Does his sojourn remind you of any others in literature?Ĥ. And somewhere along the way he will turn 50. Arthur Less’s 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. What do you make of this decision? Have you ever found yourself doing something similarly absurd?ģ. When we meet the character of Freddy, Arthur Less’s 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. 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?Ģ. As we soon learn, he’s also a writer less successful than his peers. 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. 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.ġ.

Spoiler alert for some of the latter questions below. They go in chronological order of the book’s chapters, so you can match the questions to your pace as you read. īelow are questions to help guide your discussions as you read the book over the next month. ” Become a member of the book club by joining our Facebook group, or by signing up to our newsletter. Our June pick for the PBS NewsHour-New York Times book club, “Now Read This” is Andrew Sean Greer’s comic novel “ Less.

Less andrew greer