Less in Tackling the Pulitzer Prize Winners!

Jun 13, 2018 Donna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: pulitzer-prize-winner

This one started slow for me and kept on picking up energy.

Ultimately I really liked this book - Arthur Less is always “less” than what he realizes.

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Nov 12, 2019 Lisa of Hopewell rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-books, pulitzer-prize-winners, read-in-2019

The Story

“…Less finds himself searching for an appropriate prayer. He was, however, raised Unitarian so he has only Joan Baez to turn to and ‘Diamonds and Rust’ gives no solace.”

Andrew Less wants to escape his life. His ex-lover is getting married throwing him into a spin. Less accepts a writing assignment and travels to it via the world. A one-time bright light in the “Russian River School” of poets and writers, Arthur Less today is well, less than that. Told in shifting scenes back-and-forth i The Story

“…Less finds himself searching for an appropriate prayer. He was, however, raised Unitarian so he has only Joan Baez to turn to and ‘Diamonds and Rust’ gives no solace.”

Andrew Less wants to escape his life. His ex-lover is getting married throwing him into a spin. Less accepts a writing assignment and travels to it via the world. A one-time bright light in the “Russian River School” of poets and writers, Arthur Less today is well, less than that. Told in shifting scenes back-and-forth in time, the novel shows us a sometimes, funny, often wonderfully ridiculous, middle-aged gay man whose life is less than he’d like it to be.
My Thoughts

I found Andrew Less to be an amusing character. The ordinariness of his novelist’s life was fun. I loved his run-ins with red-tape–like getting a refund on VAT-taxes. And then there were the all-too-real conference and talking head show scenes. Loved, loved, loved them! Those were the scenes that made the book so fun.

I liked, too, that Arthur Less encountered a group of Christians and didn’t go off on how bigotted they were–of course, they weren’t Americans so maybe that is why.

Had I picked this up without the Pulitzer Prize winner billing, I’d have really thought it as good. But what the heck? How did this beach-read earn the Pulitzer Prize for fiction? I must have missed some massive symbolism of something. I fun read–sure, absolutely. A memorable character? Sure. Think all those The Something Something Life of Somebody Somebody-titled books about quirky characters only male. That’s Less. The author must have set the world’s best lobbyists to work on the Pulitzer committee. To compare this to The Underground Railroad, The Killer Angels, The Color Purple, The Caine Mutiny, or The Good Earth (other Pulitzer Prize winners) is laughable.
My Verdict
3.5

A fun read, well worth your time, but forget Pulitzer Prize winner status.

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

I learned of this book via this review: https://bvitelli2002.wordpress.com/20... ...more

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Jun 23, 2023 Shaun rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, lady-gentlemen-s-second-tuesday

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. My goodreads friend "Molly" wrote the following review in May of 2018 and it captures so well my thoughts about this novel. What follows is my analysis of the themes of this book.

"I adored this book. And I'll explain why. I wasn't dreading reading it, but I wasn't looking forward to it either. I was fearing a PC onslaught. What on earth could I have in common with a middle-aged west coast gay male semi failing novelist?? Surprise! Feelings and fears - love, loss, failure and happiness. Dreams an ...more

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Jul 06, 2022 Jeffrey rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: pulitzer-prize-winners

I found myself convinced as I read that I wasn’t reading Andrew Sean Greer’s book Less, about an author named Arthur Less, but actually Kalpyso, Arthur Less’s book that is referenced and criticized throughout (though never in great detail). While there’s a part of me that thinks all books should be a re-telling of The Odyssey, I wasn’t sure early on I’d be super into this one.

At first, the book feels too light to be a real Pulitzer Prize winner: a playful jaunt of a homosexual author as he appro I found myself convinced as I read that I wasn’t reading Andrew Sean Greer’s book Less, about an author named Arthur Less, but actually Kalpyso, Arthur Less’s book that is referenced and criticized throughout (though never in great detail). While there’s a part of me that thinks all books should be a re-telling of The Odyssey, I wasn’t sure early on I’d be super into this one.

At first, the book feels too light to be a real Pulitzer Prize winner: a playful jaunt of a homosexual author as he approaches fifty and desperately flees the wedding of his lover that only seems to touch fears of ageing and loneliness and insignificance with the utmost hesitance. Greer seems to have an awareness of it all though. When Freddy, Author’s lover reads his book – a playful jaunt of a homosexual approaching… - he complains “All you do is write gay Ulysses” and it’s awfully on the nose.

