Reviews

GOD this book was so good! I will be adding Greer's ENTIRE backlist to my kindle asap. His writing style is absolutely fantastic! I think it's super unique and just so clever?? I would never think to write a mundane moment the way he does! Also, the way he threw in flashbacks then tied them back to the current scene felt like a movie. And the way he would tie in moments from previous scenes was just incredible!

The story was also so wonderful, I think the reveal at the end was genius and I think everything Less went through was 100% needed in order to wrap up the story the way he did. I honestly don't want to read the next one because I think the way this story ended was so perfect..

misstwild2's review against another edition

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I thought the the writer used writing that was very high-brow. Often, the writer focused on something like the cut and color of a suit while leaving me wanting to know more about the main character. The style of the writing felt very formal and detached from the story and the main character was very difficult to know. I found myself not caring about Less or what was going on at all.

leer_amor's review against another edition

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2.5

I thought this started out really good. It had the exact vibes that I was looking for. I also appreciated the ending and the slight twist. But the middle really bogged down and left a bitter taste in the mouth. The premise got me excited but the more I listened to this audiobook the more I realized it was just another book about a white American man being sad. It wasn’t original. It was also full of these little racial barbs and microaggressions. And maybe Im not the right person to comment on this, but the attempted accents the audio narrator copied just seemed offensive. Perhaps this novel was something new and exciting when it first came out, in 2017 I believe, but I couldnt help but think that we can do better. That Ive read better and that we, as readers, deserve a little better. Yes, Arthur Less was gay, but he was also just another melancholy novelist roped up in a romantic drama facing heartbreak. The novel itself talked about Less being a “bad gay” and Im inclined to agree. I feel like he could have easily been replaced by a straight man whose wife has left him. And that’s certainly not anything new. I know it’s important to normalize being gay and emphasize that queer people are just like everyone else, but I also think there’s an intrisic difference between straight people and queer people that has to do with life experience and the facing of discrimination.

Less spent the whole book moping and wallowing in self-pity when his life REALLY WASNT THAT BAD. There were a couple off-handed comments about his father, but other than that there was no mention of homophobia. I think the most noteable thing about Less is that his life was boring. That’s even brought up during the portion spent in Germany!

The whole premise also kinda surrounded his white privelege. I mean, he’s traveling all around the world, butchering languages and insulting cultures while getting into little inconvenient mishaps, and ALL HIS EXPENSES ARE BASICALLY PAID FOR HIM. And he spent most of his time abroad just feeling sorry for himself. It didnt seem like he really enjoyed any portion of this all-expenses-paid vacation (because, lets be honest, he really didnt do much work either). This could have been the trip of a lifetime but he was too busy failing not to think about A MAN™, who also didnt really know what he wanted. Less was bland and indecisive and he lacked passion. He wasnt a very likeable character and I wont be reading the sequel.