Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Although this book was very well-written, I found it hard to believe it deserved the Pulitzer and I was not awed or shocked by the story line. In fact, I found myself bored many many times and skimming just so I could finish it sooner.
Again, although I liked the flow of the writing, the story itself was all over the place and there really wasn't a plot. It felt like a cliche mid-life crisis, my ex is getting married, oh my god let me travel! and find myself in the process. But, Arthur Less doesn't really find himself nor gets much clarity on anything other than a new angle for his recent failed book. Less as a character is one-dimensional and difficult to sympathize with. Following Less through awkward encounters, nothing substantial happens in the present nor the flashbacks of his past. So I couldn't really determine the point of this book or what I was supposed to feel after reading it. Whatever Greer planned didn't come across at all, instead it continually seemed as if Greer was setting things up for something to happen only for a chapter to end in an anticlimax.
This book also ends with a fairytale happily ever after which seemed out of place for the rest of the story that was so chaotic and random.
Synopsis: You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can't say yes--it would be too awkward--and you can't say no--it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world.
QUESTION: How do you arrange to skip town? ANSWER: You accept them all.
What would possibly go wrong?