Title: Less
Author: Andrew Sean Greer
Narrator: Robert Petkoff
Publisher: Hatchette Audio
Run Time: 8 hours and 17 minutes
Category: Literary Fiction
At a Glance: This is a fantastic story, and an AMAZING audiobook. I highly encourage you all to go see what Less is all about for yourselves, either in ebook or audio.
Reviewed By: Jules
Blurb: Who says you can’t run away from your problems?
You are a failed novelist about to turn 50. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: Your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can’t say yes – it would be too awkward – and you can’t say no – it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world.
Question: How do you arrange to skip town?
Answer: You accept them all.
What would possibly go wrong?
Arthur Less will almost fall in love in Paris, almost fall to his death in Berlin, barely escape to a Moroccan ski chalet from a Saharan sandstorm, accidentally book himself as the (only) writer-in-residence at a Christian Retreat Center in Southern India, and encounter, on a desert island in the Arabian Sea, the last person on Earth he wants to face. Somewhere in there: He will turn 50. Through it all there is his first love. And there is his last.
Because despite all these mishaps, missteps, misunderstandings, and mistakes, Less is, above all, a love story.
A scintillating satire of the American abroad, a rumination on time and the human heart, a bittersweet romance of chances lost, by an author the New York Times has hailed as “inspired, lyrical”, “elegiac”, and “ingenious” as well as “too sappy by half”, Less shows a writer at the peak of his talents raising the curtain on our shared human comedy.
Review: I feel incredibly underqualified to write this review. I don’t have an English degree, and I don’t run in literary circles, but I do know an unforgettable story when I come across it, and Less by Andrew Sean Greer is certainly that. Winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for fiction, along with many other accolades, Less is all the things: funny, smart, poignant, touching, heart-warming, and probably several other adjectives, depending on individual reader’s perspectives. I listened to the audiobook, expertly narrated by Robert Petkoff, and almost immediately started it over again once it finished. I loved it so much, there is no doubt that Less will be included on my top books of 2018 list.
Arthur Less is at a crossroads of sorts. Nearing his fiftieth birthday, having just found out his latest novel was not accepted by his publisher, and that his ex-boyfriend is getting married to someone else, Less decides to accept a few small speaking appearances in Europe as well as an unexpectedly open spot on a trip to Morocco, spend some time on a solo writer’s retreat in India to finish his book, and end with a food critic gig in Japan. This impromptu trip around the world is meant to keep his mind off the wedding invitation from his former lover, Freddy Pelu, and mask the fact that what Arthur is really doing is running away from his life.
Throughout the journey, Less endures humiliation after humiliation, yet somehow presses on and makes it through each leg of the trip. Through a short love affair, a number of missed travel connections and language barriers (I still laugh when I think about Less’s terrible attempts at speaking German), Less plunders on, gaining tiny bits of clarity along the way. Arthur is a bit arrogant, a bit pretentious, perhaps, definitely more than a bit clueless about certain things…but, despite all his foibles, he is utterly endearing. I found myself rooting so hard for him throughout the entire book. I wanted him to find his happiness so badly I almost felt like I was holding my breath the entire time, waiting for the end.
I mentioned the expert narration…Robert Petkoff’s performance is incredible. His voices, accents, timing, and delivery are so on point and lent so much to my enjoyment of the story. And, as the narrator, whose identity I kept hoping I was right about, he effortlessly shifts between Less’s current travels and his memories. I can’t say enough about his wonderful performance.
This is a fantastic story, and an AMAZING audiobook. I’m in awe of what Andrew Sean Greer did with this story. It’s a story of self-reflection, looking back on choices and missed opportunities, and it’s a beautiful, touching love story. I highly encourage you all to go see what Less is all about for yourselves, either in ebook or audio. I hope you’ll be as enchanted with it as I was.
You can buy Less here:
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