Less Is Lost

by Andrew Sean Greer

Overview

In the follow-up to the “bedazzling, bewitching, and be-wonderful” (New York Times​) best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning Less: A Novel, the awkward and lovable Arthur Less returns in an unforgettable road trip across America.

“Go get lost somewhere, it always does you good.”

For Arthur Less, life is going surprisingly well: he is a moderately accomplished novelist in a steady relationship with his partner, Freddy Pelu. But nothing lasts: the death of an old lover and a sudden financial crisis has Less running away from his problems yet again as he accepts a series of literary gigs that send him on a zigzagging adventure across the US.

Less roves across the “Mild Mild West,” through the South and to his mid-Atlantic birthplace, with an ever-changing posse of writerly characters and his trusty duo – a human-like black pug, Dolly, and a rusty camper van nicknamed Rosina. He grows a handlebar mustache, ditches his signature gray suit, and disguises himself in the bolero-and-cowboy-hat costume of a true “Unitedstatesian”... with varying levels of success, as he continues to be mistaken for either a Dutchman, the wrong writer, or, worst of all, a “bad gay.”

We cannot, however, escape ourselves—even across deserts, bayous, and coastlines. From his estranged father and strained relationship with Freddy, to the reckoning he experiences in confronting his privilege, Arthur Less must eventually face his personal demons. With all of the irrepressible wit and musicality that made Less a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning, must-read breakout book, Less Is Lost is a profound and joyous novel about the enigma of life in America, the riddle of love, and the stories we tell along the way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316498913
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	06/27/2023
Series:	The Arthur Less Books , #2
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	72,111
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

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.

Hometown:

San Francisco, California

Date of Birth:

November 21, 1970

Place of Birth:

Washington, D.C.

Education:

B.A. in English, Brown University, 1992; M.F.A . in Fiction, University of Montana, 1996

Editorial Reviews

07/04/2022

Greer follows up his Pulitzer-winning Less with another delightful road story featuring middle-aged writer Arthur Less. This time, he’s traveling across the U.S., hoping to raise money to salvage his home with partner Freddy Pelu. Freddy, who narrates the story and has lived with Less for nine blissful months in San Francisco, has recently taken a teaching sabbatical in Maine, where Less plans to join him. But after the death of Less’s former lover, the poet Robert Brownburn, the estate hits him up for 10 years of back rent on Brownburn’s former house, where he now lives with Freddy. He assures Freddy he’ll make everything okay by paying it back with magazine articles and other literary gigs. Soon Less is off to do a profile of a famous sci-fi author, who has Less drive him and his pug in a camper van to Santa Fe, N.Mex., for an onstage interview. Along the way, Less accidentally floods a commune, sleeps in a tepee, and rides a donkey down a canyon. After a cascading series of humorous mishaps, Less wonders if Freddy will leave him. Though a bit overboard at times, Greer packs in plenty of humor and some nicely poignant moments. Fans will eat this up. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Is Less Is Lost as good, as funny, as poignant as its predecessor? To which I would happily answer: Yes, at least!...There are extended comic passages...that I read aloud, laughing, to anyone I could waylay. But comedy also arises out of pain and Greer smoothly transitions into the profound...Greer should add even more to Less' saga and take him as far as he can go."—Maureen Corrigan, NPR

“Apt comparison is to Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita in that both [it and LESS IS LOST] are portraits of America from characters who consider themselves outsiders. The novel has one exquisite line after another. . . . Less Is Lost is more than just a gorgeously written sequel. It's also a perceptive observer's entertaining assessment of whether a breakup of the American nuptials is imminent.”—Shelf Awareness

"Technically accomplished, wildly entertaining...Like its predecessor, [Less Is Lost] is a feat of wit and brio, tougher than it looks...Greer's a master of the picaresque...Greer's wordplay is glorious.”—Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"Andrew Sean Greer follows up his Pulitzer Prize-winning Less with this story about the same character, Arthur Less, whose now-comfortable life falls into disarray—and whose next steps lead him on an eventful roadtrip (accompanied, much to our delight, by a black pug) that proves you can't outrun your problems, but you can make them fascinating on the page."—St. Louis Dispatch

"Another delightful road story...Greer packs in plenty of humor and some nicely poignant moments. Fans will eat this up."
 —Publishers Weekly

"Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer: If you, as I did, loved the Pulitzer-Prize winning Less, then you’ll be excited to learn that Greer has penned a sequel about the lovable writer, Arthur Less. This time, Less is on a road trip in the States with a famous science fiction author and his black pug named Dolly. Hilarity ensues."

