And I think it’s how people get old.’”

“‘She told me she met the love of her life,’ Zohra says at last, still staring out the window. ‘You read poems about it, you hear stories about it, you hear Sicilians talk about being struck by lightning. We know there’s no love of your life. Love isn’t terrifying like that. It’s walking the ... dog so the other one can sleep in, it’s doing taxes, it’s cleaning the bathroom without hard feelings. It’s having an ally in life. It’s not fire, it’s not lightning. It’s what she always had with me. Isn’t it? But what if she’s right, Arthur? What if the Sicilians are right? That it’s this earth-shattering thing she felt? Something I’ve never felt.’”

“He looks up at a closed-circuit television to follow the fleeting romances between flights and gates, then heads down to join a line.”

“Less is technically Christian. There is really no other word for someone who celebrates Christmas and Easter, even if only as craft projects.”

“He is talking to Rupali. It is nighttime, after dinner; the view from the window is utterly black, one fluorescent bulb lights the room, and the scents of coconut and curry leaf still ornament the air.”

This is a book club review of Less. We read books based on how well they are liked, their readability, the amount of discussion they prompt, and if they create great themes or settings for a book club. Our book club has ten female members of varying ages (32-42), with a variety of backgrounds and life situations (marriage status, motherhood, etc.).

Our book club rated this an eight out of ten, putting it into the top ten of the >50 books we've read. As a satire, it was complex and innovative. We absolutely enjoyed the unique humor layered within the satire. And we were left with the most wonderful questions after several hours of fantastic discussion. The narrator is completely unique and fun (and so very interesting, though this is a spoiler-free review). It was rated high on readability (one member found it to be too complex, all other members enjoyed) as well as likability (all members agree) and for creating great discussion (all members enjoyed). On the negative side, everyone agreed across the board that the book was "hard to get into" and it took time to warm up to the character and understand the satire. It varied for everyone, but it took about 50 pages or so before the book took hold. Every person was grateful they had read the book and made it through the end, because it was ultimately very satisfying and rewarding. This was, however, one of the lower turn-out reads that we've had. So those that loved it loved it, but it wasn't as popular or easy to read as some of our other selections.

Some of the more negative reviews remark on Arthur not being a sympathetic character (true!) and someone you shouldn't feel sorry for (so true!) and someone who is bumbling about life (true true!) and it's a book about travel that barely touches on physical places (crazy but true!). If you are reading this book literally, you may walk away with those notions. But this book is satirical and layered, with stories within stories, and you may miss the overarching points and delights if you graze over the nuances. That being said, realistically this type of read is not for everyone and may not be worth the trouble and effort. I can see where this type of book really wouldn't appeal to some groups and by no fault of their own. I think it would fit into a certain type of taste and preference. Additionally, I can see that people would read this book "literally" and could miss its nuance and satire. It personally reminded me of a sort of modern day Confederacy of Dunces if that helps to guide as a selection for book club.

Personally, I would have rated it lower (probably a three star). But this is a book club review, and our book club just loved it. Happy reading!

TRIGGERS: Do not read ahead if you do not want spoilers. As this is a book club review, I always add trigger warnings. This particular book is fairly wholesome and vanilla. However, there is graphic sexual content, according to at least two members. I personally didn't mind the intimacy level, and think it added to the perspective of a middle-aged gay man (the intimacy is relevant to the material, not gratuitous). However, one book club member was uncomfortable with the graphic intimacy whereas six members were fine with it.

The download from our book club discussion... "Less" was much liked. It "charmed with humility and gentleness," inviting us to "go on the ride." The ride took us around the world, and also from "lite and funny to poignant and meaty." For one of us it "almost spoke to me" as a gay man in his 50s (though one not quite 50... "expected it to speak to me" more than it did). Interesting that the youngest of us found it "very sad," with "lives slowly deteriorating into something both poetic and depressing" (I think he was talking about the book!...), though "it's a gift to be let in on those kinds of secrets." We felt "attachment to Arthur" and particularly "enjoyed the peripheral characters," "people I could talk to or that I would laugh about" (including the UC Davis professor...).

A couple of us found depth in some parallels with Odysseus, with trials on a journey. One, however, "didn't like the author's voice -- snarky," though that may have been a shield for a character who is "probably smarter than he thinks," and who is just coming into his own at 50. While the writing was a bit too "florid, clever and writerly" at first, we came to appreciate the author's "metaphors almost missed" (a coin of champagne left in a class).

Andrew Sean joined a literary tradition in giving us an Everyman, "like Forrest Gump or Zelig, with Arthur just in the right places at the right times." And Andrew Sean seems to have written the right book at the right time. So... was it Pulitzer-worthy (in addition to clarifying for us how to pronounce Pulitzer)?... Probably not. But we're glad it was deemed so. There's a nice "meta aspect to a gay author finally writing a gay book about a gay author rewriting his book" to make it more authentic. Good for Andrew Sean, and maybe Author will fictionally win a Pulitzer for fiction.

All-in we graded the book in a range of B+ to A, with a mean around A-.

As a woman approaching fifty at the speed of light and a writer who has yet to meet success, I’m not interested in reading about someone else having the same sort of problems I am. Frankly, it sounds rather depressing. But reviewers better than myself have promised I’ll find the novel ‘bedazzling’, ‘hilarious’, ‘unexpectedly funny’, and all other sorts of glowing descriptions. While I didn’t hate Less, I certainly wasn’t bedazzled.

Let’s start with Arthur Less himself. I don’t dislike Less, but I can’t say I liked him either, because it feels as if there’s nothing there. He’s just bumbling around as if he doesn’t know his own mind. Somehow, amidst this bumbling, he always lands in someone’s bed. It doesn’t appear as if he needs to make any efforts whatsoever to find a bed buddy. This typifies Arthur’s character. He doesn’t actually plan anything, and somehow just ends up in a different place. For someone who sets an alarm to make sure she’s never late for an appointment, Less was a baffling man.

My sense of humor may need an update as well, as I didn’t find the novel hilarious or funny. There were a few scenes when he was in Berlin, which did cause me to snicker a bit. I enjoyed the witty remarks about Arthur’s proficiency in German (spoiler alert: he wasn’t proficient at all). My most common response to the novel was not a snicker but a sigh as Less found himself in another unexpected but somehow predictable situation. *Sigh*

My biggest issue with the novel was the point of view. It was rather disruptive. At times, the narrator would tell us insights about Less, and then the narrator would disappear for a few chapters – only to reappear when I’d forgotten about him. I found it annoying. We don’t learn who the narrator is until the end of the novel (although it’s not exactly a surprise).

At some point, I did find myself reading faster and faster as I needed Less’s situation to be resolved. He couldn’t continue to flounce around the world forever! He couldn’t re-write his novel until the end of time! Luckily, Less is resolved at the end with a neat little bow.

It's flat-out great.

"A best selling book about a 49 year old gay man that was written by a gay author" is an important description, but it misses the mark. If one focuses on the sexuality of the author or protagonist, you might come in with some prejudgement (or avoid it all together). That would be a massive mistake.

Back in college, I read "The Motion of Light in Water" in 1997 and was put off by the explicit sex that appeared in the book. Granted, I was a provincial 21 year old, and while the book had a few good stories and some philosophical thoughts that have stuck with me, there were a few horrible characters that I remember the narrator being too comfortable with (he was friends with a geriatric rapist). As a 42 year old heterosexual male, I found the book to talk about romantic love and loss in universal terms.

