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Pulitzer Prize Winner

by Andrew Sean Greer ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 18, 2017

Seasoned novelist Greer (The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells, 2013, etc.) clearly knows whereof he speaks and has lived to...

Facing his erstwhile boyfriend’s wedding to another man, his 50th birthday, and his publisher’s rejection of his latest manuscript, a miserable midlist novelist heads for the airport.

When it comes to the literary canon, Arthur Less knows he is “as superfluous as the extra a in quaalude,” but he does get the odd invitation—to interview a more successful author, to receive an obscure prize, to tour French provincial libraries, that sort of thing. So rather than stay in San Francisco and be humiliated when his younger man of nine years' standing marries someone else (he can’t bear to attend, nor can he bear to stay home), he puts together a patchwork busman’s holiday that will take him to Paris, Morocco, Berlin, Southern India, and Japan. Of course, anything that can go wrong does—from falling out a window to having his favorite suit eaten by a stray dog, and as far as Less runs, he will not escape the fact that he really did lose the love of his life. Meanwhile, there’s no way to stop that dreaded birthday, which he sees as the definitive end of a rather extended youth: “It’s like the last day in a foreign country. You finally figure out where to get coffee, and drinks, and a good steak. And then you have to leave. And you won’t ever be back.” Yet even this conversation occurs in the midst of a make-out session with a handsome Spanish stranger on a balcony at a party in Paris…hinting that there may be steaks and coffee on the other side. Upping the tension of this literary picaresque is the fact that the story is told by a mysterious narrator whose identity and role in Less’ future is not revealed until the final pages.

Pub Date: July 18, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-316-31612-5

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Lee Boudreaux/Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017

LITERARY FICTION

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by Andrew Sean Greer

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SEEN & HEARD

NEVER LET ME GO

by Kazuo Ishiguro ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 11, 2005

A masterpiece of craftsmanship that offers an unparalleled emotional experience. Send a copy to the Swedish Academy.

An ambitious scientific experiment wreaks horrendous toll in the Booker-winning British author’s disturbingly eloquent sixth novel (after When We Were Orphans , 2000).

Ishiguro’s narrator, identified only as Kath(y) H., speaks to us as a 31-year-old social worker of sorts, who’s completing her tenure as a “carer,” prior to becoming herself one of the “donors” whom she visits at various “recovery centers.” The setting is “England, late 1990s”—more than two decades after Kath was raised at a rural private school (Hailsham) whose students, all children of unspecified parentage, were sheltered, encouraged to develop their intellectual and especially artistic capabilities, and groomed to become donors. Visions of Brave New World and 1984 arise as Kath recalls in gradually and increasingly harrowing detail her friendships with fellow students Ruth and Tommy (the latter a sweet, though distractible boy prone to irrational temper tantrums), their “graduation” from Hailsham and years of comparative independence at a remote halfway house (the Cottages), the painful outcome of Ruth’s breakup with Tommy (whom Kath also loves), and the discovery the adult Kath and Tommy make when (while seeking a “deferral” from carer or donor status) they seek out Hailsham’s chastened “guardians” and receive confirmation of the limits long since placed on them. With perfect pacing and infinite subtlety, Ishiguro reveals exactly as much as we need to know about how efforts to regulate the future through genetic engineering create, control, then emotionlessly destroy very real, very human lives—without ever showing us the faces of the culpable, who have “tried to convince themselves. . . . That you were less than human, so it didn’t matter.” That this stunningly brilliant fiction echoes Caryl Churchill’s superb play A Number and Margaret Atwood’s celebrated dystopian novels in no way diminishes its originality and power.

Pub Date: April 11, 2005

ISBN: 1-4000-4339-5

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2005

More by Kazuo Ishiguro

by Kazuo Ishiguro ; illustrated by Bianca Bagnarelli

by Kazuo Ishiguro

BOOK TO SCREEN

ABSOLUTE POWER

by David Baldacci ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 18, 1996

The mother of all presidential cover-ups is the centerpiece gimmick in this far-fetched thriller from first-novelist Baldacci, a Washington-based attorney. In the dead of night, while burgling an exurban Virginia mansion, career criminal Luther Whitney is forced to conceal himself in a walk-in closet when Christine Sullivan, the lady of the house, arrives in the bedroom he's ransacking with none other than Alan Richmond, President of the US. Through the one-way mirror, Luther watches the drunken couple engage in a bout of rough sex that gets out of hand, ending only when two Secret Service men respond to the Chief Executive's cries of distress and gun down the letter-opener-wielding Christy. Gloria Russell, Richmond's vaultingly ambitious chief of staff, orders the scene rigged to look like a break-in and departs with the still befuddled President, leaving Christy's corpse to be discovered at another time. Luther makes tracks as well, though not before being spotted on the run by agents from the bodyguard detail. Aware that he's shortened his life expectancy, Luther retains trusted friend Jack Graham, a former public defender, but doesn't tell him the whole story. When Luther's slain before he can be arraigned for Christy's murder, Jack concludes he's the designated fall guy in a major scandal. Meanwhile, little Gloria (together with two Secret Service shooters) hopes to erase all tracks that might lead to the White House. But the late Luther seems to have outsmarted her in advance with recurrent demands for hush money. The body count rises as Gloria's attack dogs and Jack search for the evidence cunning Luther's left to incriminate not only a venal Alan Richmond but his homicidal deputies. The not-with-a-bang-but-a-whimper climax provides an unsurprising answer to the question of whether a US president can get away with murder. For all its arresting premise, an overblown and tedious tale of capital sins. (Film rights to Castle Rock; Book-of-the-Month selection)

Pub Date: Jan. 18, 1996

ISBN: 0-446-51996-0

Page Count: 480

Publisher: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995

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by David Baldacci

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The Kenyon Review

April 20, 2018 • KR Reviews

On Andrew Sean Greer’s Less

By Patti Jazanoski

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New York, NY: Lee Boudreaux Books/Little, Brown, 2017. 272 pages. $26.00.

How can you avoid the pain of heartbreak? For Arthur Less, the protagonist of Andrew Sean Greer’s latest novel, Less , the answer is clear: run away. This funny and engaging picaresque novel is a departure for Greer, who is best known for his inventive historical fiction, like The Confessions of Max Tivoli and The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells . Greer is a masterful author, and he brings along all his writerly chops from his past five books. Less teases readers with a mysterious, impossibly omniscient narrator and an artfully structured plot.

