Less (Arthur Less, #1)

by Andrew Sean Greer

How can so many things become

a bore by middle age—philosophy, radicalism, and other fast foods—but heartbreak keeps its sting?

But once you’ve actually been in love, you can’t live with “will do”; it’s worse than living with yourself.

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.

“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.”

We all recognize grief in moments that should be celebrations; it is the salt in the pudding.