Scott Semegran

This is the third time I've read this novel and I loved it even more the third time. Exceptional novel and Everett's best of the ones I've read.

Smart, funny, and well-drawn. Great!

Meh.

Like any curious writer, I occasionally read the award-winning books of the Pulitzer and Booker variety. I also watch award-winning movies (Oscars, Golden Globes, etc.) and listen to award-winning albums (Grammys, Pulitzer, et al.). I like to see what all the hub-bub is about and judge for myself. I really wanted to love Less by Andrew Sean Greer. It's classified as humorous (awesome) literary (even better) fiction. That's my wheelhouse (disclaimer: I also write humorous literary fiction). Unfortunately, I didn't love it. Sad, I know.

Published book blurb for Less: Who says you can't run away from your problems? 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. How do you arrange to skip town? You accept them all.

This is the setup to how Arthur Less avoids suffering and humiliation. He escapes. And this is what Greer uses to setup a series of comedic situations to drop author Arthur Less into. Some are amusing. Arthur believes he's fluent in German (he's not) while staying in Germany. His translated books are brilliant overseas (they're not. Maybe artfully translated). Comedic (?) foibles unfold. Arthur flies around the world, takes pills, hops in the sack(s) with various assistants and travel companions. He ruminates about past transgressions. Or does he since the book is narrated by someone else? This someone's identity is the novel's big reveal. Don't worry; I won't spoil it.

I found the character of Less to be annoying and unlikeable. I know there are readers that are attracted to this type of hot-mess, Peter Pan-esque, worried about aging / too vain for their own good character. I guess I'm not one of them. The narrator is fascinated with Arthur Less, infatuated even, the same way a pet owner is in love with their scrappy dog that pees on the rug while they claim it to be the cutest dog in the world. It's not; it's a dog that pees on the rug.

There is an airy, whimsical quality to Greer's writing. It goes down like a fresh-baked croissant does with an espresso while sitting on the patio of a French bistro. But there is also a shallowness that is cloying. It's lack of plot is unfortunate. And I kept thinking: What is so great about Arthur Less? More so, what is so great about Less? There is no accounting for the taste of the Pulitzer judges, I guess.

In the book, there is a passage where Arthur's old flame, Robert, actually wins the Pulitzer Prize (just like Andrew Sean Greer did?!), then a mutual friend of theirs explains:

“Prizes aren't love. Because people who never met you can't love you. The slots for winners are already set, from here until Judgment Day. They know the kind of poet who's going to win, and if you happen to fit the slot, then bully for you! It's like fitting a hand-me-down suit. It's luck, not love. Not that it isn't nice to have luck... “

I guess this novel had the luck this time. It must have been awkward for Greer to receive the Pulitzer after writing such a passage. Right? Probably not. He won the prize anyway. Bully for him.

Considered one of the first—if not THE first—Young Adult novels, The Outsiders is the classic tale of the conflict between the greaser and social teen cliques in 1960s Oklahoma. It spawned a faithful movie adaption directed by Francis Ford Coppola in the 1980s. If you've seen the movie, then there aren't any surprises in the novel. It's a well-plotted story with a realistic conflict between the social outcasts and the popular kids with some very dramatic turns and the sturdy underlying moral of “don't judge a book by its cover.” The relationship between Ponyboy, his brothers, and their friends is endearing and realistic. I did enjoy reading this novel.

But there are some caveats. First, the narration is clunky with questionable word choices. For instances, during a brawl, Ponyboy (who is the narrator) tells the reader that he wonders where Johnny is while his head is being violently submerged in a water fountain by a rival gang member. I can imagine images of his friend would frantically race through his mind. But wonder? There is a lot of wondering going on in questionable situations in this novel. Second, Ponyboy is described as very book smart and different from the rest of his gang, yet he doesn't site any of the dozens upon dozens of books he's claimed to have read—not even a single quote from a favorite book—and his narration doesn't display a single sign of this well-read dreamer and avid bookworm. His narration is clunky and lacks any signs of a literate mind. The only thing that seems to make him different from the rest of his gang is that he questions their station in life. And he does realize that the social kids are not much different than the greaser kids; they just have different problems and living situations.

Overall, this was a good read. I'd give it 3 and a half stars.