{"id":44063,"date":"2018-10-24T11:12:32","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T15:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=44063"},"modified":"2018-10-17T19:31:47","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T23:31:47","slug":"less-andrew-sean-greer-library-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/less-andrew-sean-greer-library-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"Less by Andrew Sean Greer [in Library Journal]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Arthur Less is, well \u2026 considerably less, now that he’s middle-aged, alone, and pretty much broke. The pinnacle of his novel-writing career might have been his first New York Times<\/em> review, which while “good,” assigned him an epithet that would haunt (taunt?) him in the decades since: “magniloquent spoony.” His partner at the time, an older, revered Pulitzer-winning poet, had to explain: “Arthur \u2026 he’s just calling you a faggot.” Well, then.<\/p>\n

Now that he’s about to turn 50, Arthur decides he can’t witness the nuptials of his (still adored) younger lover and avoids the event by piecing together an around-the-world “ramshackle itinerary” of book-related gigs and a short teaching stint. Of course, transformations prove inevitable.<\/p>\n

Narrator Robert Petkoff takes Arthur’s journeys in well-synced stride, adapting easily \u2013 for the most part \u2013 among countries and languages, although he occasionally stumbles in Asia with Hindi (dhoti<\/em> becomes dotty) and Japanese (ryokan<\/em> gets an extra syllable with ri-yoh-kan). Minor quibbles aside, Petkoff exudes Arthur’s irresistibility \u2013 a combination of still-boyish na\u00efvet\u00e9, distracted haplessness, aging disappointment, and unassuming charm.<\/p>\n

Verdict<\/strong>: Surely Greer’s Pulitzer boost has escalated demand; multiplatform accessibility seems a must for all libraries.<\/p>\n

Review<\/strong>: “Audio,” Library Journal<\/em>, October 15, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arthur Less is, well \u2026 considerably less, now that he’s middle-aged, alone, and pretty much broke. The pinnacle of his novel-writing career might have been his first New York Times review, which while “good,” assigned him an epithet that would haunt (taunt?) him in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,81,6,60,6535],"tags":[7938,6608,59,10,11,7937,50,70,13,1792,173],"class_list":["post-44063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-audio","category-fiction","category-nonethnic-specific","category-repost","tag-andrew-sean-greer","tag-bookdragon","tag-cultural-exploration","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-less","tag-lgbtqia","tag-library-journal","tag-love","tag-robert-petkoff","tag-travel"],"yoast_head":"\nLess by Andrew Sean Greer [in Library Journal] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/less-andrew-sean-greer-library-journal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Less by Andrew Sean Greer [in Library Journal] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Arthur Less is, well \u2026 considerably less, now that he’s middle-aged, alone, and pretty much broke. 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