Who is it for: Anyone that has ever felt the need to escape their reality and find themselves in the process.
What makes it special: Andrew Sean Greer creates an easy, yet layered novel that will make the reader escape into a different reality while maintaining an universal, incredibly relatable message.
Let's make some unnecessary labels: Literature, satirical comedy, gay fiction.
Review
Less is more has never been more true, and just like its main character Arthur; Less achieves its stride with a good sense of self deprecation and elegance that is understated and rounded by the vulnerability of its subject matter. It comes as no surprise that the work of Andrew Sean Greer has earned him a pulitzer in literary fiction.
Less is heartfelt, it offers a universal message of self acceptance, and the importance of embarking in one's journey.
Abstract
Arthur Less is the protagonist of a satirical comedy called life that we all can relate to. Riddled by the anxiety of an impending wedding, Arthur decides to embark on a journey with the hopes to outrun his troubles. While such thought is generally reserved and narrated by the young ingenues of any generation; Arthur is a well established middle aged gay man living in San Francisco, making the journey both more layered, and at times more ludicrous. The scenes narrated in the book allow Arthur to escape and transform himself several times over, while remaining the same at its core through the entire book. The ending reminds the reader about Less being above all a love story, and a treatise of the human condition.