The novel opens with Arthur Less, a life-weary Eeyore staring down the big 5-0 and feeling like the only gay man to have ever grown old. Then Freddy, his much younger, part-time lover of the past nine years—the one Less keeps warning not to become too attached to him—tells Less he’s met somebody else. When the wedding invitation arrives, Less, a midlist novelist on the decline, opens his desk drawer and fishes his hand through a sea of mediocre professional invitations. If he accepts them all he could cobble together a trip around the world and be out of town for the wedding and his dreaded fiftieth birthday, too. Less thinks, “What could possibly go wrong?”

So begins Greer’s hilarious ode to travel. From Less’s “Thumbelina bottle of red wine” to the “prison blanket, prison pillow” to which he clings, to his years-long battle to be refunded his VAT, Less is every person who wants to see the world but not deal with the struggle to get there. He’s also every person who’s armored himself against heartache by becoming a commitment-phobe:

Arthur Less has, for the past decade and a half, remained a bachelor. This came after a long period of living with the older poet Robert Brownburn, a tunnel of love he entered at twenty-one and exited, blinking in the sunlight, in his thirties. Where was he? Somewhere in there he lost the first phase of youth, like the first phase of a rocket; it had fallen, depleted, behind him. And here was the second. And last. He swore he would not give it to anyone; he would enjoy it. He would enjoy it alone. But: how to live alone and yet not be alone?

His strategy for the past fifteen years has been to “renounce love completely.” He can have lovers, but he will not grow close. Hence his treatment of Freddy. And his impulse to flee.

As a picaresque novel, Less is satirical and episodic, and it follows the protagonist as he muddles through this trip. The structure of the novel mirrors Less’s round-the-world trip. Each chapter reveals a new country, new obstacles, and a new cast of characters. Less drags along his emotional baggage from place to place, and any random event can trigger a memory from his past with Robert or Freddy or from his childhood; he is never alone. In theory, all this backstory could slow down the plot, but as Less enters new situations, the memories of his past create a certain consistency—for him and the reader—the emotional equivalent of eating at McDonald’s on the Champs-Élysées.

Less doesn’t intend for this to be a soul-searching trip—this is no fictional Eat, Pray, Love —but the journey becomes an inadvertent quest for the meaning of love in his life. At a party in Paris, Less feels like the only single fifty-year-old with no prospects in sight, like a kid with his face pressed against the glass. While sitting at a bar in Morocco on the eve of his birthday, Less’s female friend, also recently dumped, ponders whether love is “walking the fucking dog so the other one can sleep in” or if “it’s this earth-shattering thing. . . . Something I’ve never felt. Have you?” Less can’t answer. She continues, “What if one day you meet someone, Arthur, and it feels like it could never be anyone else. . . . Is it like that with this Freddy?” He only manages to stammer. Much later while talking to Robert on the phone, he remembers his former partner’s deep longing for him and wonders if he’ll ever be loved that way again. Less finally asks the question he’s been trying to evade: “Am I too old to meet someone?” This is where the novel really shines, in the surprising moments of tenderness, when Less’s armor is punctured and he’s forced to face his ache inside.

Throughout, there’s a whiff of metafiction in this novel about a novelist writing a book about a gay man at midlife, a book that Less believes will be “the one” to propel him out of the midlist, finally. Greer satirizes much of the writing life, from the agent who tells Less his novel is “too wistful. Too poignant,” to a ceremony for an obscure award, to a writing conference, to discuss not Less’s own books but the work of his long-ago lover, the genius poet Robert Brownburn. Less lugs his novel along on his round-the-world trip in the hope that a new location will bring a fresh perspective. Thankfully, Greer reaches beyond satire to give sincere glimpses into the character’s writing process. There are a few scattered spots (I wish there were more) where Greer describes the interior act of writing and the working of a creative mind. Though short, they’re some of the best representations of the writing process I’ve read.

Less is dedicated to Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket) and while the book is intended to be funny, at times it feels like a middle-aged man’s A Series of Unfortunate Events . His events aren’t catastrophes—there’s no death, no cancer—and sometimes the madcap mishaps teeter close to farce. For example, when Less locks himself out of his fourth floor apartment, he leaps across from the exterior hallway to his kitchen window, dangling from the sill until he manages to pull himself in. By the second half of the book, the cumulative effect of all the absurd obstacles begins to slow down the deeper plot—his quest for the meaning of love in his life. But if readers push through, the story picks up and the ending is wholly satisfying as it circles around and brings Less home. Ultimately, it’s the compassion that Greer shows his characters, especially Less and Freddy, that cause this novel to rise above being merely an enjoyable read or a series of comical events. Less is touching and true with catch-you-by-surprise moments of tenderness, and, by journey’s end, Arthur Less and readers are changed and triumphant.

By Andrew Sean Greer

'Less' by Andrew Sean Greer is an award-winning novel that has readers' reviews on every end of the spectrum. Find out the pros and cons of this modern satire in this review.

Article written by Onyekachi Osuji

B.A. in Public Administration and certified in Creative Writing (Fiction and Non-Fiction)

‘ Less ‘ by Andrew Sean Greer sparked controversies and mixed reactions when it won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Some reviewers were harsh in their conclusion that the book won the prestigious prize because of white male privilege, while other reviews believed that it was a well-deserved win because of the poetic flow of its narration.

But controversies aside, this article will be my personal opinion about the book, which I intend to be as objective as possible.

If there is one thing that makes ‘ Less ‘ by Andrew Sean Greer deserving of the Pulitzer Prize it won, it is the style. The novel is so lyrical. Literary devices flow so seamlessly that one may be deceived into thinking it was an effortless piece of writing.

‘ Less ‘ by Andrew Sean Greer is prose that reads beautifully like a poem and conjures dramatic scenes in a reader’s mind. There is no gainsaying the creativity showcased in the novel. It easily rates five out of five stars for me.

The plot is a lighthearted plot that should make one laugh all through. But I would not give full marks when it comes to the plot because of the way the writer tries to make trivial issues appear so serious, as if urging readers to feel sorry for the protagonist.

So, a lover you’ve been with is getting married to someone else? Yes, we understand that that hurts. But come on! Why are you making it look like a tragic natural disaster for the protagonist when he agreed with his lover that it was just casual sex all the while? And hey, Arthur Less, do you realize that you’re actually among the elite few? I mean, how many other heartbroken people get to hop on a plane and enjoy all-expense paid trips to several choice destinations around the world? As the character Zohra says, it’s hard to feel sorry for such a guy.

Structure of the Novel

The structure of ‘ Less ‘ is one of the things I love about the novel. First of all, it is not so voluminous, barely two hundred pages long, and can be read in a few hours. The length of a novel is one of the things that encourages people to pick it up to read, especially lazy readers or busy readers.

