It's on his fiftieth birthday that he is blessed with an epiphany about his apparently unwanted novel, and it's a delightful irony that it just about describes what Greer has written: 'What if it isn't a poignant, wistful novel at all? What if it isn't the story of a sad middle-aged man on a tour of his hometown, remembering the past and fearing the future a peripateticism of humiliation and regret the erosion of a single male soul? What if it isn't even sad?' Much as he would rather not, he recalls not just past lovers, but those he truly loved (and perhaps still does?), and fails to scrub Freddy from his mind and heart. This is preceded by a lunch with his agent, the outcome of which is a shock: his new novel will need a rewrite if it is to attract a publisher.įrom there, Mexico City (an interview about his famous lover, poet Robert Brownburn), Turin (nominated for a book award), Berlin (teaching a five-week course), a short, unplanned stop-over in Paris (catch up with a friend), Morocco (to celebrate the birthday of a friend of a friend, and his own), India (a writing retreat, to fix his novel?), and Japan (to review some restaurant meals).īut at each destination, and often, during his travels, Arthur is overwhelmed by reminiscences, reveries, flashbacks, courtesy of those he meets, old friends and new acquaintances, and of little incidents that occur. Attending is out of the question: Arthur Less devises a 'cats cradle of junkets' that will ensure he is out of the country and very busy while Freddy Pelu marries Tom Dennis in Sonoma, CA.įirst on his itinerary is New York City, interviewing an author of a sci-fi series with a cult following. Quickly approaching fifty, Arthur Less is dismayed to be invited to the wedding of a former lover. Less is the first novel in the Less series by award-winning best-selling American author, Andrew Sean Greer.

Less pulitzer prize winning novel