Rach's Reading Club

"Less" by Andrew Sean Greer

From my library's website: "A struggling novelist travels the world to avoid an awkward wedding in this hilarious Pulitzer Prize-winning novel full of "arresting lyricism and beauty" (The New York Times Book Review).
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE"

Sounds great, right? I imagined I would laugh and have a great time with this book and learn about minimalism. WIth "Less" as the title I really thought this was going to be about learning to travel and live lightly. Plus, the library said it was "hilarious."

Not so much.

Hated it.

I could end the review right there but I imagine you want more.

The "hero," Arthur Less, was unlikable to me. He's chronically unfaithful, a chronic complainer, and very self absorbed. Plus, he threw away both of the loves of his life (the older one by serial cheating and ignoring and the younger one by refusing to consider a permanent relationship), and basically whines all over the world about everything. He has a lot of accidents which I guess are what's supposed to be funny, though they weren't to me.

The only thing that made me chuckle was his deplorable German, and only because he claimed to be fluent first. So he's all happy about teaching in Germany and using his fluent German there, then all this poorly translated German comes out. Someone finally tells him he is terrible and he's shocked. He really thought he was great. So that and some of the wacky translations he mistakenly makes (obliviously) was funny.

The best part of the book were the descriptions of the exotic places (that the hero failed to fully appreciate, except for the mirrored bedspread in Morocco) his trip around the world involved. I particularly liked the Morocco , Kyoto and Adriatic sea loveliness. Also, there were some interesting and quirky side characters.

So, spoiler alert, don't read on if you plan to read this dreadful book.

There's almost no character arc. Even after being told he's terrible at German, he just keeps speaking terribly. He makes no effort to improve his language skills. He makes no effort to become a better love partner. He makes no effort to become a better person. He does take some advice about his lack of book writing success and applies himself to his writing for a short time ... until the next accident, then seems to give up entirely.

And then, at the end, the more recent love he threw away, comes back to him! Without Arthur ever even emailing, calling, writing or reaching out to him! And the other guy was just MARRIED to someone else. The whole reason for Arthur's trip around the world was to avoid attending the wedding and thinking about his lost love. Then, magically, it turns out the other guy was still in love with him (for reasons I sure don't understand) and the other guy leaves his very loving husband - on their HONEYMOON! to go back to this jerk! I couldn't believe it. The younger guy would have been better off with the guy he actually married, in my opinion. A guy who cared about him. A guy who put him first instead of being a selfish jerk. Though I suppose love isn't always logical.

I wish I could have my time for reading this book back. I will never, ever assume a Pulitzer prize winning book is going to be a good one again.