I want people to avoid thinking that it won the 2018 Pulitzer because it was about a gay man mourning the loss of the love of his life (his younger partner married someone else) and/or because the author is gay. That diminishes the quality of the story. Mr. Greer bounces back and forth between the present and the pass, using trips to foreign countries or run-ins with old friends (or lovers) as his reason for time travel. It happens quite rapidly, but the reader never gets loss and it all makes sense.

There are many laugh out loud moments and wonderful turns of phrases. Mr. Greer is very sharp and quick, and has an amazing ability to understand the human experience, particularly love. He also captures the anxieties and frustrations of aging well.

God it's good.

This is a nutty, adorable, and funny book. People tell me I don't have much of a sense of humor, but I can see from reading these reviews that there are a lot of people out there who have lost theirs or haven't found one yet.

Arthur Less is escaping San Francisco so that he can avoid his long time beloved ex-lovers wedding. To escape he accepts a bunch of random invitations for meetings, awards he has never heard of, teaching assignments, even a position reviewing four traditional Kaiseki restaurants in Japan--never mind he is not a food critic. He has tacked on a desert safari and some weeks in India where he will attempt to rewrite the book he discovers has been rejected by the publisher.

Arthur Less is something of a bumbler with so little self confidence that he can't believe anyone could have read his book (and liked and remembered it), would give him an award, or would want to be around him. On the other hand, he rises above all the self doubt and tiny disasters with such well adjusted optimism and buoyant expectations for the next thing that I couldn't help but love him.

While Arthur Less doesn't find the ridiculous situations he finds himself in funny; the author, Andrew Sean Greer, writes with just the right touch of hope and serious silliness to make the reader smile with delight, feel compassion, and wonder what could happen next to top the latest preposterous Arthur situation.

I have no idea what it is about this book or any other I have read that qualifies it for the Pulitzer Prize. All I know is that at least this book ends with hope and joy. Most of the other winners I have read don't. How refreshing that is.

This is my first novel by Andrew Sean Greer, and I was a bit disappointed after all the hype and recommendations. I'm glad I read the book (and followed through with it to the end), but I expected so much more. LESS pulled out every gay stereotype and dumped them into one person: Arthur Less. He's tall, attractive, thin, a great dresser, an intellectualist, a writer, a world traveler, a partier...and not very good at monogamous relationships.

The novel is told from the viewpoint of an unknown narrator who sounds like the narrator from a 1950s PSA or the narrator from the original Rocky & Bullwinkle show, referring to Arthur Less as "our hero." Because it's told from the narrator's point of view, the novel is extremely descriptive with not a lot of (or enough) dialogue between the characters. Greer appears to be an impressive master of descriptive phrases, but it bogged down the pace of the novel for me. Ironically, the narrator rambles.

I was hoping to be able to relate more to Arthur Less and his predicament of closing in on his 50th birthday and being invited to his ex-boyfriend's wedding, but there wasn't a lot to connect to. Arthur's world is very different from the typical gay man's. I did enjoy how Greer wrapped up the novel at the end, but I wish it didn't take so long to get there.

I can see why this novel won the Pulitzer Prize. Like the Academy of Arts and Sciences who reward films about actors and acting with an Oscar, the Pulitzer gave the award to LESS because it's about an author and the things he does in the literary world to make appearances. It just seems to have limited appeal to the mainstream.

If you know me at all, you know I've spent recent years railing against novels about dudes who can't get their lives together. But the thing about hating a certain form of novel is that every once in a while someone does it spectacularly well and forces you to eat your words. That is the case with Andrew Sean Greer's Less.

Arthur Less has been skimming through life in a series of comedic misadventures as though allergic to serious commitment or success. He's a midlist writer whose greatest fame is through association: he was the boyfriend of a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who was part of an Algonquin round table-esque group of writers. He's social and has had his share of lovers, but his introverted nature keeps him from really being part of a crowd ("No one could rival Arthur Less for his ability to exit a room while remaining inside it."). So far, by dint of genetics and a relatively charming (if oblivious) disposition, Less has made these qualities work for him. Now on the eve of his 50th birthday, Less is having a bit of an internal crisis, however. In many ways, he's been relying on luck to get by--but what if his luck runs out? What if he was getting it wrong all along and now he has to deal with the consequences? Nevermind the existential dread of feeling as though he is about to begin a slow descent to oblivion. These ages are compounded since Less is a gay man and feels like "the first homosexual ever to grow old."

Existentialism is compounded by emotional distress as Less' casual lover of many years is getting married. Desperate not to deal with the loss of something he hadn't even realized he valued (and even more desperate not to attend the nuptials), Less accepts several invitations that will take him around the world--anywhere but the wedding. But the wedding will not leave his mind, and he certainly can't run from the deadline of his fiftieth birthday (even though he would love to).

This madcap comic romp around the world forms the structure of the novel--each chapter a different country. As Less stumbles along, enduring humiliations both brought on by himself and by circumstance, it's quite easy to fall for him. Yes, he's clumsy like the clichéd lead of a bad romantic comedy, but he's innocent, earnest, and trying to do better. Here's how one character describes Less during their youth:

"You just walked into everything, like someone blindfolded... 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. I think everybody wanted to touch that innocence, maybe ruin it. Your way of going through the world, unaware of danger. Clumsy and naive. Of course I envied you. Because I could never be that; I'd stopped being that when I was a kid."

Less' story is about life and all the baggage that comes along with it. Life is, after all, frequently ridiculous. It's also about love and success and aging. These may sound like familiar topics, but when viewed through the prism of a gay man (and with Andrew Sean Greer's laugh-out-loud wit) they feel fresh and poignant. It's rare for a book to make me laugh out loud (the last one that did was John Boyne's The Heart's Invisible Furies), and also unfortunately rare for me to feel so swept up in a novel anymore. I thoroughly enjoyed Less because it's funny and entertaining but also profound--I underlined and made notes as I went along, which has also grown exceedingly rare for me as a reader.

So get to know Arthur Less. If nothing else, you are guaranteed to enjoy the ride.

Grade: A

You can find more of my reviews on SupposedlyFun.com

So many wry, throwaway lines and situations — this book is sort of a hybrid tragi-comedy. The aptly-named Arthur Less, on the cusp of turning 50, is a Peter Pan-like character; one group of students even uses that as his nickname. He is a San Francisco writer who has never grown up. He lives a casual, hedonistic, mostly carefree life of parties, book appearances, poetry readings, travel, drugs and alcohol, and lots of sex and relationships with varying degrees of mostly temporary commitment. [Note: Although the 1970s worries about AIDS are briefly discussed as part of the characters’ pasts, it is sad that no prophylactic protection is ever mentioned at all. But responsibility is not a strong suit in this story!] Arthur, whose one successful book is an all-male adaptation of Odysseus’s Calypso story called Kalipso, finds himself in a bind. His recent young lover is getting married and Arthur really does not want to attend. So he grabs a bunch of worldly, all-expenses-paid invitations and sets off on an Odyssey of his own. His misadventures are actually pretty clever and entertaining, and his mangled “expert” translations of other country’s languages are quite a hoot. The ending of the book, although no big surprise, is engagaing and appropriate. If you are looking for a book with some wry observations on life and love of all sorts and sizes, this might be a good choice.

Less, the story of writer Arthur Less is a pleasant, unchallenging read crammed with clever writing but few real insights into human character or emotion. Dorothy Parker might have said the eponymous hero runs the gamut of emotion from A to B. So unaware is befuddled Arthur of his needs and emotions he lets his longterm partner get away. So mortified is he at the thought of attending Freddy's wedding and turning fifty he is off on a global tour across Europe, North Africa, India, and Japan. The anecdotes and encounters along the way are enjoyable--some more engaging than others but hardly gripping. Frankly, the main character is so oblivious as to the requisites of an adult relationship it's hard to care whether he is happy or not.

