This book made me laugh out loud while alone on the Tube, despite my best efforts (Londoners will know what a travel faux pas this is). Several sections took me a while to get through, due to crying with laughter and being unable to see the text.
Arthur Less is a middle-aged American novelist who has just broken up with his longstanding younger boyfriend… the boyfriend whose wedding he has just been invited to. Less decides he must leave the country immediately and embarks on a round of bizarre literary engagements all around the world, just so that he can avoid the wedding. There is something very comforting about watching someone fail to cope with heartbreak in such an epic way. Mishaps and encounters pop up for Less, but can he really outrun his old romance?
It’s not fluffy. A sentence that lingered for me, out of context, was “We believe they burned their own city to the ground”. It is, however, a kind novel. This is rare for a funny book.
Praise quotes from Armistead Maupin, Ann Patchett and Karen Joy Fowler should be a sign of greatness, and they are all correct. I want to read another book like this immediately, but I don’t think there is one.
Smart and relatable, Less is beautifully written and an easy quick read. It has a good dog in it. Oh, and it won the Pulitzer. Heaven in a sky blue cover.
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