—The Millions, "Most Anticipated"

"I remember devouring Andrew Sean Greer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Less in a single afternoon, unable to pull myself away from its tender, lightly painful, and very, very funny portrayal of Arthur Less, a novelist on a world-wide tour, fleeing from heartbreak. Less Is Lost sees Arthur on another tour, this one across the US, and in flight from the death of an old lover and a financial crisis. I can’t wait to enter his world again."—LitHub

“By the end of his odyssey, Less is awake not only to the world but also to his emotional life, to what is meaningful, to the sweetness at the center of his baffled heart.”—Mark Haskell Smith, Alta

PRAISE FOR LESS:

"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. . . . Andrew Sean Greer's Less is excellent company. It's no less than bedazzling, bewitching and be-wonderful."—Christopher Buckley, 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

"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 Lake Success

“Assured, comic storytelling at its finest.”
 —Oprah Daily, Best Books of Fall

From the Publisher

Narrator Robert Petkoff clearly enjoys himself in recounting the insightful and humorous misadventures of the hapless gay minor novelist Arthur Less. The novel’s narrator is Arthur’s partner, Freddy, who has been left behind. Petkoff imbues him with a tone of wry amusement. Arthur’s story unfolds through encounters, often accidental, with people he meets as he travels across America in a camper van named “Rosina” on a literary tour to earn desperately needed cash. Petkoff creates a host of vocally distinct characters with accents and personalities as broad as the country. Through his adventures, the listener begins to understand the kindhearted Arthur and his quest for certainty. Especially humorous are passages in German (with translations), a language that Arthur THINKS he speaks very well. L.T. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2023 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

JULY 2022 - AudioFile

2022-06-08
The notorious “middle-aged gay white novelist” Arthur Less is on the road again, this time stateside.

It feels churlish to dislike this book, which deploys all the tropes and tricks and brings back many of the characters that won its predecessor, Less, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2018. The narrator/puppet master, Freddy Pelu, whose identity was concealed until the end of the first book, has now spent a decade living in bliss with Less in San Francisco in a lovely home they call the Shack. Freddy gets back in the narration biz to tell the story of Less’ abrupt departure on a cross-country tour to raise desperately needed funds, as the estate of his old lover, the freshly dead poet Robert Brownburn, has presented him with a bill for 10 years of back rent for the Shack. And off he goes, this time through the American Southwest, South, and Middle Atlantic, driving a camper van named Rosina with a black pug named Dolly, affecting baseball caps and other Walmart-wear in hopes of appearing less Dutch. (“You from the Netherlands?” is one of the many ways people present their suspicion that he's gay.) As in Book 1, we get plenty of inside humor about all aspects of the writer’s life—prize committees, foundation grants, literary agents (Less’ is known as “Hello-I-have-Peter-Hunt-on-the-line-please-hold”), and writers with the same name. Yes, there is another Arthur Less, but unlike ours, who is shelved in Queer Authors, the other is shelved in Black Authors. Both are too small-time for General Fiction. Greer does sometimes write beautifully about life (a touching moment occurs when Less realizes he has to go through Robert’s death without Robert) and about fiction. “Robbery: friends mined for stories; lovers for sentiment; history for structure; family for secrets; small talk for sorrow; sorrow for comedy; comedy for gold.” “It's protagonists all the way down.” And, of novelists: “For are we not that fraction of old magic that remains?” Best case scenario, yes, but it's getting a little fractional this time.

If you loved the first one, you might love this, though it is a bit less fresh and a tad slow.

Kirkus Reviews