Another thing I love about the novel is the play on words in the title of each chapter. The novel has eight chapters, and each chapter’s title is derived from the protagonist’s name Arthur Less. So the first chapter is titled ”Less At First,” the last chapter is ”Less at Last,” and the chapters in between are titled Less with the derivative noun of the country Arthur Less is visiting at the time. For instance, “Less Mexican,” “Less German,” “Less Moroccan,” “Less Indian,” etc.

Apart from the protagonist, Arthur Less, the characters in this novel are not well developed. The author leaves a lot to be desired in his portrayal of the characters in ‘ Less .’ For instance, the character Robert is one with an interesting story of sexuality in ‘ Less .’ It would have made for a better read if he gave some details about how Robert got to be in a passionate heterosexual marriage at first and then come out as gay.

There are many scenes in the novel that are hilarious and will have readers laughing hard. The author’s ability to place the protagonist in awkward situations is an enjoyable read.

The only thing that prevents this novel from getting full marks for humor from every reader is that the humorous scenes are sometimes not depicted with clarity.

Unrealized Potentials

The most disappointing thing about ‘ Less ‘ by Andrew Sean Greer is that it takes readers to various countries around the world but ends up teaching readers so little about all those destinations. It did not showcase the exotic tourist attractions nor the educative everyday lives of people in these places.

A novel set in five continents, nine countries, and scores of cities ended up being so bland in terms of travel enlightenment. Talk about unrealized potential!

Review of Less

Book Title: Less

Book Description: 'Less' by Andrew Sean Greer combines lyrical prose and endearing humor in a critically acclaimed narrative.

Book Author: Andrew Sean Greer

Book Edition: First Edition

Book Format: Hardcover

Publisher - Organization: Little, Brown and Company

Date published: July 18, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-316-39413-9

Number Of Pages: 290

Less by Andrew Sean Greer Review: A Poetic Prose with Drama

The novel  Less  by Andrew Sean Greer is so wonderfully crafted. It won prestigious awards amidst mixed reactions and reviews. One of the best qualities of the novel is the writing style—it is lyrical, poetic, and enjoyable, and the humor is endearing too.  But on the flip side, one thing that detracts from the novel is the forced sadness and gloominess over trivial issues, whilst the protagonist and the narrator become annoying at many points in the novel.

• Poetic Narration
• Inspirational Dialogues
• Endearing Protagonist
• Poorly-Explored Settings
• Undeveloped Characters

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About Onyekachi Osuji

Onyekachi was already an adult when she discovered the rich artistry in the storytelling craft of her people—the native Igbo tribe of Africa. This connection to her roots has inspired her to become a Literature enthusiast with an interest in the stories of Igbo origin and books from writers of diverse backgrounds. She writes stories of her own and works on Literary Analysis in various genres.

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Review: Less by Andrew Sean Greer

Less  by Andrew Sean Greer is an absolute delight. One of my favorite books of this year. It’s a must-read!

Sometimes you just know you’re going to love a book. Whether it’s a good vibe, positive critical buzz, what have you, it can be love at first sight. And  Less  even surpassed my expectations. There’s so much to love with Less  from its comedic nature, impressive writing and in the end, a story full of heart.

The story is about Arthur Less, he’s about to turn 50 and his ex-boyfriend is now engaged to someone else. While he’s published several books, none of them have caught on like he expected. Still, he receives a series of half-baked literary invitations from around the world and this becomes his perfect excuse for not attending his ex’s wedding. And thus, begins an around-the-world-in-eighty-days fantasia that will take Arthur Less to Mexico, Italy, Germany, Morocco, India and Japan and put thousands of miles between him and the problems he refuses to face.  What could possibly go wrong? For more on the synopsis, click here .

This book also is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, which is such an impressive feat for the author! And I believe it’s so well-deserved for many reasons. Let’s take a closer look at Less .

Unique narrative style

Less is written from the viewpoint of a narrator. While at first, it seems the narrator is just a third-party teller of Less’ story that we see in so many other novels, as the book goes on, it becomes apparent the narrator knows Less in some type of fashion. However, the identity is kept a mystery until the final pages.

The prose is comedic, I literally laughed out loud at certain passages. The narrative switches from satire to poignant observations at different times in the story. For instance, Less is about to turn 50 but in many ways still acts much younger. When talking about youth with his friend:

[blockquote align=”none” author=””]“Strange to be almost fifty, no? I feel like I just understood how to be young.” “Yes! It’s like the last day in a foreign country. You finally figure out where to get coffee, and drinks, and a good steak. And then you have to leave. And you won’t ever be back.” [/blockquote]

Also, since the book travels to so many countries, there’s lots of colorful descriptions of each country. The countries receive their own chapters with plenty of content. Due to the writer traveling the world aspect, Less is compared to  Eat, Pray, Love but it’s a very different book. Still, though, if you enjoyed the travel in Eat, Pray Love , you’ll really like it in Less .

Keep in mind, while there is plenty of idyllic settings, much goes wrong with Less’ travels, which makes it all the more endearing.

Past relationships

As we get to know Less more, we learn he’s had two significant romantic relationships in his life. The first in his youth, with the much older Robert, a brilliant and award-winning poet. Their relationship was affection but riddled with complications, not least of all the age difference:

[blockquote align=”none” author=””]”When you’re fifty, I’ll be seventy-five. And then what will we do? Nothing to do but laugh about it. True for everything.” [/blockquote]

While he traveled and experienced so much with Robert, he also learned the drawbacks of living with a “genius.” For Arthur, it was like living alone where everything was sacrificed for Robert’s work. Still, even though it ended, Robert will always remain Less’ first love. And for a while, he thought his only love.

Then came along Freddy, the son of Arthur’s nemesis (which is an entertaining section). Arthur is about 15 years older than Freddy, the kind and handsome teacher. He believed it wasn’t love. Or was it? Because when Freddy said he met someone else, Arthur didn’t fight for him, which slowly becomes one of his biggest regrets.

This story takes you on a journey along with analyzing love, aging and last chance. Add it to your reading list immediately!

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Less by Andrew Sean Greer review – a literary skewering of stealthy genius

T wo thirds of the way through Andrew Sean Greer’s latest novel, he risks letting his novelist hero – white, gay, knocking 50 – describe his latest novel, which has been turned down by his publisher. “It was about a middle-aged gay man walking around San Francisco. And, you know, his … his sorrows … ” “A white middle-aged American man walking around with his white middle-aged American sorrows?” replies his lesbian friend. “It’s a little hard to feel sorry for a guy like that.” Greer can afford this moment of metafiction because, by this third act of the novel, his hero has won us over, for all that he enjoys most of the blessings of existence.

