Book Review - "Less" by Andrew Greer

“Less” by Andrew Greer
The main character in this book, Arthur Less, is an aging gay man whose ex -lover is very ill and whose most recent ex-lover is marrying a younger someone else. You may think that a middle aged sorrowful gay man is not a character you can relate to. But I don’t know any American who has traveled broadly who hasn’t had this experience:

The Moroccan bus tour guide: ‘ “I am sorry for the unpleasant surprise of the heat.”
From the back, a female voice: “Can you turn up the air?”

Some words in Arabic, and then vents begin to blast warm air into the bus. “ ‘

Less goes on a worldwide tour to avoid the fact of aging and the fact of his midling career and the fact of his lost loves. Everything that happens to him has probably has happened to you. Maybe it wasn’t a hot gay man wearing a banana speedo on a rocky SF beach, but I’m betting there was someone who knocked you off your feet who still haunts you. Some job that was different than you thought. Something new about your reflection in the mirror that you dislike. As all really good novels, this exposes shared humanity from a very particular vantage.

The writing is impeccable. The story moves in and around Less’ history using the fluidity of waves of his memories that come about in the midst of daily life - as memories tend to do. Despite this moving back and forth and back again through time the reader is never lost as to what is current, past or daydream.

Don’t they say you spend the first half of life leaving home to find yourself and the second half trying to get back home? It’s something like that. Well, this book is about that. And the funny way you imagine what other people from your past are doing while you’re walking your dog. It’s not quite regret, but more like a pang to know what else could have been at any moment.

Lastly, this novel flawlessly drives home its ideas, with each chapter progressively providing deeper color and clarity of its themes as the plot organically and logically plays out. He sticks the landing. Which for writers is as hard to do as anything Simone Biles does.

Highly recommended. A quick, funny and meaningful read - and you can also check this off your list of Pulitzer Prize reads while you’re at it.

Leaving you with more beautiful prose: this economic description of a party goer’s demise: “… Perhaps it’s the pale Moroccan wine, poured glass after glass at dinner, ... or perhaps the gin and tonics requested after dinner, when she sheds her clothes and slips into the courtyard pool, where turtles stare at her pale flesh, ... the water rippling from her backstroke... or perhaps the tequila she discovers later once the gin runs out, when someone has found a guitar and someone else a shrill flute and she begins an improvisational dance with a lantern on her head ... or the three loud claps... a sign they are up too late for Marrakech.“

You really should read this one.

Book Review - "Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey" by Washington Irving

Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey
By Washington Irving

So it turns out that the author of Sleepy Hollow - Washington Irving- was also an investigative journalist/biographer.

In this book he details a weekend stay with the famous Sir Walter Scott, author of Ivanhoe. Scott actually lived the romantic life of a big time, celebrity author. He lived on a massive estate where he built his dream “cottage”. He had a happy family life and pack of faithful dogs who were very close to him. There are more paintings of him with his dogs than his kids.

It’s fascinating to see his daily life and to hear thoughts of the time. For ex he once saw a Sequoia tree from America which he revered as being similar in value to the obelisks from Egypt in that they similarly protected the natives. He was a Scottish nationalist who honored the border clans for keeping Scotland safe from England and treasured the Scottish culture. This is a painting of an out building on his lands.

Part 2 covers Newstead Abbey located in Sherwood Forest - Lord Byron’s ancestral home. The abbey is like all things Byronic - from afar they look boldly romantic, but when examined closely they’re tawdry and underwhelming. His is a tale of inherited near-wealth, unearned privilege and aggressive laxitude. Not entirely due to his fault, only a few rooms of the abbey were actually furnished and liveable. The others were used for fun and games - including digging up skulls and placing coffins about. He left England to help the Greeks defeat the Ottoman empire during which fight he died early. Again, sounds heroic, but he left also to escape debts and babies and scandal. And despite that gloriously romantic photo we have of him, he was overweight and treated women poorly.

It is though valuable to read Irving’s account as he visits the home just a few years after Byron’s death. ( The housekeepers who knew him and even the dog that accompanied his body back to England were still alive. ) Also, Irving gives an account of the relics of Robin Hood’s haunts in Sherwood. Those are less convincing chapters, but whether true or lore, that part is actually romantic.