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A review by akallabeth
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
there were so many ways for this book to feel trite or unselfaware or fail to evoke any sympathy for its bumbling protagonist, but it somehow manages to avoid all these likely pitfalls. instead i found arthur less endearing, the writing clever, and the whole thing very moving. not a romance novel per se, but a novel about love. a novel with a lot of love in it.
i saw a few charmingly snarky reviews calling this a gay 'eat pray love', but all that story got out of me was a half-hearted eyeroll; this one got me misty eyed. maybe it's just the homosexuality of it all!
a real case of reading the right book at the right time. as a fellow neurotic homosexual having a crisis in the leadup to their birthday - cheers, arthur less.
(p.s. i can't believe i read the penelopiad and then picked this book up 'for a change of pace' only for arthur less' main claim to fame to be a retelling of the odyssey. there are references to tiresias and telemachus here, for god's sake!!)
i saw a few charmingly snarky reviews calling this a gay 'eat pray love', but all that story got out of me was a half-hearted eyeroll; this one got me misty eyed. maybe it's just the homosexuality of it all!
a real case of reading the right book at the right time. as a fellow neurotic homosexual having a crisis in the leadup to their birthday - cheers, arthur less.
(p.s. i can't believe i read the penelopiad and then picked this book up 'for a change of pace' only for arthur less' main claim to fame to be a retelling of the odyssey. there are references to tiresias and telemachus here, for god's sake!!)