Despite its lampooning of the literary world, Less won this year’s Pulitzer prize for fiction , prompting its publication in Britain. It introduces us to minor novelist Arthur Less as he finds himself abruptly single, having coasted through a studiedly casual not-quite-relationship with a vain younger man for several years. Less is “an author too old to be fresh and too young to be rediscovered, one who never sits next to anyone on a plane who has heard of his books”. The younger man, who happens also to be the son of his arch enemy, announces his engagement to someone else.

While still not acknowledging to himself that he was in love all along and that his heart is cracked, if not quite broken, Less accepts a slew of writerly invitations that conveniently slot together to provide a round-the-world trip. Not only will he thus avoid the wedding, but sidestep the pain of turning 50 in company.

The various stages of this journey lend the novel its structure and, as is customary, provide both a parade of colourful characters and a voyage of self-discovery. They also neatly illustrate the scrabble-and-make-do that most freelance writers must resort to in order to survive, all those little jobs that make you feel like an author but that are not quite writing – “the crazy quilt of a writer’s life: warm enough, though it never quite covers the toes”.

Greer mercilessly skewers the insecurity of authors as well as the vanity of the literary industry’s self-absorption in the face of its irrelevance to most people’s lives. The stealthy genius of this novel is that it simultaneously tells the life story of a basically sweet man whom the industry has eaten alive. Less’s undoing, perhaps, is that he has been loved by a genius – he passed his youth as the lover of a celebrated poet – so has fallen into the habit of seeing himself as on the periphery of things. A twink -turned-daddy, he has yet to make the adjustment from kissed to kisser, and wreaks emotional havoc on anyone drawn in by his air of baffled innocence.

We first meet him in New York, where he has the humiliation of chairing a huge event for a wildly successful and wildly overrated science fiction writer. His next stop is Mexico, where he must take part in a panel discussion about his former lover’s genius. Then Italy, where an earlier novel of his, apparently brilliant in translation, is up for an obscure but well funded award: a sequence that catches particularly well the artificial camaraderie and false modesty of rivals thrown together for a prize. And so on to Germany, where he teaches a writing course entitled Read Like a Vampire, Write Like Frankenstein. There he has a fling with a besotted business student and it is from the intimate details the narrator lets slip about the way Less kisses (“like someone who has just learned a foreign language and can only use the present tense and only the second person. Only now, only you”) that the reader begins to suspect this story is being told not by some omniscient figure but by a character in it whom Less has underestimated. And then on to Paris, an ever less romantic journey across the desert in Morocco, a nightmarish food article he researches in Japan, and finally an Indian writing retreat. Here he plans to polish the rejected novel to perfection but, as the past reaches out to reclaim and challenge him, he is actually being prepared, we realise, finally to fall in love.

Novels about novelists are always a risk, but Less is about anyone who has allowed their calling to define them at the expense of their humanity. Writers may blush in the mirror it holds up to them, but many readers will find it as endearing as the very best of Armistead Maupin .

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Less, Andrew Sean Greer, review: Pulitzer-winning work is witty, wise, and wistful

A charming novel about a middle-aged odyssey taken by the most amiable of heroes, article bookmarked.

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Originally published in America last year, Andrew Sean Greer’s bittersweet comic novel Less arrives in a UK edition complete with the accolade of having won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction – pronounced “Pull-it-sir,” Greer’s hero Arthur Less’s one-time boyfriend Robert, an acclaimed poet, learns when he wins one, “not Pew-lit-sir.” “Turns out I’ve been pronouncing it wrong all these years,” says the shell-shocked wordsmith.

When Greer’s novel begins, Arthur Less is recently single and about to turn 50. Less is a moderately successful novelist. His critically applauded debut, Kalipso, was a retelling of the Calypso myth featuring a doomed love affair between a Second World War soldier washed ashore in the South Pacific and the man who nurses him back to life, and his current work-in-progress is a walking tour of San Francisco, in which a footsore protagonist revisits the disappointments of his past.

“All you do is write gay Ulysses ,” Freddy, Less’s most recent paramour, points out. In a neat inversion, Greer’s novel is a grand tour. With sudden desperation born of not wanting to attend Freddy’s forthcoming wedding, Less grabs at a host of invitations – interviewing a famous author in New York, a prize-giving in Italy, a teaching fellowship in Germany, a nomadic adventure in Morocco, a writing retreat in India, and finally some food journalism in Japan – circumnavigating the globe, reflecting on his own past as he goes.

I’d be lying if I said I was laughing out loud while I read, but Less is witty, wise, and wistful in equal measure, sometimes all in the space of one page.

“Did you ever wonder why you haven’t won awards?” Finley Dwyer, a fellow writer, asks Less. “Why the gay press doesn’t review your book?” Our self-effacing hero assumes the worst: “Maybe I’m a bad writer?” he proffers. No, Finley decrees, Less isn’t a bad writer, it’s worse than that: he’s “a bad gay.”

“It’s our duty to show something beautiful from our world,” Finley lectures Less. “But in your books, you make the characters suffer without reward. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were Republican. Kalipso was beautiful. So full of sorrow. But so incredibly self-hating. A man washes ashore on an island and has a gay affair for years. But then he leaves to go find his wife! You have to do better. For us. Inspire us, Arthur. Aim higher.”

Greer certainly takes his own advice with Less . There’s nothing self-hating about the compassion with which he handles his haplessly loveable protagonist, nor the way in which he eventually rewards him either. There’s also something surprisingly refreshing about seeing ordinary middle-age taken seriously as a subject, and the “miracle” of having survived life’s “humiliations and disappointments and heartaches and missed opportunities, bad dads and bad jobs and bad sex and bad drugs, all the trips and mistakes and face-plants of life, to have made it to fifty.”

Less is a charming novel, and the vehicle for the most amiable of heroes.

'Less' is published by Abacus​, £8.99

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BookBrowse Reviews Less by Andrew Sean Greer

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• Jul 18, 2017

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A scintillating satire of the American abroad, a rumination on time and the human heart, and a bittersweet romance of chances lost.

