Members Lucky Posted June 20, 2018 Members Posted June 20, 2018 The novel Less, by handsome Andrew Sean Greer, is a humorous tale of a writer who travels the world in order to avoid having to go to his ex-boyfriend's wedding. I finished it last week and enjoyed it all the way. Author Greer is the subject of a profile in today's Washington Post, where he lists the novels that he liked most when coming out: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/andrew-sean-greer-5-books-that-were-important-to-me-when-i-was-coming-out/2018/06/18/37db1df4-6d92-11e8-bd50-b80389a4e569_story.html?utm_term=.13885c19d46e The Author TotallyOz and msclelovr 2 Quote
Members RockHardNYC Posted June 20, 2018 Members Posted June 20, 2018 Thank you for the head's up. Quote
Members Riobard Posted June 20, 2018 Members Posted June 20, 2018 I cheat-read skimmed it last year at my local bookstore, according to my buy-one-read-one-free senior consumer playbook. I found it to be a rather fun though fluffy confection, similar genre as Under the Tuscan Sun, Eat Pray Love, Nanny Diaries, etc, but the prize committee must have thought it was meritorious. Shows how much I know about fiction. I do not think I was the only surprised one. Up there with Faulkner, Updike, Wharton, Cather, Wilder, Buck, Steinbeck, Michener, Hemingway, Agee, Harper Lee, Bellow, Roth, Walker, Shields, Eugenides, and gay Michael Cunningham? Really?! I will have to give his previous novels a look, as surely there must be some consistency of excellence to warrant this prestigious prize. Quote
AdamSmith Posted June 23, 2018 Posted June 23, 2018 From what I can find online, this author could be the Proust of our time and era. @Lucky, many thanks. OneFinger 1 Quote
Members Lucky Posted June 23, 2018 Author Members Posted June 23, 2018 RockHardNYC and AdamSmith are welcome! I hope that you like the novel. AdamSmith 1 Quote
Members Riobard Posted June 24, 2018 Members Posted June 24, 2018 This comedic book Less was very positively reviewed in the NY Times. The critic pulled out a few quotes to exemplify the range of big laughs. One of these is related to the protaganist's (a 50 yr old gay author) trademark blue suit, tailored in "humid, moped-plagued" Ho Chi Minh City. A romantic comedy was long overdue for the Pulitzer. Good for Greer. Quote
Members Thumper1 Posted June 29, 2018 Members Posted June 29, 2018 He's no Proust, Karl Ove Knausgård is the closest we get to that style of detail these days, but Less is a great book. Quote
AdamSmith Posted June 30, 2018 Posted June 30, 2018 8 hours ago, Thumper1 said: He's no Proust, Karl Ove Knausgård is the closest we get to that style of detail these days, but Less is a great book. I did say of our time. That sets pretty severe limits on it. Quote