Greer also has the sense to have someone complain about Less’s writing (the same lover? His agent?) in manner dismissive of his protagonist: the one his reader should presumably identify with and feel bad for: ‘your protagonist’s life is better than anyone I know’ or something like that. As in, how are we supposed to feel sympathy for a character who lives a life of comfort and moderate (or something less than moderate, but still…) literary standing and manages to take a trip around the world when he fears his feeling might be hurt? Greer is undoubtedly aware of how we might feel about his character and his conflict.

It reads quickly – more like a beach read than books I’m more likely to label ‘literature’ (and indeed, I knocked out the first fifty pages at the pool while the kids splashed at one another and Jackie and I sipped on smuggled-in-margarita).

As the book progresses, we get close to some big ideas. Less is often confronted with his own mediocrity, especially as he is compared with his old old lover (not young Freddy whose impending marriage sets up the primary conflict and gives Less the motivation for his trip). He’s asked “What is it like to know genius?” (or is it ‘live with genius’?) and the question he tried not grapple with is – what is it like NOT to be a genius. To be defined by the absence of something this other man had. But Less doesn’t seem to be on a journey of self-discovery. He seems to be traveling the globe to avoid that sort of thing. The closest we get early on is a great metaphor about a time Less lost the ring given to him by this old old lover at the grocery store. After a comedic scene where all the straight men – all too aware of how dangerous it is to lose a wedding ring – help him to search for it amongst the mushrooms he’d been perusing. The loss of the ring is emblematic of his failures in his relationship, of the lover he’s had on the side and the betrayal of it all. But it turns up and it seems for a moment he (and his relationship) is saved!

He laughed, he showed it to the shop owner. He bought all five pounds of mushrooms the men had handled and went home and made a soup with pork ribs and mustard green and all the mushrooms and told Robert everything that had happened, from the ring, to the men, to the discovery, the great comedy of it all.

And in the telling, laughing at himself, he watched as Robert looked up from his chair and saw everything.

That’s what it was like to live with genius.

I want more passages like that!

I found myself looking for the book’s redemption in the way characters spoke of Arthur’s Less’s book. I could see Greer’s self-awareness over and over, but I was hungering for the payoff throughout. At one point, Arthur is (at least semi-drunkenly) speaking to another author at a Paris dinner party and the other, more successful, author is telling him that the reason he isn’t in the ‘gay canon’ isn’t 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. But in your books, you make the characters suffer without reward. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were Republican…”

I keep reading this stuff as very intentional self-criticism (though I haven’t read any other Greer – I don’t know just how gay his typical book is). I can’t always be sure though. What I really think is that it is a well-executed and intentional device Greer is using to comment on Less himself and that he writes the book in such a way as to reflect the protagonist.

The book started light and fun, I thought, and it stayed fun and funny throughout. By the end, though, I think Greer managed to sneak in some real weight. Less grows and we learn a little about love and maturity and age and art in the process - more than we expect at the outset without ever feeling bludgeoned by it. I liked it more when I finished than when I started and I struggled to put it down right from the start. ...more

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Oct 07, 2018 Christian rated it it was ok

Knowing that this had won the Pulitzer prize, I couldn't help but have high expectations for the novel. Expected to love it; only found it ok. Greer is a talented author (almost every review of the book touches on the language and imagery of the book), but the book itself just felt lazy. The main character didn't defy any expectations, nor did the plot feel particularly inventive or new. Did laugh at the rather heavy-handed description of the Pulitzer committee in the book and the thought of the ...more

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Jan 20, 2019 Jen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Hmmmm. I liked it? It was very character driven, with some storyline, where I knew what would happen. I kept wondering if he won the Pulitzer simply because there was a story line about the Pulitzer... But it did have beautiful descriptive text and a narrative that resonated as I reach my late 40's. It was worth the read. ...more

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Dec 22, 2021 Kristel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbtq, pulitzer-prize, romance

This is a story of Arthur Less, a middle aged gay author. It is the story of his life. It is also the Pulitzer prize for 2018. It is probably one of the best gay book I've read. I do not like reading gay books in general because I don't care to read about sexual behaviors of anyone, but this book is written well and is not wallow in sexual content. ...more

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