Arthur Less, the main character of Andrew Sean Greer's delightful new comic novel, Less , is a forty-nine year old gay man. He is a writer, and a moderately successful one, but when his story opens, Arthur is running away. To be precise, he is running away from the wedding of his former lover, Freddy. Rather than attend this event, Arthur has seized on an array of invitations to small-time literary jobs – interviewing another author, attending an awards ceremony, teaching a creative class for a number of weeks, even being a food critic – that will take him across the US and the world. Certainly hapless, at times helpless, but consistently lovable, Arthur Less's global misadventures are a pleasure to read. Less opens with him waiting in a hotel lobby prior to interviewing a highly successful writer in New York. That he is not wearing a watch, that he is sitting beneath a broken clock so he has no idea what time it is, that he is waiting to be collected by someone who thinks he is female: these things set the comic tone for the story that unfolds. But for Arthur Less, none of these matters is of consequence. What matters is that he is on the first leg of a journey to as far away from San Francisco as possible — a journey that will take him to Mexico City, Turin, Berlin, Morocco, India and Japan. Several factors contribute to the success of Less . First, there is Andrew Sean Greer's gift of description. At each of Arthur Less's stopping points, Greer captures place and people vividly and succinctly. In a Mexican market there are "grey octopuses coiled in ampersands" and "bitter chocolates… piled in ziggurats beside a basket of Aztec whisks." In Berlin, Less admires "the glorious junkyard of the city" and a different kind of market selling "cheap socks, stolen bicycles and plastic lamps." From the sandstorms of Morocco to the formal gardens of Japan, Less provides a rich and enticing travelogue. Then there is Arthur Less, a man made for comic misadventure. In Berlin, for example, he has agreed to teach a five-week course "on a subject of Mr. Less's choosing." He is happy to do so, particularly because he believes he is fluent in German. He is not. Skewering literary jealousies, the vagaries of literary prizes and most brilliantly, creative writing classes, Greer weaves a humorous voyage of adventure and mishap with many laugh-out-loud moments. Less, a humble innocent abroad, is an aptly named and attractive character. Perhaps because of his long-term prior relationship with an older, Pulitzer prize-winning poet, Less believes he lives up to his name. He is a lesser man, the last man to expect to win a literary award, the kind of man who locks himself out of hotel rooms and loses his suitcases. But he also proves to be a man who is caring, selfless, open and young at heart. The people he meets, warm to him. He is far more attractive than he believes himself to be, a Peter Pan figure in a light blue suit, on a voyage of self-discovery. Less is also a love story with many bittersweet moments. Thoughts of Freddy's marriage haunt Arthur, even as he takes a lover in Berlin and comes up with a plan to re-write his new novel, after his publisher rejects it. As he completes his global journey and comes to terms with "the tragi-comic business of being alive" his story wraps up with a warm-hearted and fitting conclusion. Overall, this is a charming tale, very well told.

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Booklover Book Reviews

Less (a Novel) by Andrew Sean Greer: Uncommon narrative

Less (a Novel) by Andrew Sean Greer is a life-affirming story about the writing life that I highly recommend to those with strong literary leanings. Read my review.

Less Book Synopsis

WHO SAYS YOU CAN’T RUN AWAY FROM YOUR PROBLEMS?

Arthur Less is a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the post from an ex-boyfriend of nine years who is engaged to someone else. Arthur can’t say yes – it would be too awkward; he can’t say no – it would look like defeat. So, he begins to accept the invitations on his desk to half-baked literary events around the world.

From France to India, Germany to Japan, Arthur almost falls in love, almost falls to his death, and puts miles between him and the plight he refuses to face. Less is a novel about mishaps, misunderstandings and the depths of the human heart.

( Hachette Australia )

Genre:  Literature, Drama, Humour, Romance, Adventure

Disclosure: If you click a link in this post we may earn a small commission to help offset our running costs.

BOOK REVIEW

Less…. don’t you just love the brevity yet gravitas of Andrew Sean Greer’s title.

Literary awards are rarely sufficient motivation for me to choose one book over another. The enjoyment of literature is notoriously subjective. But since this was already on my wishlist, its recent Pulitzer Prize firmed up my decision to purchase.

What immediately struck me about Less (a Novel) was its unusual narrative structure; predominantly first-person present tense (identity undisclosed) yet omnipresent.

From where I sit, the story of Arthur Less is not so bad. Look at him: seated primly on the hotel lobby’s plush sofa, blue suit and white shirt, legs knee-crossed so that one polished loafer hangs free of its heel. The pose of a young man.

But on occasion more like third-person. It is both confounding and intriguing.

It is clear this narrator is a person in Arthur’s life (and thus a character mentioned within the novel), but it is not plausible this person is observing him in the present tense. The only way it works is if that narrator, at some later point having heard of Arthur’s travel tales, is imagining observing him in those situations. It took a little while for me to get my head around this; to stop fighting it.

The quirky wins

Eventually, the quirkiness and lyricism of the narrator’s observations and their ironic and conversational tone won me over.

Once in his twenties, a poet he had been talking with extinguished her cigarette in a potted plant and said, “You’re like a person without skin.” A poet had said this. One who made her living flaying herself alive in public had said the he , tall and young and hopeful Arthur Less, was  without skin . But it was true.

I found myself highlighting countless passages, admiring the subtle yet potent irony woven into this narrative’s fabric.

There are always a few drops left in the bottle of indignity.

Ron Charles of The Washington Post called Less   ‘the funniest novel of the year’ .

With regards to its subject matter, this novel is effectively preaching to the converted. Less is about writers, writing and the broader challenges of a career and life involving creative personas. Literary references abound.

“He kisses—how do I explain it? Like someone in love. Like he has nothing to lose. Like someone who has just learned a foreign language and can use only the present tense and only the second person. Only now, only you.

While Arthur’s rudderlessness limits the extent one invests in his plight, his eclectic travel experiences and the intrigue surrounding the narrator’s identity make for compelling reading. Recent events have also injected an additional, delightful stroke of serendipity to this tale.

But it is the more serious emotional and philosophical depths plumbed by Greer’s narrator, combined with his lead character’s absence of expectation, that ultimately make this novel life-affirming.

Andrew Sean Greer’s Less is a title I highly recommend, but only to those with strong literary leanings.

BOOK RATING:  The Story 4 / 5 ; The Writing 4.5 / 5  — Overall 4.25

Get your copy of Less from:

Bookshop US Amazon Booktopia AU

Will there be a Less book sequel?

Yes, a sequel has been published, titled Less is Lost .

If you like the sound of Less , you may also enjoy: Hotel Silence by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir  /  The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman  /   A Replacement Life by Boris Fishman  /   A Theatre for Dreamers by Polly Samson  /  Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar

About the Auther, Andrew Sean Greer

Andrew Sean Greer is the bestselling author of five works of fiction, including The Confessions of Max Tivoli , which was named a best book of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune. He won the California Book Award, New York Public Library Young Lions Award and O Henry Award for short fiction. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Public Library. Greer lives in San Francisco. He has travelled to all of the locations in this novel, but he is only big in Italy.

