Less by Andrew Sean Greer: book review

Less (2017) is about Arthur Less, a man of 49, a failed novelist, and a skilful avoider.

His former boyfriend Freddy Pelu is about to be married and has invited Arthur Less. But Less is too scared to say yes – it would be too awkward to attend the wedding of a person he once loved – and he is too scared to say no – it would make him appear too mean-spirited. So he avoids attending the wedding by responding: ‘My apologies, but I will be out of the country.’

Less begins accepting invitations to every literary event around the world. And this is his global adventure. His itinerary is: New York, Mexico City, Turin, Berlin, Marrakech to Fez, Hyderabad, and finally to Kyoto in Japan – almost all paid by festivals, prize committees, universities, residency programs, and media conglomerates. His aim is not to think about Freddy at all.

The narrator remembers Arthur Less in his youth. He remembers Arthur’s first love, poet Robert Brownburn. And he remembers the nine years that Arthur and Freddy were a couple. And now Arthur is travelling the globe, and turning 50.

Does avoidance work? Is that the best policy? And what about the ones left behind? Interesting twists and turns in this funny, short book about love and loss, and trying to forget love so that the loss is diminished.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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