What saves the story is Andrew Sean Greer's writing which is witty and stylish, at times even beautiful. Occasionally, a character other than Arthur will say something about life or relationships worth pondering. However, the ending was dissatisfying--entirely too sentimental and unconvincing for my taste. In fact, I struggled whether to rate it 3 or 4 stars finally deciding the author's writing is a real pleasure if not necessarily a challenge or revelation. If you're looking for an enjoyable summer read you could do worse than Less.

Witty, sharp writing and a great story. Arthur Less has come to that point- soon to be 50, latest book turned down by his publisher and his younger boyfriend is planning to marry another man- where he must move past inertia and out run angst. Arthur goes through his ignored invitations and begins accepting-yes to an interview with an author in New York, yes to a symposium in Mexico, yes to a guest professorship in Berlin, yes to a gig as a food critic in Kyoto., yes to India, yes to Morocco, Less starts out on his Odyssey and the story is interspersed by memories of his younger self as events spur memories and acquaintances spark reflections. I grew so fond of Arthur, and laughed out loud at some of his predicaments and his situations. I got this book as a library loan but I am buying it because I will want to read it again- and again I suspect. Greer is an author I will follow, he has a way with humor and pathos.

Arthur Less is about to turn fifty. He’s afraid of getting old. He’s afraid of being lonely. There have been two great loves in his life, Robert Brownburn, a distinguished older poet, and Freddy, adopted son of his nemesis Carlos Pelu. Now, young Freddy has left him to marry someone else. How can Less cope with the mortification? By running away around the world. He accepts all the junket invitations that have piled up and packs his bags.

Andrew Sean Greer has recently won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and his writing is phenomenally good (apart from the name of his main protagonist, a knowingly clever choice that distracts throughout). The narrative itself is slight: at its heart, a simple love(s) story with a nod to the benefits of modest ambition. “…by now, he is well acquainted with humility. It is the one piece of luggage he has not lost.”

We catch glimpses of Less’s destinations, we see snapshots of his past life. And eventually, thanks to the brutal honesty of another author Less meets on his travels, we gain insight into why Arthur Less has not entered the pantheon of great gay writers. Whether this book about the Less-travelled road will do it for Greer remains to be seen. But it is endearing.

My thanks to Little, Brown for the review copy courtesy of NetGalley.

'Less' is a decidedly unusual read. It's about a middle aged gay writing travelling the world trying to "find himself". Along the way we learn about all his insecurities, lost loves and confusion about life. The book is extremely well written and often funny. Yet the author seems to leave it up to the reader's interpretation as to whether the lead character is someone to relate to, self-centered or a whiner. I find some parts of his journey to work better than others. But overall there is much to enjoy in this overrated (the Pulitzer?) novel.

Bottom line: a deceptively clever read that meanders perhaps a bit too much. Recommended.

“Less” authored by Andrew Sean Geer: is a light and fun literary tale that includes an adventurous global whirlwind tour for the rather reserved Arthur Less. Arthur was a reasonable ordinary guy, who enjoyed moderate success as a novelist, but in the shadow of his former celebrity lover. As he approached his 5oth birthday, Arthur had gone from young to old remarkably fast. The next thing he knew, he had not only been dumped by his current lover Freddy Pelu-- but invited to the lavish wedding!

Freddy Pelu had taken good care of Arthur, managing his personal life and career to the point of having an attendant hold an umbrella for Arthur in the rain. Freddy’s pending nuptials to another man suggested he had grown tired of waiting for his reluctant and wishy-washy lover. To avoid facing their mutual friends and associates at the wedding, Arthur accepted all requests for speaking engagements, and another to teach a workshop in Berlin. After his global literary tour began in NYC, he would travel abroad to Mexico City, Turin, Morocco (where he would turn 50 in the Sahara Desert). In India, he would attend a retreat near the Arabian Sea, and complete the tour in Japan.
In Mexico City, his sponsors were only interested in interviewing Arthur about his relationship with the poet Robert Brownburn; who had left Arthur his small house on the San Francisco hillside after becoming a famous wealthy celebrity. To complicate matters, Robert’s former wife Marian was invited to attend. The disinterest in Arthur’s writing was painfully obvious. The plan was for Arthur to be too busy to contemplate/face the failure of his personal life and relationships, and his unconscious effort at being a poster boy novelist representing the gay community.

As the novel moves towards a unpredictable and surprising conclusion, readers are reminded that the most unremarkable people can turn their lives around, reinvent themselves and find happiness. **With thanks to the Seattle Public Library.

A heartbroken (though he doesn’t know it yet) Arthur Less decides to travel around the world to avoid the wedding of his long time lover, and to avoid being alone on his 50th birthday. During his travels to Mexico, Germany, Italy, France, Morocco, Japan and India, he reflects upon the experiences of his life as he encounters new lessons that not only teach him about himself, but about the people he has loved. Delicious, smart and subtle humor decorates every chapter as Arthur Less finds himself in the various predicaments that accompany travel to countries when you don’t know the language or culture very well, or at all. I savored every perfect description, “An eel of panic wriggles through him as he searches the room for exits” and every poignant revelation, “We all recognize grief in moments that should be celebrations; it is the salt in the pudding.” This book touched my heart and made me fall in love with Arthur Less. I can’t recommend it enough.

I listened to this on Audible, and the reader was excellent with all the voices, foreign pronunciations, and accents. Perfect! I knew this had won the Pulitzer and so I ordered it without fully realizing it was about a gay man, which gave me a few seconds of surprise (should read descriptions), but the first chapter was so engaging that I didn't care. I learned that gay men go through all the agonies and heartache that I, as a heterosexual woman, do (or did). The hero's anxieties and ways of coping with his insecurities were touching, and all too familiar. His loves. His broken heart. His dash around the world to avoid his lover's wedding. Greer handles all this with a light and humorous touch that nonetheless lets the humanity through, the humanity we all share. I think I am more understanding of gay relationships and at home in my own insecurities after reading this book. If you're not gay, don't let that put you off. You'll find yourself here.

I don't think I would have enjoyed a tale of a middle aged gay man walking around San Francisco, but I did enjoy the tale of the middle aged gay man traveling the world. Less is an interesting character, an innocent in a world that is not so innocent. His tales of his travels are enjoyable, but it is the tale of his search for love that mesmerizes. Where should he look, what should he do and who should he covet? We get the answers to many of those questions. But does Less, innocent as he is, finally get more? You'll have to read the novel, because I can't tell you without spoiling the story.

The omniscient narrator of Less is so intimately familiar with the protagonist that he seems a guardian angel perched on his shoulder ( the first line of the book is,“ From where I sit, Arthur Less’s life is not so bad.”)

Less is an almost 50 year old” failed” writer from the Russian River School (had one very successful book but his publisher has forgone his latest )) and one of the few surviving homosexual men of his age in that particular cohort, having come of age during the peak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. He seems to define himself as a sidekick to more impressive people. His relationship with a much older and now enfeebled “genius” poet whom Less stole from the poet’s wife, is told in flashbacks as is the recent relationship that he let languish, the consequences of which he is now fleeing. His forsaken paramour is marrying another and to escape the pain and the insult of having BEEN invited to the wedding, Less takes off on a quasi -literary tour of the world, having accepted enough invitations to justify multi stop circumnavigation of the globe. The chapters are: Less Mexico; Less Italy; Less Germany; Less France, etc. Each place lends its challenges to his gnawing self- doubt as the book crescendos to his 50th birthday, which like many life stories, ends up being “celebrated” in totally unforeseen circumstances.