Check out Andrew Sean Greer’s website and connect with him on Twitter .

Related reading:

• Finally, a comic novel gets a Pulitzer Prize. It’s about time – Washington Post
• Pulitzer Prize Winner Andrew Sean Greer Shares How He Wrote an Award-Winning Novel – Esquire

Other Less reviews

“This is a very funny and occasionally wise book.” –  Kirkus Reviews

“Greer mercilessly skewers the insecurity of authors as well as the vanity of the literary industry’s self-absorption in the face of its irrelevance to most people’s lives. The stealthy genius of this novel is that it simultaneously tells the life story of a basically sweet man whom the industry has eaten alive… Novels about novelists are always a risk, but Less is about anyone who has allowed their calling to define them at the expense of their humanity.” –  The Guardian

“Arthur’s wanderings as he makes his way from disaster to disaster are hilariously, brilliantly harrowing. But laughter is only a part of the joy of reading this book. Greer writes sentences of arresting lyricism and beauty.” – NYTimes

“While the book is intended to be funny, at times it feels like a middle-aged man’s  A Series of Unfortunate Events .” – KenyonReview

“A charming novel about a middle-aged odyssey taken by the most amiable of heroes” – The Independent

” Wise, generous of spirit and beautifully written… Arthur Less may be in the throes of a midlife crisis, but his heart-warming adventures leave one longing for more. ” – The Spectator

The Pulitzer judges and I do not always agree though…. For example, see my review of the much-lauded Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout .

A booklover with diverse reading interests, who has been reviewing books and sharing her views and opinions on this website and others since 2009.

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Less (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)

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By Andrew Sean Greer

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Description

A struggling novelist travels the world to avoid an awkward wedding in this hilarious Pulitzer Prize-winning novel full of “arresting lyricism and beauty” ( The New York Times Book Review). WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE National Bestseller A New York Times Notable Book of 2017 A Washington Post Top Ten Book of 2017 A San Francisco Chronicle Top Ten Book of 2017 Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence, the Lambda Award, and the California Book Award Who says you can’t run away from your problems? You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. 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 fifty. 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,” “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. “I could not love LESS more.”–Ron Charles, The Washington Post “Andrew Sean Greer’s Less is excellent company. It’s no less than bedazzling, bewitching and be-wonderful.”- – Christopher Buckley , The New York Times Book Review

The Arthur Less Books

• " Less is the funniest, smartest and most humane novel I've read since Tom Rachman's 2010 debut, The Imperfectionists ....Greer writes sentences of arresting lyricism and beauty. His metaphors come at you like fireflies....Like Arthur, Andrew Sean Greer's Less is excellent company. It's no less than bedazzling, bewitching and be-wonderful." New York Times Book Review
• "Greer is an exceptionally lovely writer, capable of mingling humor with sharp poignancy.... Brilliantly funny.... Greer's narration, so elegantly laced with wit, cradles the story of a man who loses everything: his lover, his suitcase, his beard, his dignity." Ron Charles, Washington Post
• "Greer's novel is philosophical, poignant, funny and wise, filled with unexpected turns....Although Greer is gifted and subtle in comic moments, he's just as adept at ruminating on the deeper stuff. His protagonist grapples with aging, loneliness, creativity, grief, self-pity and more." San Francisco Chronicle
• "I recommend it with my whole heart." Ann Patchett
• "A piquantly funny fifth novel." Entertainment Weekly
• "Greer, the author of wonderful, heartfelt novels including The Confessions of Max Tivoli , The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells and The Story of a Marriage , shows he has another powerful weapon in his arsenal: comedy. And who doesn't need a laugh right about now?" Miami Herald
• "Greer elevates Less' picaresque journey into a wise and witty novel. This is no Eat, Pray Love story of touristic uplift, but rather a grand travelogue of foibles, humiliations and self-deprecation, ending in joy, and a dollop of self-knowledge." National Book Review
• "Dressed in his trademark blue suit, Less adorably butchers the German language, nearly falls in love in Paris, celebrates his birthday in the desert and, somewhere along the way, discovers something new and fragile about the passing of time, about the coming and going of love, and what it means to be the fool of your own narrative. It's nothing less than wonderful." Book Page
• "Greer's evocations of the places Arthur visits offer zesty travelogue pleasures" Seattle Times
• " Less is perhaps Greer's finest yet.... A comic yet moving picture of an American abroad.... Less is a wondrous achievement, deserving an even larger audience than Greer's bestselling The Confessions of Max Tivoli ." Booklist, starred review
• "Treat yourself to this book. I missed subway stops. I doubled over in laughter. I experienced more pure reading pleasure than I had in ages. It is hilarious, and wise, and abundantly fun." Adam Haslett, author of Imagine Me Gone
• "I adore this book. It's funny, piquant, bittersweet and so achingly observant about the vanity of writers that it made me squirm in recognition. I'll probably read it again very soon." Armistead Maupin, author of Tales of the City
• "Marvelously, unexpectedly, endearingly funny. A love story focused on the erroneous belief that the second half of life will pale in comparison to the first. Guess what? It won't!" Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad Love Story
• "The most deftly funny romantic comedy I've read in years. If you have a sentimental bone in your body (I have 206), the ending will make you sob little tears of joy." Nell Zink, author of Mislaid and Nicotine
• "A fast and rocketing read with everything I want from a story--moments of high humor, moments of genuine wisdom, sharp insights and gorgeous images. A wonderful, wonderful book!" Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

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Andrew Sean Greer

About the author.

Andrew Sean Greer is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of six works of fiction, including the bestsellers The Confessions of Max Tivoli and Less . Greer has taught at a number of universities, including the Iowa Writers Workshop, been a TODAY show pick, a New York Public Library Cullman Center Fellow, a judge for the National Book Award, and a winner of the California Book Award and the New York Public Library Young Lions Award. He is the recipient of a NEA grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He lives in San Francisco.

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Elizabeth Flock Elizabeth Flock

• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/discussion-questions-for-less

Discussion questions for ‘Less’

Our June pick for the PBS NewsHour-New York Times book club, “Now Read This” is Andrew Sean Greers comic novel “ Less .” Become a member of the book club by joining our Facebook group , or by signing up to our newsletter . Learn more about the book club here .

