There is a scene in Less, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Andrew Sean Greer, in which the protagonist is informed that his close friend’s marriage is ending after twenty years. ‘Twenty years of joy and support and friendship, that’s a success,’ he muses. ‘Twenty years of anything with another person is 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 fucking sun.’