It sounds trite but Less as a person grows on the reader. He is neurotic and self- effacing to the point of being obsessed with his mediocracy, so much so that he charms his fellow characters and the reader because, with the help of the narrator, he exposes himself so completely to us. He is unsure of everything except his command of German, which he studied in his youth and in which he has great confidence as he lectures to a huge class of German graduate students, but which, ironically, is woeful (and very funny). There is running commentary on his many mishaps, disappointments and pleasant surprises during his sojourn and one great epiphany in which he realizes himself as literature’s ubiquitous and classic archetype- The Fool.

It is fun to tease out the other literary illusions and references and to ponder some correctness questions that arise: Does a writer who is gay have to be a gay writer to succeed? Do we care about a tall, middle aged pinkish white American male who wanders around feeling sorrowful?

Yes we do care. And that narrator? Well ,Authur Less ( authorless) has a little surprise for us.

BRILLIANT!! I picked up a hard copy of this book at the bricks and mortar store after my husband recommended it to me. Let me say first, this book is now one of my all-time favorites. In fact, this is the type of book that I scour the book shelves looking for--it's just that good! I loved the ending so much I found myself crying uncontrollably. Hence, I couldn't recommend this book more highly. And, I'll be turning to more reads by this author.

Greer executed the story in fabulous form. His gift of writing is exceptional and the story kept me turning the pages. We learn who Arthur Less is as the themes of his past, his love interest, and his present journey are intertwined to complete the man and the story. It's poignant, funny, heartfelt, and insightful.

Well done, Andrew!

There is a lot to like in this novel about Arthur Less. Arthur is a semi-famous writer, who shares humorous and insightful reminiscences about his fifty years of life. He is pensive about the years spent with his older lover, whom he left, and his younger lover, who left him. On his expense-paid trip around the world, courtesy of awards and contracts, his new experiences are merged with old acquaintances and memories. What I found not to like in this novel is that it is boring, and I really had to push myself to return to this short book through many sittings. I have been a longtime fan of Greer since “The Story of a Marriage,” and I was cheered to hear that his newest had won the Pulitzer for Fiction, but this is not Greer’s finest work, although it is considerably better than last year's Pulitzer winner, "The Underground Railroad."

Less offers a fairly concise story of a middle-aged man, Arthur Less, on a trip around the world. The trip is supposed to be a pretext for declining an invitation to his ex-longtime lover's wedding.

Everything is written in sharp, clever prose with all the i's dotted and the t's crossed. Some "mysterious" elements, like the identity of the narrator, are not terribly mysterious, but the story is entertaining and there are some great scenes later in the novel. For me, the story is more mournful than funny, but there were some amusing moments (YMMV). Less's avoidance/denial of reality feels a bit like a plot device during the first half of the book, but his dawning awareness in the final third is handled really nicely. Overall, a good book. I'd give it 3.5 stars.

What a story; what a trip. I read this book because it was recommended by another writer on the PBS Newshour. The unique story itself is gripping. But I was most enchanted by his almost off-hand descriptive genius. There are many examples. One that stuck with me was the jellyfish moving in its negligee.

I shall look for another of Mr. Greer' s novels soon.

Ednichols

When I finished reading Less I was left in a melancholy yet joyful mood. As a man, a gay man in my 50s, often considered by my friends to be a ”bad gay”, I could relate to so much in this book. Love and loss and love and heartbreak and heartache is all part of the journey. And Greer’s Insight into the journey of life rings true and painful and lovely and humanizing. The author’s use of the English language is brilliant and beautiful. It reminded me very much of my favorite authors Michael Chabon’s Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Michael Cunningham. When I finished reading the book I wanted to go back and start from the beginning. The author so deftly wove the tale, I giggled joyfully when I found his hidden gems I wondered how many I missed on first read. This book definitely moves into my list of favorites. It’s a joyful and insightful and luxurious read.

It is amazing how mediocre books get great reviews, win prizes, and become best sellers. Less is far less a book than should have accomplished these three things. Having read it I wonder what was the point of it. It is a non-story made up of vignettes that don't lead anywhere or move the main character any further to a discovery, realization, or self-knowledge. Arthur Less is the same at the beginning of the novel as at the end. So why make the trip. As for the humor, I found it humorless. And the writer has not met a metaphor or simile he didn't like so he included all that he could think of. I don't understand why the book got so much attention.

This is one of my favorite novels of recent years. The book follows Arthur Less -- facing his fiftieth birthday, his latest novel rejected by his publisher, his former lover about to be married -- as he tries to escape from his problems with a trip around the world. For the first time in a while, I found I had to keep reading to find out what happened. The book is framed in a way that is surprising but ultimately, satisfyingly, inevitable. Greer shows that it's possible to be both hilarious and humane, to be able to laugh at yourself yet still deeply care.

When I first started reading, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it or not. By the middle, I was hooked. By the end, I cried. This was an incredible journey: around the world, and inward. I really, really loved this book.

Oh, and I loved the irony of the Pulitzer Prize mention in the novel. “You win a prize, and it’s all over. You lecture for the rest of your life. But you never write again.” Andrew Sean Greer, congratulations on your Pulitzer. I hope you write again!

I really enjoyed this book. I'm confused as to why some readers think the character is unrelatable...have some lucky souls figured themselves out completely? This book touched me because the theme of the lifelong struggle to truly discover oneself seems universal. In addition, the book had me in stitches because I guess it's my type of humor. Maybe it's an age thing...younger readers might not have reached that mid-life point of self-questioning. Anyway, I found the main character to be a humorous and touching reflection of that journey of self-discovery that self-aware and introspective people are lucky enough to experience at some point in their lives, however uncomfortable it might be.

I got the book based on the Pulitzer prize and reviews that I read. After reading it, I found some of the commentary strange...such as "Brilliantly funny" and "doubled over in laughter". I found the book to be slyly amusing; probably the most outrageous joke required a knowledge of the term used in Mexico related to "chow-chow". Using the name "Less" has both societal, relationship, and comedic tones. Perhaps as an old straight guy, I don't get all the subtle humor.

The author has a very good writing style, with the ability to put together certain turns of phrases. That being said, it is a nice commentary on aging and love. I suspect there is quite a bit of the author's private life imbedded in the story, especially in reference to Arthur Less being an author.

Three stars? Perhaps because my expectations were so much higher. Four stars would have been more fair, but....

I expected this to be a fun light read. It can be that for sure, but it’s also much, much more than that. I laughed continually and annoyed my husband by reading the many transcendent and lovely bits out loud. Not only is it beautifully written, but it uncovers and articulates truths about love and the satisfactions and dissatisfactions of middle age. Part of the pleasure, too, is how cleverly (you come slowly to realize) it’s constructed. (I read this as an ebook on a different platform, and I hadn’t seen the cover, so I wasn’t sure that it actually won the Pulitzer or if that was one of the book’s jokes. It turns out both are true.)

Did not read entire book but based on the first 10% the author has a rather clever style. The book was promoted as a romantic comedy, but failed to identify it as a gay romantic comedy. For me it was neither romantic nor comic. The blase attitude towards promiscuous sex I actually find disgusting. I don't know why people use words like "lover" so often while at the same time disparaging the idea of actual love. I have deleted this book from my Kindle. This is my second serious disappointment with the famous award. From now on I will look at the Pulitzer prize as a warning rather than a recommendation.

This is a very intelligent award winning novel about the life of a gay author. This is a fictional biography dealing with different periods of his life. One deals with his younger years when he is taken under the wing of a highly respected author. Another time is when he is struggling with turning fifty and looks back at his relationship with a younger man over the years. While having these recollections he is on an extended tour of Europe, Africa and Asia. Arthur Less, the main character, has a symbolic name because he seems constantly dogged by his own insecurities. A very well written novel by a wonderful young author.

