272 pages
Published September 2022 by Little, Brown and Company
Publisher's Summary:
“Go get lost somewhere, it always does you good.”
For Arthur Less, life is going surprisingly well: he is a moderately accomplished novelist in a steady relationship with his partner, Freddy Pelu. But nothing lasts: the death of an old lover and a sudden financial crisis has Less running away from his problems yet again as he accepts a series of literary gigs that send him on a zigzagging adventure across the US.
Less roves across the “Mild Mild West,” through the South and to his mid-Atlantic birthplace, with an ever-changing posse of writerly characters and his trusty duo – a human-like black pug, Dolly, and a rusty camper van nicknamed Rosina. He grows a handlebar mustache, ditches his signature gray suit, and disguises himself in the bolero-and-cowboy-hat costume of a true “Unitedstatesian”... with varying levels of success, as he continues to be mistaken for either a Dutchman, the wrong writer, or, worst of all, a “bad gay.”
We cannot, however, escape ourselves—even across deserts, bayous, and coastlines. From his estranged father and strained relationship with Freddy, to the reckoning he experiences in confronting his privilege, Arthur Less must eventually face his personal demons. With all of the irrepressible wit and musicality that made Less a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning, must-read breakout book, Less Is Lost is a profound and joyous novel about the enigma of life in America, the riddle of love, and the stories we tell along the way.
For Arthur Less, life is going surprisingly well: he is a moderately accomplished novelist in a steady relationship with his partner, Freddy Pelu. But nothing lasts: the death of an old lover and a sudden financial crisis has Less running away from his problems yet again as he accepts a series of literary gigs that send him on a zigzagging adventure across the US.
Less roves across the “Mild Mild West,” through the South and to his mid-Atlantic birthplace, with an ever-changing posse of writerly characters and his trusty duo – a human-like black pug, Dolly, and a rusty camper van nicknamed Rosina. He grows a handlebar mustache, ditches his signature gray suit, and disguises himself in the bolero-and-cowboy-hat costume of a true “Unitedstatesian”... with varying levels of success, as he continues to be mistaken for either a Dutchman, the wrong writer, or, worst of all, a “bad gay.”
We cannot, however, escape ourselves—even across deserts, bayous, and coastlines. From his estranged father and strained relationship with Freddy, to the reckoning he experiences in confronting his privilege, Arthur Less must eventually face his personal demons. With all of the irrepressible wit and musicality that made Less a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning, must-read breakout book, Less Is Lost is a profound and joyous novel about the enigma of life in America, the riddle of love, and the stories we tell along the way.
My Thoughts:
I read and reviewed Greer's 2017 Less (review here), which won Greer the Pulitzer Prize and which I felt had a lot to teach me and which I really enjoyed. I wrote then that I had two of Greer's other books on my Nook (still haven't gotten to those), but that I feared they would not be able to live up to Less which was so very good. Unfortunately, this one didn't either, at least not for me. Which is not to say I didn't enjoy it; it was just always going to be tough to live up to the first book.
This book finds Less crossing the country in a mad effort to try to earn enough money to pay back rent on the home he's been living in for more than a decade without any idea rent should have been paid. Less has been a successful writer so there is some demand for him, but he's struggling to write the next great book so off he goes, in part to earn money and in part to try to find the father that left him years ago. To say that for a smart man Less is often clueless is an understatement. So, of course, he finds himself in one ridiculous situation after another which give the book a lightness. But Less is also trying to find himself and what he wants for his future so there is plenty of weight to the book as well.
While this one didn't pull me in as much as the first book, Greer's writing still impressed. You can't help but care about Arthur and hope that he finds what he needs. Maybe what this book has done is give me a lower bar for those books I already own to reach. And Greer's latest book, Villa Coco, which recently came out and which I'm waiting to get from my library.
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