Below are questions to help guide your discussions as you read the book over the next month. They go in chronological order of the book’s chapters, so you can match the questions to your pace as you read. Spoiler alert for some of the latter questions below.

You can also submit your own questions for Andrew Sean Greer on our Facebook page, which he will answer on the NewsHour broadcast at the end of the month.

Novelist AndrewSeanGreer. Credit: Kaliel Roberts.

1. The novel’s opening line reads: “From where I sit, the story of Arthur Less is not so bad.” Arthur Less, the book’s protagonist, is introduced as nearly 50, with “washed out” blonde hair and “watery” blue eyes. As we soon learn, he’s also a writer less successful than his peers. How do you see Arthur Less in the opening chapters? Do you see him as a hero, as a man deserving of pity, as something else?

2. When we meet the character of Freddy, Arthur Less’ soon-to-be-former-lover, he is described as “dreamy, simple, lusty, bookish, harmless, youthful.” It is Freddy’s marriage invitation that Less so studiously avoids — choosing to go on a round-the-world trip simply to avoid having to decline the invitation without a good reason. What do you make of this decision? Have you ever found yourself doing something similarly absurd?

3. Arthur Less’ trip itinerary is as a follows: New York to interview a more popular writer, Mexico City for an obscure conference, Turin for an unknown award, Berlin for a teaching gig, Morocco for someone else’s birthday, India for a writer’s retreat (possibly during the monsoon), Japan for an article. And somewhere along the way he will turn 50. Does his sojourn remind you of any others in literature?

4. The book Arthur Less is writing is about a man on a journey through a place and his past, as he looks back on a series of disappointments. Freddy complains that Less is always writing “gay Ulysses.” Do you see echoes of or references to Ulysses or the Odyssey throughout “Less”?

5. Less’ other major relationship in the book is with the famous poet Robert Brownburn. In the chapter “Mexican,” Less recalls a day of losing his ring in the grocery store, and how, in telling Robert about it, Robert saw Less’ infidelities written across his face. “That’s what it was like to live with genius,” he writes. How does Roberts success and genius impact their relationship at the time, and how does it influence him in the end?

6. So much of Less’ focus during the round-the-world trip is on his own mishaps and foibles — or his perceived mishaps and foibles. Getting into a car with what he believes is the wrong driver because the name was a letter off. Believing he can speak German well when in fact he is bungling the words. Bringing athletic bands to every country that he will only half use. Do you see these as actual mishaps and foibles or is it a problem of perception for Less? Do you identify with that feeling at all?

7. The book alternates between Less’ trip in the present to memories of his youth — mostly memories involving nostalgia or regret. And yet the narrator tells us that Less also understands the pleasures of age: “comfort and ease, beauty and taste, old friends and old stories…” How does Less’ grappling with age play a role in the book? Is it something you can relate to?

8. In a scene at a party in Paris, Less is told that in fact he is not a bad writer, as he had come to believe, but a bad “gay writer,” in that he is not telling the narratives the gay writing community wants him to. What do you make of this critique?

9. In several countries, simply being around Less seems to make other characters sick. Why?

10. Arthur Less is self-deprecating throughout the book to a fault; in one of many descriptions he calls himself insignificant compared to other writers he knows, “as superfluous as the extra a in quaalude.” (Earlier, though, he asks if there is “any more perfect spelling” than the word quaalude “with that lazy superfluous vowel.”) Did you find these negative descriptors by Less funny or frustrating or silly or all of these? How does Greer complicate these descriptions by having some of them echo back?

11. A number of people try to tell Less about what happened at Freddy’s wedding. And while the wedding dominates his thoughts, he doesn’t listen to them. What is keeping him from hearing the story? What do you think (or hope) happened?

12. In the book, “Less” is always referred to by his last name, while Javier only by his first, and Robert Brownburn by both. Why do you think Greer chose to refer to the characters in these different ways?

13. What lines in the book made you laugh out loud?

14. Toward the end of the book, Less reunites with his supposed enemy and Freddy’s father, Carlos. When they meet, Carlos tells him that he believes that people’s lives are half-comedy and half-tragedy and that those just appear at different times. What do you make of this theory?

15. Were you surprised (or glad) to find out who the narrator was? Do any elements of the book change for you when you revisit them with Freddy as the narrator in mind?

16. The penultimate lines of “Less” (from Freddy’s voice) read: “After choosing the path people wanted, the man who would do, the easy way out of things… after holding it all in my hands and refusing it, what do I want from life?” What do you want from life? Have you similarly strayed from the path you thought you should be on?

17. After learning he won the Pulitzer prize, Andrew Sean Greer wrote on Twitter that “Less” is a book that’s most of all “about joy.” “A writer friend once said the hardest thing to write about is joy,” he wrote. “I took it as a challenge.” Do you think he met the challenge?

Elizabeth Flock is an independent journalist who reports on justice and gender. She can be reached at [email protected]

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3 books every ‘house of the dragon’ fan absolutely needs.

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House Of The Dragon

House of the Dragon is two-thirds of the way through its incredible second season, which makes me very sad. It’s rare to find such great television these days, and I’m still a bit shocked at how great this series is after the absolutely dreadful ending to Game Of Thrones.

In any case, if you’re a reader and you haven’t really delved into the source material for House of the Dragon yet, or if you enjoy collecting lovely books with lovely artwork, the following list is for you. Enjoy!

#1. House of the Dragon: The Official Coloring Book

Yes, I begin this list with a coloring book. But that’s because it’s the most recent addition to my own collection. My plan was to sit down with this book and a bunch of colored pencils and color while I watched episodes of House of the Dragon. I still might do that—the second time I watch this season (or maybe even when I rewatch Season 1).

The problem I’ve run into is not one with the book, which is terrific, filled with countless scenes from the TV show just waiting to be exhumed from black and white and into living color. The problem is that I take copious notes each episode, often writing out entire scenes of dialogue word-for-word to include in my recaps . I don’t think I’ve ever taken such extensive notes while watching a TV series before, but this show is just so dense (in a good way!) that I have to.

But you probably don’t take notes while you watch House of the Dragon so you could steal my idea (like a wild dragon steals sheep) and color while you watch, or really any other time since it’s a very meditative and calming thing to do in my humblest of opinions. Almost as calming as Ser Simon Strong shushing you to sleep.

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The only complaint I have with this book is that the images are a bit limited in terms of characters, with mostly the most central characters like Daemon, Rhaenyra and Alicent shown. Unlike the next book on this list, the illustrations are clearly characters in the show rather than artist interpretations of characters from George R.R. Martin’s source material.