2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. This novel about a gay man (a struggling novelist) who decides to travel around the world when his lover of 10 years marries someone else is very funny overall and even touching in places. The writing is generally good and lyrical, although a bit over-done here and there (i.e., a few too many metaphors and similes). The novel is extremely funny, although the humor sometimes seems like an inside joke that only “the right people” will get. The characters are well developed although perhaps a bit stereotyped and predictable. Still, the protagonist (Arthur Less) is likeable and very human. A fun read.

A few amped-up reviewers have described Less as "hilarious." It's not, and I doubt if Andrew Sean Greer himself regards it as such. The novel contains comic moments and tender moments and (most of all) the somewhat sad oddball moments of (yet another) middle-aged American abroad who has been slow to grow up. Neither the narrative nor the protagonist particularly interested me, but Greer's writing is often deft and eloquent. I can't help wondering if I would have enjoyed the book more if the label "Winner of the Pulitzer Prize" hadn't appeared on the cover. My advice is to lower your expectations and savor the prose.

The book took me a bit of getting used to, but I enjoyed all the travel and the character development. I don't know if it is or isn't Pulitzer worthy, but I found it thought provoking, entertaining, well written and it held my interest. A friend had loaned me her copy and we usually enjoy the same things, so I decided to give it a go. Did I burst out laughing? No. But I found it wry and amusing.

I bought this book based on favorable reviews from respected publications. What interested me was a good human story with humor. I am straight but I don't have a problem with someone's orientation. After three chapters it seemed I'd found neither. The narrative struck me as relentlessly self-absorbed and shallow. When it got to the point where reading it became painfully tedious, I quit.

The writing is really clever, a pleasure to read, and it kept me going happily for quite some time. But by the time I got to the half-way point, more or less :), I felt that the book had settled into a repetitive routine as Less bounces from city to city, filling us in (repeatedly) on his background and previous lovers as he goes. That's when I felt, been-there, done-that. Glad I read half, it was worth it, and glad I stopped there. If I missed a lot in the second half, my loss. Still wondering why it won the Pulitzer though. I'm usually 100% behind their choice for fiction.

I did not find one humorous story in this book. I disliked everything about Arthur Less- who remains flat and one dimensional. The story is about a trivial midlife boytoy who is having an existential crisis. A man who by chance had few small moments of notoriety. First as the lover of a award winning writer, then as a author, finally as a man nearing 50 who obsesses about how inferior he is. Regrettably he is, and the character comes off as lame, uninteresting, and just plain boring.FREDDY ONLY MARRIES FOR ONE DAY AND RETURNS TO ARHUR. Who cares

What a journey, cyclical and purposeful--or at least with the aura of purpose--to follow. The mention of Dante is appropriate, as this novel ultimately leaves the reader with a sense that they have seen the trials of human life, and of course its tribulations, as a vacationer would: distanced, and not nearly as vulnerable to their weight.

Greer's novel resists much of what one would expect of a character, of a plot, and of a romantic conflict (or several). It flexes quite often, aware of its own height and expansiveness in view.

And that ending, well, is both a let down and profound simultaneously.

Arthur Less is a delightfully delirious character without the power of personality. I wasn't particularly impressed by the character, but the writing of this prose filled piece is far more peculiar and witty. I found the phrases charming and intriguing, if not terribly delicious. I was taken back a bit that it is a pulitzer prize winner, I'm not sure I recognized content worthy of a pulitzer... Yet, I did manage to scope through the book in record time seeking it. I suppose of peculiar interest covers it all quite nicely in a benign sort of way...

A lovely grown-up love story. I thought many times “This paragraph is so beautiful, so special”, as one character says. Once I got used to the narrative style, I enjoyed this melancholy, funny, and poignant story of Arthur Less and his search for love & meaning of his life very much. Andrew Sean Greer writes with such gorgeous metaphors and imagery, and his characters so flawed and delightful. He writes of the heartache and joy of relationships unlike anything I’ve read before. Greer won the Pulitzer Prize for literature with this novel. I can see why. It’ll be a book I come back to again and again.

It felt like a slog to get through at times, but overall I really loved LESS. I thought it was whimsical and charming, with some beautiful character moments and some really relatable, funny stories. I thought the narrative structure was sharp and unique and it reminded me of a Wes Anderson film. I'm sure it's not for everyone, but it was definitely for me!

Like many lovers of writing; I’ve read works of literature numbering into the thousands. I can say that “Less: A Novel” is without a doubt one of the most powerful, beautiful, and compelling novels I’ve ever had the privilege to read. Greer writes with a grace and unpretentiousness that may be without parallel in this age of thesaurus addiction. Read this book.

This was a good light well-paced read, not great literature, but better than most contemporary novels which I find unreadable and a waste of time. If you are a sophisticated world traveler, you might find some passages warrningly familiar. The humor was tame and I did smile on occasion.
Two or three times corn slipped in, but the end somewhat moving. Considering that a Pulitzer went to a maker of rap “ music” this year, one should know what to expect next year and after as culture continues its descent into the maelstrom.

Without giving spoiler, I have to confess I thought the book was boring at the beginning. A typical mid life crisis pattern - travel, self-reflection, trying to create new image - and finally where he was most comfortable is where he needs to be. It is a bittersweet triumphant for an average guy who still holds onto innocence. I am going to re-read the story again. Yeah, this coming of age, slice of life type novel may not be everyone's cup of tea but I found it to my liking.

While the storyline is about a homosexual and his love relationships, Less, is a book that heterosexuals can relate to. It is about personal relationships, love, and love lost. Greer’s use of names, such as Arthur Less, is amusing and revealing about his characters. Arthur Less travels the world to escape but also for experience. While traveling he experiences life through mundane and unfortunate experiences. Andrew Sean Greer brings it altogether in the last paragraph. Excellent for group reading and discussion groups.

There's much to like about this affectionate portrayal of a second-tier writer who, late in life, goes on an adventurous road trip around the world in order to avoid a bothersome wedding. The title character seems at first pathetic but Andrew Greer gradually gives us reason to like and even respect him, and Greer shows his background as a writer of literary fiction in every chapter. The book is rife with clever turns of phrase and novel metaphors. Ultimately, the book's rumination on the nature of love and aging seemed a little too thin for me to give five stars, but I did like it and think most other readers will as well.

The purpose of good/great literature, whether explicitly stated/understood, is to both increase empathy and nudge/push the reader to inspect and reflect on their own story and perhaps soul. Too many of the poor reviews of this novel project neither the capacity nor the will to do either... I will write this: Arthur Less is less than compelling as a human being, though none of us is ever consistently compelling, at times. He is so identifiable in his desire for love and connection that it is easy to forget his Everyman quality. I loved his journey, his epiphanies and my desire to root for him, not at first, but after considering how integral the arduous parts of life are for rising and in his case, retuning home. They are no gimmicks or clever witticisms or “turned phrases” in this novel. It is prize worthy in its exploration of “becoming” and that takes love, compassion, hard work and good friends. I am going to read it again, very soon. I am also recommending it to a great many people.

Andrew Sean Greer is an outstanding writer. THE CONFESSIONS OF MAX TIVOLI is a novel that has resonated with me since its publication. However, 261 pages for a one word pun is pathetic. Do not waste your time.
Thanks for the library saving me from having financially contributed to this nonsense.

