Less Is More

In a book review I posted a while back, I noted that I've been on the hunt for a novel with a gay protagonist that was not a coming-out story. In response, I got a recommendation to check out Less, by Andrew Sean Greer. It was exactly that -- and winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction to boot.

The titular character of the story, Arthur Less, is having a mid-life crisis. He's soon turning 50. He's now single after years in a committed relationship that came to an unexpected end. After a string of published (though not bestselling) novels, his publisher has rejected his latest manuscript. So he decides to escape everything and reset his life by embarking on a trip around the world. Each new destination on his journey seems to bring more indignities, stripping him down piece by piece.

It's easy to see why this novel would win some kind of award -- the writing itself is genius. Greer's use of language is evocative, stunning, brilliant, a thing to envy. Each paragraph is chock full of poetic metaphors. He just has the ability to choose the perfect words and craft the perfect phrases, accenting one noun by appropriating a second as an adjective. It's almost distracting how clever the writing is, and yet somehow to me it never seems overworked. (Yet I can only imagine how long each sentence had to have been labored over.)

The story is rather less compelling. Perhaps it's inevitable with the craft so elevated that the substance could never match the form. This novel is about something, to be sure: aging, regret, self-delusion. There's a coherent, organizational principle to what happens here -- and it's true that many "things happen." But nevertheless, I feel it would be a bit of an exaggeration to say this book has a "plot."

There's also a meta aspect to the book that I found a little too cheeky. Arthur Less' publisher tells him that no one wants to read about a white gay man recoiling at the thought of getting old. Poor him, boo hoo. Of course, that's exactly what this book is about. Arthur Less is jealous of another writer who has won a Pulitzer Prize; Greer couldn't have known when he wrote this book, but his efforts would win him a Pulitzer Prize. All these references are a sledgehammer of a joke when the language is so very much more subtle.

And yet, where a spotty story usually leaves me cold, I found Less engaging on every page. The writing is simply that great. You might almost call it more poetry than novel... to which I'd say I enjoyed it more than any poetry I've ever read.

Taken all together, I would give the novel a B+. So no, overall, it wasn't an absolute personal favorite. But I'm very glad I read it, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to experience smart writing.