House of the Dragon coloring book

#2. The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One

This is a really terrific illustrated tome that would make a great addition to any House of the Dragon fan’s collection. I wrote a review of the book back in 2022 when it was first published . You can see some large-scale images from the volume at that link, but be warned—some contain spoilers (avoiding the captions might help).

The volume covers a long span of time during the Targaryen dynasty from Aegon Targaryen’s conquest of Westeros until the infamous Dance of the Dragons upon which House of the Dragon is based. It’s not as in-depth or engaging a read as the next book on this list, but the illustrations are gorgeous.

The book is comprised of over 150 full-color illustrations from numerous artists spanning multiple kings and queens of Westeros and their dragons. It’s awesome.

Fire & Blood: 300 Years Before A Game of Thrones

This list would not be complete if I didn’t include the fake history of the Targaryen dynasty itself. Fire & Blood is a fascinating book, written like an actual history with different historical sources compiled by a Maester who—like every good historian—must make judgment calls about what is the more likely version of events. The book covers much more ground than the show, going all the way back to the time of Aegon the Conqueror.

What makes it especially compelling is that the show is considered the “true” version of events, while the book is relayed like a history, with all the possible flaws any history contains. “The history is written by the victor”is one such flaw. Historians seek out the truth, but they’re digging through stories buried in time. What emerges is often only partially true.

House of the Dragon is one of the most enthralling adaptations I’ve ever seen because of how it tweaks Martin’s stories in ways that are surprising and often illuminating. I definitely think reading this before, alongside or after is essential to truly enjoy the show, though I don’t think it matters which order you do it in.

Finally, if you’re as excited as I am about the next HBO Thrones spinoff, A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms, you should definitely read the novellas upon which the show is based. These are some of my favorite stories of Martin’s, much more focused on adventure, chivalric pursuits like jousting, and knight errantry. They’re also much, much shorter than the Song of Ice and Fire novels!

Are you enjoying House of the Dragon so far? Any good books on your reading list lately? Let me know on Twitter , Instagram or Facebook . Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog . Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.

I’ve also started a new book-themed Instagram page if you’d care to follow this fledgling account.

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• AV Undercover

One of Stephen King's weirdest unfilmed books just started filming

After more than 30 years of attempts, king's the long walk has begun filming, with cooper hoffman in a starring role.

Every now and then, you run into a piece of casting news that’s less interesting in terms of the actual information being conveyed—i.e., “ Mark Hamill and Judy Greer have been cast, in undisclosed roles, in Lionsgate’s attempts to adapt Stephen King novel The Long Walk “—and more because it reminds you of a particularly shocking fact. I.e., “Wait, they’re trying to make a movie out of The Long Walk , possibly the single most fucked-up book in King’s entire body of work, again?”

That’s where we’re at tonight, and with no disrespect meant to Greer and Hamill, who will, presumably, be filling in ably in two of the fairly limited number of adult roles in the original King story. Or, should we say, the Bachman story: King published the book in 1979 under the Richard Bachman pseudonym, which King fans will know typically got attached to some of his most aggressively bleak work. (Only Pet Sematary , and 2014’s Revival , really compare, to our minds, from the official “King” novels.) The Long Walk is a nasty piece of work even by Bachman standards, presaging a whole bunch of more recent YA works where teenagers compete in deadly competitions, albeit with a much more simple premise than your various Hungers games and runnered Mazes: 100 teenage boys stand at the U.S. border with Canada one morning. They start walking. If they slow down too many times, they’re shot. Last kid standing wins.

This particular adaptation of the book has apparently been kicking around since 2023, when Lionsgate announced that Trollhunter  director André Øvredal, previously attached to an adaptation, was being replaced with frequent Hunger Games helmer Francis Lawrence. Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson are set to star, with one of them—we’re guessing Hoffman—presumably playing the role of Ray Garrity, the character who King uses as our window into the increasingly hellish ordeal of the Walk as it stretches out across multiple days. Filming on Lawrence’s version apparently started yesterday, which is pretty notable, in so far as people (including George Romero and Frank Darabont) have been trying to get an adaptation of this thing off the ground for more than 30 years.

We’ll be honest, as genuine fans of the source material: We have no idea what this movie ends up looking like. A major part of the book’s appeal is how much of a wretched slog it can be: It really just is about guys walking until their bodies give out, and tons of its conflicts are almost entirely internal.

[ via  Deadline ]

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Critic’s Pick

Review: ‘The Righteous’ Brings Stirring Prayer to Santa Fe Opera

Gregory Spears and Tracy K. Smith’s new work about an ambitious minister’s rise in the 1980s is that rarity in contemporary music: an original story.

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By Zachary Woolfe

Reporting from Santa Fe, N.M.

We’ve had “The Shining” and “Cold Mountain,” “The Hours” and “Dead Man Walking,” and works based on the lives of Steve Jobs, Malcolm X and Frida Kahlo. “Lincoln in the Bardo” and “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” are coming soon.

Opera audiences, traditionalists even before the pandemic, have ventured back warier than ever about buying tickets for anything other than the standards. So as companies try to present contemporary pieces alongside “Aida” and “La Bohème,” they bank on familiar titles and subjects.

Many classic operas were adaptations; “Bohème,” for example, was inspired by a collection of stories. But lately the results have tended to feel less like great art than like bending over backward to coax a cautious public. Something special comes from being truly original: It’s no coincidence that perhaps the best opera of our time, Kaija Saariaho’s “Innocence” (2021) , was that rarity, a brand-new story.

So is “The Righteous,” commissioned by Santa Fe Opera from the composer Gregory Spears and the poet Tracy K. Smith. Spears and Smith also created from scratch their first full-length collaboration, “Castor and Patience” (2022) . They deserve great credit for this. These days it’s remarkable to sit at a premiere and be able to think, with admiration, “Here are imaginations at work” instead of “I’d rather be watching the movie.”

Taking place over a few weeks, “Castor and Patience” was an intimate family drama — though one with larger societal implications. While a family is also at the center of “The Righteous,” which opened on July 13, the new opera is in every way a more sprawling piece, stretching from 1979 through the early 1990s, with a large cast and chorus and booming climaxes to match its impassioned lyricism.

At its core is a man’s progress from youthful idealism to profound moral compromise. The main character, David, is a talented, devoted preacher who’s grown up close to a wealthy, well-connected oil family in the American Southwest. He marries the family’s daughter and, as his scrappy ministry grows in size and influence, he’s tempted more and more by the prospect of political power. As he climbs, he leaves betrayals both personal and ideological in his wake.

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