What a wonderful story - more than a story, a beautiful window into someone's life told by someone who loves him "as is." To meet Arthur Less, first seeing him only as someone on a beach, at a party, then slowly, slowly traveling through the pages with this awkward, hopeful, fearful, mildly irritating, hesitant, funny, observant, self-deprecating writer, but most of all, human being, a kind of everyman, every person, well worth knowing, worth loving, is a gift. Thank you, Andrew Sean Greer.

Well-written, but likely was a Pulitzer contender primarily because of its focus on writers. Also somewhat hard to actually believe some of the feelings he allegedly has for the groom whose wedding he is escaping because they are too inconsistent with his character, and we don't know enough about the groom to believe anything is different there than in prior relationships. Also his revelation about his writing wasn't interesting -- to me anyway.

Less is more than a sweet love story. Finding/accepting yourself and what you want is a key part of the plot. It's not like that much happens but then it actually does if you savor the little bits inside each chapter. That's easy to do because there's some gorgeous writing. This book feels like a fictional-- and way better --Eat, Pray, Love. Not sure everyone will like Arthur Less, but I found him and his journey to escape heartache endearing.

Finished it last night. The first third to half of the book had me questioning the fact that this book won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize. There are splashes of genius writing and laugh-out-loud humor. My highest praise, however, is the way In which Greer so subtly communicated the vulnerability and truth of both his protagonist and the narrator. I was touched. I still don't have a good answer to my question about the Pulitzer, but I was closer to understanding at the end.

A hilarious novel that provides all the fun and wacky hijinks of a travelogue, with a bittersweet twist--in less than 300 pages we delve deep into who Arthur Less is as a person; his aspirations, his failures, the memories he can never run away from, no many how far he travels. Parts of this book were so funny that I had to read them to my friends--always a sign of a great read. I won't soon forgot "Mr. Ess"!

As with many Pulitzer Prize winning books, this one centers more on form and character than plot, but it's an amusing read with lovely description and a fun title character. A little pretentious at times, and sometimes with so many metaphors I forgot what it was that was actually being described, but there are several laugh-out-loud moments, and I'm glad I went on the road with Arthur Less. (Review based on library copy.)

I've been a constant reader of acclaimed literature ever since I could read, and Andrew Sean Greer's "Less" is the finest, most original work of art I've ever read. There were moments of reading it in public places when I involuntarily burst into giggles, and the ending left me sobbing.

It's no wonder it won the Pulitzer Prize for literature this year. I'm very glad I read it instead of listening to it in audiobook, as every word, sentence and phrase is a finely-tuned masterpiece, meant to be savored in a string of delicious moments.

I read critic-praised literary fiction and creative non-fiction in hopes of honing my own writing skills, but writing skills alone disappear in the blinding light of pure talent like Greer's.

I really wanted to like this book. As a gay man in my fifties, I was attracted to the premise. As a reader, this book was a struggle, mostly for its overdone, strained language. It reads as if the author had made a list of every clever turn of phrase he could think of and, then, wrote the novel around them. While the writing is tedious, the story lacks color. I lived through the times chronicled in Less, and I assure you, they were far more interesting and vivid than the depiction here. Arthur Less is a bore, and no doubt, the author is a bore. For the character to lack so little insight while being stunted and self-absorbed, is to me, a cliche of gay men as shallow and immature. Most of us that lived through the AIDs crisis grew from it, became stronger for it, and know what is important and what is not. A long, around the world trip made to avoid celebrating the love of someone we loved is nothing to celebrate. Gay men are better than as depicted by the author. Shocked it won a Pulitzer.

The two hundred and seventy-two pages of Andrew Sean Greer’s novel, Less, move quickly, delivering pleasure to readers on every page. Progatonist Arthur Less is about to turn fifty years old, and he decides to leave the country rather than face this milestone at the same time that his former lover is getting married. Greer’s prose draws us into a deep understanding of Arthur Less, and presents us with a smartly-written, well-told love story. There’s more to Less than first appears.

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

For a long time, I've been looking for a gay male character that I could relate to...middle aged, imperfect, sometimes oblivious. Finally able to find the humor in being middle aged. But then to turn 50! (Frankly, no one is quite prepared for that).

Look at the "Recommended for You" options at the bottom of the page. There will most likely be some strapping young gay man with a bare chest, muscles everywhere. He'll be insanely handsome, maybe wearing some football pads or a jock strap. The story will be filled with hot, steamy, salacious gay sex. Or maybe the hero will be hooked on drugs or alcohol or will just generally be a train wreck. No story. No humanity. Just trash. I'm tired of it. I need a real story, with real emotion and real conflict with a protagonist who could be a real person dealing with real life. Finally, there is "Less."

The book was well written, the story interesting, at times laugh-out-loud funny, and I didn't want it to end.

A bit of a surprise all things considered. The hero is a man approaching fifty years with trepidation and approaching the wedding date of his lover of nine years to another with something more than trepidation. So instead of sitting at home to face the prospect of both, off he goes to see the world through a chain of invitations he meant to decline, but now... the reader is off on a world-wide experience with Arthur Less.

When I say this book was a surprise, I meant that it was so much more than a down-hearted gay guy, who thinks he's hit his expiration date, roaming around the world. It dips back to reflect on his colorful past, distant and near, that led him to the present, but also starts working on him as he contemplates his future. Yes, it was very introspective, but it was wry with the bittersweet musings. And lets not forget the humor that only international travel mishaps can bring. And in the end, Less came into his own and I was happy to be there to see it because for much of the book, Less never sees himself the way others around him and the reader sees him. He's lived a grand, full life, but it takes a shifting of his world for him to finally see it.

Now, the surprises were not so welcome when I first started reading. It was not exactly what I thought I was getting so that took some adjusting. The writer's style was another huge adjustment- it meanders, and in my copy, the dips into the past and the present can be from paragraph to paragraph so a few times I got twisted around. There is an omniscient narrator voice that will pop in mid-stream too (that was a fun twist, that I figured out and was happy to discover I was right).

Less is what I call 'travel' fiction though it doesn't delve too deeply into the big sweeping sections of travel. I thought the author wove this part in organically so the reader had a good vista of Less' travel stops, but it was alongside the adventure.

In summary, this turned out to be a book that I felt cozy with as I was there alongside Less for all his travels and epiphanies. It is one I would recommend, particularly if you enjoy 'travel' fiction, but also enjoy the protagonist who is introspective.

This book is very well written. The story moves along nicely; it's often funny, sometimes a little sad. The protagonist, Arthur Less, is engaging. He's a 50 year old gay man, a moderately successful writer who's still unsure of himself, anxious and uncertain of what lies ahead. In response to some present problems, Less arranges an around the world trip, partly to get away, but mainly to help him sort things out. This is the first book by Andrew Greer that I've read. I plan to read some of his others.

I recently overheard a friend raving about “Less”. He happens to be a high school English teacher, and I immediately honed in at the conversation. I had just finished reading “The Other Woman” by Daniel Silva (top notch), and was eagerly looking forward for a great follow up read.

I cannot overstate my delight in this book’s writing, format, creativity, character development. This book closely resembles the translated copy of Alexander Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin” in its style, and beauty while at the same time maintaining a fresh and genuine uniqueness of its own. I will say that so far this is my best book of the Year!

Greer creates a beautiful collection of characters each struggling with intimacy and aging. To avoid attending a former lover's wedding, Arthur Less travels the world. Through his experiences and reflections, we experience a collection of characters grappling with aging, loneliness, intimacy, and loss. The author fills the book with wistful humor and melancholy. Greer has a gift with language and description. The story becomes a bit tedious in the middle, but the pace picks up in the latter third of the novel.

