Less by Andrew Sean Greer

10 of us Zoomed in to discuss Less by Andrew Sean Greer – with so many of us joining the conversation was lively and it took a little while to settle down and focus on our reading experiences.

The opening comment: “Is there a reason why we are holding off talking about this book?” was met with nods and chuckles of agreement. “Indeed” said another, “I’ll never get that time back!”.

This was followed by “it was boring” and “I was waiting for something to happen”.

But then: “It was better than I thought … my expectations were low.”

More laughter! None of us could understand the comments on the book cover: ‘You will sob with tears of joy’, ‘Marvellously, endearingly, unexpectedly funny.’ ‘A fast and rocketing read’. Really?  We just couldn’t agree with them. We can only think that it's funnier if you are American. 

In fact, she who selected this book as a prospective read said she had researched books to make you laugh out loud.  She (and we) wonder how on earth this book got onto such a list!

This is a very visual book, there are lots going on and the writing is quite good BUT there is no plot. Yes, we liked the writing but not the story.

It is not laugh out loud funny, it’s sad: an aging man feeling sorry for himself. It was nonsense but in the sense that it was not sensible.

Then. A flicker of light. “Don’t dismiss as complete crap – it’s a dodgy plot but interesting.”

OK, let’s consider that…

Was there meant to be a parallel between this book and the book that Less authors in the story?

We enjoyed the German language – that was funny (but not laugh out loud funny).

It took me a while to get into it (the book) and some bits were better than others. It was as if the author really enjoyed writing some parts but not others.

We did learn how to pronounce ‘Pew-litzer’ who knew?! This book won the prize – how?

None of us could say we would read another book by this author.

Would we recommend this book? No, but we wouldn’t say it is rubbish, just not what we expected.

We have read worse but we’ve read better – here our focus on Less was gone. We moved on to better books we have read and enjoyed. Oh, and Only Fools and Horses.

We then spent some quality time discussing other books we had enjoyed over the Summer:

Bagehot: The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian – don’t buy it, it’s really boring!

A novel in Spanish (I can’t remember the title) – was ridiculously hard!

The 19^th Wife – I’m tempted to put it on our list for next read.

Snowdrops by AD Miller

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

The Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

The Standing Pool by Adam Thorpe.

Ordinary People by Diana Evans

I finished A Sting in the Tale (previous read)

The Rosie Project by Graham Simsion

Bill Bryson books!

A wonderful evening of books, that’s what book group is all about. See you all next time:

Our next book is Three Stories by Alan Bennett. We will chat about our reading at 8pm on 5^th November – probably, well almost certainly, by Zoom.

 

 

Book Choices For Autumn

We will meet by Zoom to discuss  Less by Andrew Sean Greer at 8pm on Thursday 24th September.

Here are the choices for our next book:

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Three Stories by Alan Bennett

Three Stories: "Father! Father! Burning Bright", "The Clothes They Stood Up in", "The Laying on of Hands

Here are Alan Bennett's hugely admired, triumphantly reviewed and bestselling novellas, brought together in one book for the first time: 

Father! Father! Burning Bright, the savage satire on a dying man's family reaction as he still asserts control over them from the hospital bed. Over 60,000 sold in small format. 

The Clothes They Stood Up In, has sold over 200,000 copies as a small novella and was 14 weeks in the Bestseller lists. It is the painful story of what happens to an elderly couple when their flat is stripped completely bare. 

The Laying on of Hands, a memorial service for a masseur to the famous that goes horribly wrong. Over 100,000 copies sold as a novella. Like everything Alan Bennett does, these stories are playful, witty and painfully observant of ordinary people's foibles. And they all have a brilliant and surprising twist; are immensely funny and profoundly moral.

Pine by Francine Toon

They are driving home from the search party when they see her.

The trees are coarse and tall in the winter light, standing like men. 

Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by pine forest. When a woman stumbles out onto the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house in his pickup. In the morning, she's gone.

In a community where daughters rebel, men quietly rage, and drinking is a means of forgetting, mysteries like these are not out of the ordinary. The trapper found hanging with the dead animals for two weeks. Locked doors and stone circles. The disappearance of Lauren's mother a decade ago.

Lauren looks for answers in her tarot cards, hoping she might one day be able to read her father's turbulent mind. Neighbours know more than they let on, but when local teenager Ann-Marie goes missing it's no longer clear who she can trust.

In spare, haunting prose, Francine Toon creates an unshakeable atmosphere of desolation and dread. In a place that feels like the end of the world, she unites the gloom of the modern gothic with the pulse of a thriller. It is the perfect novel for our haunted times. 

The Thing About December by Donal Ryan

He heard Daddy one time saying he was a grand quiet boy to Mother when he thought Johnsey couldn’t hear them talking. Mother must have been giving out about him being a gom and Daddy was defending him. He heard the fondness in Daddy’s voice. But you’d have fondness for an auld eejit of a crossbred pup that should have been drowned at birth.’

While the Celtic Tiger rages, and greed becomes the norm, Johnsey Cunliffe desperately tries to hold on to the familiar, even as he loses those who all his life have protected him from a harsh world. Village bullies and scheming land-grabbers stand in his way, no matter where he turns.

Set over the course of one year of Johnsey’s life, The Thing About December breathes with his grief, bewilderment, humour and agonizing self-doubt. This is a heart-twisting tale of a lonely man struggling to make sense of a world moving faster than he is.

Donal Ryan’s award-winning debut, The Spinning Heart, garnered unprecedented acclaim, and The Thing About December confirms his status as one of the best writers of his generation.