Arthur Less is a 49-year-old writer moping around the world in advance of his 50th birthday. He’s a mid-level author, with one noteworthy title; a middling lover, with two noteworthy relationships (both failed); and an around-the-world itinerary that is the only enviable thing in the book.
The first chapter is introduced by an unnamed narrator who interjects throughout the book and then is revealed at the end. I thought about putting this book down many times but in the end finished it. Less won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, but I was disappointed.