I recommended this book for a book club I am in based off the prizes it had won and the glowing reviews and yet we were all disappointed. I was never captivated by the book nor wanting more, I found the story and narration difficult to follow what path of time they were on. The characters lacked depth, and what seemed it could have a Eat Love Pray feel fell short of bringing the characters to life in each of the different countries. I rarely write reviews but I really did not enjoy this book, I didn't hate it but I couldn't really tell you what the story was about. I listened to to it via audiobook and it was difficult to follow the jumping around because the sentences all ran together without clear paragraph breaks (and I love audiobooks). My friends who read a physical copy liked it slightly more, so something to consider if looking at audio.

"Less" is a lesson in how to create a lovable, brave and accepting-of-life's challenges character. It is also a lesson is how to write surprising, original metaphors. Some critics have raved about the book's humor. It's in there, but that's not the reason to savor this wonderful book. It is Arthur Less's humanity. You don't have to be gay or fifty-ish to appreciate his never-ending problems and applaud his solutions. I read the last few pages as if I were licking the final drops of a chocolate sundae off a spoon. Bravo Mr. Greer.

Wonderful. Just wonderful all around. One of the best books I've ever read, especially because it's such a wonderfully human portrayal of a gay main character. I'm gay myself, and there were so many moments that made me laugh delightedly to myself, because the author had captured a feeling that is completely unique to gay people. There's a scene where the main character (Arthur) lost a ring his boyfriend gave to him in a bin of mushrooms, and another man asks him what's wrong. Arthur tells him he lost his wedding ring, and then says something along the lines of, "She's going to be unhappy about this." During the scene that follows, the author perfectly captures the feeling of being not just the only gay person in a group of straight people, but also being the only one who knows.

Whether you're looking for a book with a gay lead, a book with a diverse cast, a book about traveling the world, or just looking for something that will make you feel good (and sad and empathetic and sympathetic and charmed and dreamy) you've found it. No more, no less.

This is my favorite novel of at least the past two years. I found the protagonist immensely relatable and sympathetic. The writing is beyond wonderful. It is poignant in its depiction of memory and regret. But most of all, it is absolutely hilarious. I didn't want it to end, but the ending was perfect. I also enjoyed the travelogue aspect. Recommending it to all my friends. I'm so grateful to Mr. Greer for this generous, lavish, just-right book.

This was a fine, enjoyable book with a strong (though not terribly surprising) finish. I had come across the author before and when I learned the book had won the Pulitzer, decided to read it. I have to say that perhaps I expected something more from such a prestigious award winner, so I was a bit disappointed (so much for award winners). I thought it was a little too autobiographical for my taste, and the protagonist protested too much about his failings as a writer and gay man.Still, it certainly had its nice moments, with some funny observations and a bit of exotic scenary as well. No regrets reading this book, just hoped for something a little more profound.

I just finished It and I LOVED IT!!! It is the best book I've read this year! It has everything I like: Humor, sarcasm, self deprecation, travel, middle age crisis, a mysterious narrator, a love story, San Francisco, Texas, great characters, and a great ending! I highly recommend it ?

Arthur Less is on the cusp of life...no longer young, facing the oldness he doesn't seem to want. But as he travels around the world, the life in him is revealed through the colors of author Andrew Sean Greer. Arthur may have Little Orphan Annie eyes as he bumps from country to country, reviewing his life in doses large and small, but he's lively in his own mind and he's a joy to experience.

Novelist Arthur Less, on the brink of turning 50, runs away from an ex's wedding on a world tour.

The voice is charming, the characters are hilarious and delightful, and you cheer for Less through this entire anxiety-ridden trek across the globe to find himself and what will make him truly happy.

A little slow in that "literary" way.

What do I like the most? Was it the clever structure of this love story? The fondness I felt for Arthur Less, a sort of sad-sack approaching his 50th BD with dread? The entertaining tales he shares about past lovers and friends? Or the crystal-clear images of every place he visits on his trip abroad?

I loved it all. You’ll find yourself rooting for this attractive, lonely and always likable protagonist, Mr. Arthur Less. It’s a romantic tale from start to finish.

Like your favorite pair of jeans, this book was an enjoyable read. I could laugh at Less, or with him, or feel like I've been him too. (even though I'm a heterosexual woman) Enjoyed the descriptive writing and felt like I visted each country in the not typical tourist way. Sometimes prizewinning books are a struggle to read but this was enjoyable, even through some of his tragedies. I'm smiling.

Clever story and lyrical, witty writing and an interesting set of observations on the creative process. Not quite the "gravitas" that one would expect of a Pulitzer winner. Although, in retrospect, the gravitas is there - just well hidden beneath the humorous tone of the story.

My thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for providing me an advance copy of the book in exchange for this honest review.

This is really a lovely, charming, elegiac novel about the wistful disappointments that one inevitably faces as one grows older, and either does or doesn't find love, success and happiness. Arthur Less is a middling novelist fast approaching fifty, and looking backwards on his life with regret, and towards his unsettled future with trepidation. His younger lover of nine years has recently left him and is getting married to a new man, sending Less reeling around the world in a series of semi-comic flights from reality. Each chapter encompasses Less' adventures in a new foreign city, until he returns to his life in San Francisco ... and an unexpected and quite touching ending.

Greer writes exquisite prose, and if I am a decade too old to really appreciate (or much remember) the qualms of a fifty year old, anyone can relate to the foibles of pondering the roads less travelled. My major quibble is that most of the novel is shown from the vantage point of an omniscient narrator, with infrequent interpolations from a different narrator whose identity doesn't become crystal clear till the final pages. Although that second narrator is absolutely necessary for the powerful ending (and probably WOULDN'T have worked for the entire novel as a whole), it is somewhat jarring when he suddenly intervenes to commander the navigation of the story. Still a minor fault in what was a very touching and frequently funny read.

You will probably never hear me say this again, so enjoy this while it lasts: This book was intoxicating.

At its heart, Less is the story of avoidance and language barriers, but most importantly it’s about a guy dealing with his life as a blooper reel. No, really, he ends up in the weirdest situations, and it’s very entertaining because he’s neither ignorant of it nor enthused by it. He’s pretty salty and self-deprecating, but not to the point where his esteem issues make the book depressing.

As Less says many times in the book “Happiness is not bullshit.” Although Greer pretty much tortures Less with his own failures (both grand life failures and the failure of not being able to navigate everyday absurdity), Less is still able to come out the other side. He gets something out of the constant awkwardness in his life instead of grumbling and trying to rally against it. He’s like. “yeah this is my life now, let’s roll and enjoy what I can even though I fail at everything.” It’s Eat, Pray, Love for salty realists (such as myself!).

It helps that this book was just incredibly charming and funny. Greer writes in a way that is high brow and smart without it seeming like he is talking down to you. He manages to turn Less’ everyday blooper reel of a life into something poignant and relatable. I think it was smart to have Less travel the world, because being the outsider in a country where you don’t speak the language is something a lot of people can relate to. Less himself wrote a “failed” novel about a middle aged white male walking around San Francisco, and this book is the complete opposite of that. Yeah the book is about Less and his “failures,” but we get this vibrant international cast that accepts him and his fumbling attempts to roll with the punches.

Normally I don’t really mention covers because I generally don’t care (not a dis on covers!). I just want to read the book, but sometimes a cover really just strikes me and I have to comment on it. This one is just so fitting to the book, and I just flat-out like the colors. I like that is shows Less falling and writing because that’s kind of how he sees himself and his life. This is also shown through the chapter titles (“Less French”, “Less German”…) until finally it is “Less at Last” where there is a kinda big thing that happens that was really cool (shhhh).

It was an exceptionally good book, and I was entranced from page one until the final page was turned. The only disappointing thing was that H.H.H. Mandern’s space operettas don’t exist!!!

