A review by sarahmatthews
Less by Andrew Sean Greer

adventurous funny reflective fast-paced

Less: A Novel by Andrew Sean Greer

Read on audio

Narrator: Andrew Petkoff

Hachette Audio

Pub. 2017, 263pp

___

Wow, I had a blast reading this book which kept me entertained on a long flight home from holiday. the character of Arthur Less is so vividly realised and he gets up to some great misadventures throughout the story. in fact he reminded me of a friend who I admire as she gets into all kinds of scrapes by throwing caution to the wind in a way I rarely dare to do!

This is a hard book to review because I went into it knowing only that the main character is a middle aged American writer who goes on a book tour of sorts and I’m glad that was all I knew about it. Sometimes it’s best not even to read the blurb.

what I will say is that, despite mixed reviews, I believe Less totally deserved to win The Pulitzer Prize in 2018. it’s brilliantly quirky and I loved the way language is played with. Here’s a little taster:

“Less wears a pair of natural leather wing tips, a paint stroke of green on each toe, black fitted linen trousers with a spiralling seam, a grey inside out t-shirt, and a hoody jacket whose leather has been tenderly furred to the soft nubbin of an old eraser. He looks like a Fire Island super villain rapper.”

Another highlight was that at one point Less thinks he’s fluent in german but the translation of what he’s actually saying to people shows otherwise!

it’s true that the story meanders somewhat so if you like a tightly plotted novel this may not work for you, but I was totally on board with the writing style from the start. This is a very funny book but it’s balanced with poignant and reflective moments that many readers will relate to. And the audiobook narrator was particularly good, easily switching between languages and accents.

Less definitely appealed to my sense of humour and I highly recommend this refreshing book. Witty and insightful, it’s up there in my top 5 reads of the year!