Less

Less by Andrew Sean Greer is about a minor American novelist who is about to turn 50 (precipitating a mid-life crisis) and goes to great lengths to avoid going to a wedding. Arthur Less decides he'd rather participate in a number of tedious literary events around the world than attend his much younger ex-boyfriend's wedding. He meets new people, runs into old acquaintances, has a suit made, escapes a sandstorm in the desert, has a couple of romantic flings and turns 50 (he couldn't run away from that). He is worried that he will end up lonely and professionally unrecognized. But his adventures abroad didn't really grab me and I found his emotional detachment off-putting. His sorrow over the loss of his love seems more like mild irritation and it's hard to understand why he would try to assuage it with an unpleasant trip around the world. It's an amusing book with a certain charm but I just couldn't relate to Less. I bought this book because it won the Pulitzer Prize this year but, for the life of me, I can't figure out why.