Some quotes I enjoyed and show the book’s humor well:

Less (In faulty German) “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. It’s Berlin”

“He stood there in his little Keralan house, with its view of the ocean and the Last Supper, and pictured himself walking up to Rupali and saying the most absurd sentence of his life: I am going to check myself into an Ayuverdic retreat unless the picnicking stops!”

“With a joy bordering on sadism, he degloves every humiliation to show its risible lining. What sport! If only one could do this with life!”

Thankfully I got this at the library so I'm not out any money. I gave up at about page 80 due to stilted writing describing a not very interesting protagonist. This is what wins a Pulitzer these days? I won't be using that to guide my reading going forward.

I think the thing that bugged me the most was the rave review blurbs on the cover - citing this as hilarious. NOT. Didn't even crack a smile once.

On to the next book...there are, literally, a million of them and I'm getting old so I'll find something entertaining to read. Cheers.

I don't want to lower the rating of an excellent novel, so this is five stars, but I wonder who wrote that tortured product description for the store. It is so awkward--not normal American English. "A wedding welcome touched base via the post office"? Every sentence is strangely phrased.

I just loved this book. It was a delightful read, wistfully funny yet poignant, and it turned out to be much deeper than it appears on the surface. And the ending was a tour de force. A really wonderful book that is a reaffirmation of the value of naïveté and love, even in a cynical modern world that makes those things seem impossible.

It was such an honor to travel with Arthur Less on his around-the-world voyage. It was not long before I had a huge affection for him and everything he went through. Very clever and heartwarming book, even if I did not understand all of the literary allusions.

You ABSOLUTELY have to read Less by Andrew Sean Greer.
It is one of the funniest ,craziest ,heartwarming books I have ever read.
You will laugh and sigh and want to remember some of his great thoughts.
You will just keep rooting for Less to find his happiness.
Go get it! It will lift your spirits and…. seriously... I was falling off the couch laughing.
This book should be number 1 on the bestseller list. It's really that fabulous.

Read it once last year, and am about to read it again because it was so funny and charming. I recommended it to a friend, who also loved it; she recommended it to a friend, who loved it, and so it goes. A pure delight, one of my favorite books of all time, right up there with The Goldfinch, Infinite Home, and A Gentlemen in Moscow.

I tore through this book. Absolutely covered in food stains and water marks because I couldn't put it down. I laughed (a LOT) and also cried. It's rare to find those qualities in a story so meticulously crafted. What an absolute joy. Just put it down and already flipping back to favorite passages.

(Honestly my only regret was that we didn't hear more from Carlos)

An intricate story of a man who travels the world to understand love, only to realize he had it all along.... This novel is so beautifully written it will at times make your heartache. It's a lovely tale of a man who eventually discovers his immense self-worth.

I won't waste anyone's time writing a synopsis as you can read that in the book description, but I will say this is a wonderful character study. The book made me laugh, it made me cry, and if I could give is six stars, I would.

Pulitzer? I don't get it. Stuck with the first third and then took the step to return this one on Audible. I bit on the PR blitz, especially the ad in the New Yorker. Maybe it's cultural. Maybe if I were a middle-aged gay man? I dunno. I haven't hated a book in a long time.

I had great expectations, yet felt defrauded by this little paperback. Amusing at times, it left me with much "less" than I expected. A trivial book, yet it won a Pulitzer for Fiction. Incomprehensible.

Beautiful, funny, smart, heart rending. Such a lovely sad happy book. I loved every word which was so carefully written, chosen and offered to the reader like an exquisitely prepared taste of each moment of the protagonists life.

I couldn't get into this book at all. I ended up skimming (or maybe skipping) over parts a little after the 50% read mark. Arthur Less is not a character for whom I felt like rooting--self-absorbed, vain, oblivious, and boring. As other low star reviews have said, not sure why this book is billed as "hilarious". And did it seriously win a Pulitzer?

The writing style is fine. More depth of character and more interesting plot would have helped. Less "Less" is more.

This novel is a delight. It's smart, funny, touching, and completely charming. I love the word play and Greer's use of puns throughout. If you're looking for a story that you quickly draws you in and leaves you smiling, I can't recommend Less enough!

The $20 I spent for this in audiobooks would've been better used to light a fire. Worse book ever (next to the one by rapper Fifty Cent with all of the name-dropping). For 8 hours this book drones on, chapter-by-chapter, with the reader describing one scene after another as if he is on a balcony looking down into a room. Get a grip Mr. Greer......who told you that you were a writer? Where is the dialogue between characters? Talk about a cover misrepresenting content!
Save your money. Do NOT buy this book nor accept it as a gift.

It's meant to be funny and entertaining but, except for a few passages, I thought the story was rather sad. It is well written with astute observations; however, I found that I was not really interested in what happens to Arthur Less.

I’ll read anything by Andrew Sean Greer, so I was excited to read his new novel Less. It’s a comedic novel, which sets it apart from the other Greer novels I’ve read. The protagonist, named Arthur Less, is a mid-list author whose publisher has decided not to publish his newest novel. That insult added to the impending wedding of a beloved ex-lover sends Arthur on a trip around the world to escape his problems. Much comedy ensues, some of it slap-stick and some of it very intelligent. The ending might be a little too neat for some, but I enjoyed this nuevo Around the World in 80 Days.

Arthur Less is turning 50 and he fears this milestone, so what does this quirky gay man do but go on a trip around the world. He had me cheering as he struggles to meet the tasks expected of him. I laughed and cheered as he turned 50 and searched for love.

I haven't read a whole book in one sitting in a very long time, but I fell in love with the main character and wanted to see what happened. I was so hoping it wouldn't turn out to be the same "poor old gay me" saga, and it turned out it wasn't! I was delighted.

What a tedious read. I have never thrown a book across the room but by Germany I had had more than I could stand of the self absorbed stabs at humor.

And this won the Pulitzer Prize?
If this was the best of the year according to Pulitzer, the prestige of that prize is diminished.

decades ago S.J Perelman and Al Hirschfield co-wrote an account of their travel around the world. Descriptions are hilarious and exquisitely written. this author aspires to Perelman and fails miserably. And the ending is so contrived it undoes the theme of emotional insight.

I fell in love with this book as soon as I realized that “Less” is based on Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken. Andrew has taken a very popular poem and added in a love story. It’s unlike any other novel. Arthur Less is Fifty... just like in Robert Frost’s “What Fifty Said”.

Funny, poignant, interesting travelogue, a quick fun read. I'm a 62-year old woman, straight; Less is a 49- year-old man, gay, and yet I could completely relate. Thoroughly enjoyed this "Hurry Up Or I'll Be Thirty" gem of a book!

Why Less won the Pulitzer Prize is beyond my grasp. If this is Mr. Greer 's Pulitzer Prize winner, there is scant chance of me trying another of his books. I struggled and struggled with the banal Less, his endless insecurities and his boyfriends and drugs, and finally gave up. By the end, I didn't want less Less, I wanted no Less.

Less is the perfect name. Less is just point'less'. Read this for bookclub and we had high hopes for a Prize winner. We didn't find anything humorous about it, and this guy's problems? Really, get a grip. Traveling the world and feeling bad about a lost boyfriend. Truly a first world problem. I can't understand, neither could my fellow book readers, why this book won an award of any kind. We find the main character whiny and annoying. We couldn't even appreciate the writing because the story was so tedious.

The book is written beautifully, and I can understand why it won a Pulitzer. I just couldn’t get into the character of Arthur Less. It’s just one long book about an unfortunate and pretentious character, who constantly reflects and doubts himself.