Infinite Books

Oh, the curse of the sequel! I’m one of those people who read “Less is Lost” by Andrew Sean Greer without (gasp!) reading “Less” first.

Yes, it can be done; no, it doesn’t lessen the experience of discovering Arthur Less.

Arthur Less is a writer in his fifties, white and gay, who embarks on a book tour across America. He needs to get the money to keep his San Francisco bungalow (the past rent accumulated.) In a beat-up camper van Rosina inherited from an old writer, and the pug (the pug, Dolly, is only temporarily Less’s sweet traveling companion and gets reunited with her owner), he travels from California to Delaware, his home state.

“To be honest, it is hard to picture Arthur Less in America at all. His awkwardness abroad seems natural; here, it seems vexing. In thoroughly American settings – a football stadium, a beer-and-television bar, a railroad-car dinner – where most citizens relax among their own kind, finally free of foreign entanglements, Less sits bolt upright, looking as he were not actually there. Place him in a wheat field, for instance, and he seems to be added in postproduction.”

I must say I became a big fan of Less. His travels are told through the eyes of his lover, Freddy Pelu, who has patiently awaited our protagonist’s return, but their time apart gives Freddy time to reflect on the nature of their love. As for Less himself, he’s always unsure if he really deserves to be loved – abandoned by his father, he often feels unworthy of affection and generally out of place.

America opens for Less in many ways, with places and people at bars, RV parks, and theatrical performances, from the Mojave Desert to Washington D.C. I really like all the different personalities we saw with Less. It felt very natural – those conversations with strangers, when often just one sentence, one word, nonchalantly spoken, touched Less and us, the readers, on a profoundly humane level.

LESS IS LOST, by Andrew Sean Greer, Little, Brown, and Company, 2022