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What Members Thought
A very nice book. Well-written, easy to read, and enjoyable. Pulitzer worthy? Perhaps. It’s not breathtaking writing, or profound in its ideas; but it’s tight, pleasant, endearing, and ultimately uplifting. What’s interesting to me is that Greer does exactly with Less what Less has to do with Swift, the hero of his own novel. Greer had to take all the aspects of Less’s despair and misfortune and rewrite redemption and happiness and contentedness in them. In this way Greer makes of Less what Less
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I have seen a few negative reviews of Greer's Pulitzer winning novel and they all seem to follow the sentiment of Arthur Less's friend who confesses, "A white middle-aged American man walking around with his white middle-aged American sorrows? [Jesus I guess so.] Arthur. Sorry to tell you this. It's a little hard to feel sorry for a guy like that. [Even gay?] Even gay." I venture to guess these are the same readers who find Holden Caulfield unbearable for what is commonly seen as his incessant w
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I liked this but didn’t love it, probably because the NPR interview with Andrew Greer made me believe it would be hilarious and it ... wasn’t? Some parts, okay, fine, those parts were funny. But mostly it was a gay “Eat, Pray, Love” where the main character contemplates old age, death, and all his petty mistakes. Not too bad but maybe it wasn’t my cup of tea (or just further proof of why I shouldn’t listen to NPR for book recommendations ...)
What an engaging book! I found Arthur Less compelling, vulnerable and so very human. The observations on relationships and color commentary on the variety of countries he visited were just delightful. And the layers of past and present, fact and fiction, what were life experiences and what were part of a book kept it all so interesting. I can see what this book won a Pulitzer.
I really tried, but it just did not do it for me. It took Arthur Less a trip around the world to realize his life and turning 50 was not bad??!! And the whole time I was also thinking, this won the pulitzer? A 2-star read for me, and I haven't given one of those for a while.
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Enjoyed it, but not as deeply touched as I anticipated from the reviews and Pulitzer. Might read it a second time to explore more deeply. Sweet, funny, and very human "stage of life" tale.
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May 02, 2018
Debbie
marked it as to-read
Jun 28, 2018
Yvonne Taylor
marked it as to-read
Jul 05, 2018
Kurt Z
marked it as to-read
Jul 24, 2018
Rachel Gorham
rated it
really liked it
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books-i-own
Feb 03, 2019
Mary Anne
rated it
it was amazing
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favorites,
2019-reading-challenges
Mar 27, 2019
Jessica
marked it as to-read
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Shelves:
pulitzer-and-finalists-fiction
Jun 20, 2019
Laurie
rated it
it was amazing
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book-club-selections
Dec 10, 2019
Laina
rated it
really liked it
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Shelves:
pop-sugar-2019,
pulitzer-prize-winner
