October 2019 selection -
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
The Fairfax
Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, October 10th at 7:00
p.m. in the meeting room of the
Fairfax Library to discuss our October book, Less by Andrew Sean Greer.
Here are some
links for additional background and information:
Coming up, we
have the following books to look forward to reading:
Thanks for
reading with us. I look forward to seeing you at the Fairfax Library.
Beth Bailey-Gates
Friends of
the Fairfax Library
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Have you ever had days, weeks, years, like what Arthur
Less is feeling — times when nothing, absolutely nothing, seems to be going
your way? What's your solution?
2. Everyone points to the books laugh-out-loud humor. What do you find
particularly funny — dialogue, Arthur's haplessness and pratfalls, random
observations, the entire tone of the book?
3. How would you describe Arthur? Are you sympathetic to him, or is he
primarily a self-pitying guy in midlife crisis? Does he exhibit any humanity or
is he too self-indulgent to connect with others? Or do you find yourself
falling and rooting for him? Does your attitude toward him change during the
course of the novel?
4. Talk about the writing seminar Arthur gives in Berlin — his inventiveness in
attempting to get students to fall in love with literature.
5. What do you think of the consolation his former lover/mentor offers him
during the phone call from Japan? Is turning 50 all that bad (for those who've
been there, done that)?
6. So at the end of his peregrinations, what has Arthur Less come to understand
about his life and life in general?
7. Finally, were you surprised by the big reveal at the end?
8. 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. As we soon learn, he’s also a writer less successful than
his peers. 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?
9. 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. What do
you make of this decision? Have you ever found yourself doing something similarly
absurd?
10. 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. And somewhere along the way he will
turn 50. Does his sojourn remind you of any others in literature?
11. The book Arthur Less is writing is
about a man on a journey through a place and his past, as he looks back on a
series of disappointments. Freddy complains that Less is always writing “gay
Ulysses.” Do you see echoes of or references to Ulysses or the Odyssey
throughout “Less”?
12. Less’s other major relationship in
the book is with the famous poet Robert Brownburn. In the chapter “Mexican,”
Less recalls a day of losing his ring in the grocery store, and how, in telling
Robert about it, Robert saw Less’s infidelities written across his face.
“That’s what it was like to live with genius,” he writes. How does Robert’s
success and genius impact their relationship at the time, and how does it
influence him in the end?
13. So much of Less’s focus during the
round-the-world trip is on his own mishaps and foibles — or his perceived
mishaps and foibles. Getting into a car with what he believes is the wrong
driver because the name was a letter off. Believing he can speak German well
when in fact he is bungling the words. Bringing athletic bands to every country
that he will only half use. Do you see these as actual mishaps and foibles or
is it a problem of perception for Less? Do you identify with that feeling at
all?
14. The book alternates between Less’s
trip in the present to memories of his youth — mostly memories involving
nostalgia or regret. And yet the narrator tells us that Less also understands
the pleasures of age: “comfort and ease, beauty and taste, old friends and old
stories….” How does Less’s grappling with age play a role in the book? Is it
something you can relate to?
15. In a scene at a party in
Paris, Less is told that in fact he is not a bad writer, as he had come to
believe, but a bad “gay writer,” in that he is not telling the narratives the
gay writing community wants him to. What do you make of this critique?
16. In several countries, simply being
around Less seems to make other characters sick. Why?
17. Arthur Less is self-deprecating throughout the book to a fault;
in one of many descriptions he calls himself insignificant compared to other
writers he knows, “as superfluous as the extra a in quaalude.” (Earlier,
though, he asks if there is “any more perfect spelling” than the word quaalude
“with that lazy superfluous vowel.”) Did you find these negative descriptors by
Less funny or frustrating or silly or all of these? How does Greer complicate
these descriptions by having some of them echo back?
18. A
number of people try to tell Less about what happened at Freddy’s wedding. And
while the wedding dominates his thoughts, he doesn’t listen to them. What is
keeping him from hearing the story? What do you think (or hope) happened?
19.
In the book, “Less” is always referred to by his last name, while Javier only
by his first, and Robert Brownburn by both. Why do you think Greer chose to
refer to the characters in these different ways?
20.
What lines in the book made you laugh out loud?
21.
Toward the end of the book, Less reunites with his supposed enemy and Freddy’s
father, Carlos. When they meet, Carlos tells him that he believes that people’s
lives are half-comedy and half-tragedy and that those just appear at different
times. What do you make of this theory?
22.
Were you surprised (or glad) to find out who the narrator was? Do any elements
of the book change for you when you revisit them with Freddy as the narrator in
mind?
The Great
Lakes--Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Superior--hold 20 percent of the
world's supply of surface fresh water and provide sustenance, work and
recreation for tens of millions of Americans. But they are under threat as
never before, and their problems are spreading across the continent. The Death
and Life of the Great Lakes is prize-winning reporter Dan Egan's compulsively
readable portrait of an ecological catastrophe happening right before our eyes,
blending the epic story of the lakes with an examination of the perils they
face and the ways we can restore and preserve them for generations to come. ~
dust jacket
