The Pulitzer Prize for fiction tends to be more miss than hit for me, especially in the last several years, so when I heard the announcement last spring about Andrew Sean Greer’s Less, I didn’t pay much attention. I didn’t know the author by name, hadn’t heard anything about the book, and figured I could safely skip this one. But then I read a brief synopsis: gay novelist in his 40’s, heartbroken and struggling with his work, runs away and something-something-I-don’t-remember because I stopped reading so I could add this book to my wishlist.
Arthur Less is indeed falling apart: he’s about to turn 50; his lover of nine years suddenly broke things off to marry another man; and his latest novel has been rejected by his publisher. In an effort to pull himself together, he accepts various invitations that will lead him on a year-long trip around the world. It also doesn’t hurt that he’ll have an excuse not only to miss the wedding but also to be in the middle of the Moroccan desert when the actual event occurs. Of course, nothing goes as planned, and Less learns how impossible it is to run away from one’s problems, especially in our modern world.
I absolutely loved this book but almost wish I didn’t. I share so many similarities with Arthur Less that I worry my enjoyment is further evidence of my own vanity, yet I just can’t talk myself out of loving it, nor do I really want to. Affinities with the main character aside, it really is my favorite kind of book:
Literary in the best sense, with the kind of effortless prose that belies the high level of craft required to make it seem to easy. Filled with great wordplay, particularly around Arthur’s last name. Serious but also playful and more self-aware than I expected. Inventive and sophisticated, with Greer building a whole Russian River School of artists and writers — in much the same way a speculative writer would build fantastical worlds — and then incorporating both real and invented literary and artistic references so seamlessly that it isn’t always easy to tell the difference.
There’s even a strong element of meta-fiction, as Less’s rejected novel shares more than a few similarities with Greer’s, and Less’s response to a critical observation about his own work reveals the true heart and genius of Greer’s. He may try to trick us into believing he’s a cynic, but this is ultimately a story about love in its many forms, and Greer turns out to be a romantic after all.