Less is Lost (Arthur Less #2) by Andrew Sean Greer

[Ulysses]

Less Is Lost
By Andrew Sean Greer
Published 2022 by Little-Brown/Hachette
Five stars

I liked this even more than “Less.” Why? Because I liked Arthur Less more on this leg of his journey. I loved the conceit of using his lover, Freddy Pelu, as the narrator, even though he never actually appears in Arthur’s adventures.

Plus, and I forgot to say this for the first book, it’s very funny—both laugh-out-loud, and smile-quietly-to-yourself funny. Arthur’s entire “Candide”-like voyage across the country is as poignant as it is amusing. What the reader sees, and Less himself doesn’t quite see (because he doesn’t always pay attention), is that he continually rises to the occasion. He feels uncertain if he is worthy of homage or of love; and yet he persists. He is never rude or cruel or thoughtless.

We learn a lot more about Arthur Less in this book. We really come to understand why he’s so lost; but we also learn that getting lost and being lost sets him free and—surprisingly—brings him joy. We are told about his relationships in the years before Freddy, and we begin to appreciate why those relationships have been problematic, and why Arthur, even in regard to Freddy, remains “uncertain.”

I’m not sure this book would fully stand alone without “Less,” but it certainly offers a richly diverting and satisfying conclusion that left me more teary-eyed that I expected.