June 20, 20188 yr Active Members 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
June 20, 20188 yr Active Members 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.
June 23, 20188 yr From what I can find online, this author could be the Proust of our time and era. @Lucky, many thanks.
June 23, 20188 yr Author Active Members RockHardNYC and AdamSmith are welcome! I hope that you like the novel.
June 24, 20188 yr Active Members 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.
June 29, 20188 yr Active Members 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.
June 30, 20188 yr 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.
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