Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer

  Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer

So, this is the second part of Less, the previous Pulitzer winning novel by Greer, but no wonder it didn't win another Pulitzer as it is not as good.  Feels like Greer wanted to make some money from the same topics of the previous book and using the same characters, like a bunch of extra chapters.  Freddy is now announced as the narrator in the beginning which makes the book less interesting as it is not a surprise uncovered at the end like in the previous book.  Also the tour of the US South and East is not as interesting as the international tour Less did in the last book.

The characters he meets and the events he attends are also less interesting, with the exception of his meeting with his father and their relationship.  The worst part is at the end when he meets the black Arthur Less and realizes he attended many events which were meant for him. The "Financial Peril' plot seems very forced, as why wouldn't Robert pay the back debt for the house where they lived together? Very unbelievable. 

Having Freddy both as a narrator and a character doesn't work.  His travel to Maine, the island and 'the widow' is strangely disconnected from the rest of the narrative and doesn't add to it in any meaningful way. 

All in all, I read this to the end, but I wasn't impressed.  Another proof that sequels rarely work (but they're amazing when they do!)

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

 Less by Andrew Sean Greer

I read this book because my psychotherapist was aghast that I've been reading Oscar Wao, especially during a period where I was experiencing physical and psychological distress.  He did a search on Pulitzer and comedy and this book came on top (only two comedy books ever won the Pulitzer fiction prize, all the rest are traumatizing, dark horrors).  

The book is not exactly a comedy, more like social commentary with comedic touches, but definitely brighter than my previous horror experience that is still traumatizing me.  It is mostly a meditation on gay love and turning 50, i.e. being decidedly middle age with no way to deny it and fast walking towards the inevitable ultimate death and perishing forever in this universe.  Maybe when the universe is recreated from the breath of Vishnu you'd exist again, but then you would be remembering previous existence and you don't.

Less is a middling famous writer from SanFran who lost his love Freddy to another man and is taking a trip around the world on other people's expense to forget about it.  He goes to Mexico, Italy, India, Morocco and Japan, of all places, always doing engagements with his writer fame and getting into different happenings, mostly funny, but not all of them.  The ones concerning aging are depressing, especially if you're over 50 when everything in your body suddenly starts to fail in various non-funny way.  

It is a good book and kept my spirits up during the lead up to my hospitalization even though I skimmed through some parts as I was too psychologically distraught to pay attention to the written word.  It impressed me so much that I read the next one, which turned out to be a disappointment. 

Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

 Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

I finished this book back in March and it was a part of my new initiative to read Pulitzer-prize winning fiction,  Because of the health and life happenings of the past few months (including the month-long hospitalization, thanks wife!) I haven't written any reviews, though I have definitely continued reading. Now that I am reinstalling THERIPPER in order to erase any possible hacks, I have time while BitDefender is running full disk scan (12TB), so here I am.

Well, one thing I didn't count with was that Pulitzer prize winners are dark, bleak and traumatizing, describing the worst of human nature, which I cannot stomach at the best of times, let alone in probably the worst psycho-physical situation I've been in my life so far.  The ENTR mechanical keyboard feels good, but not as good as I remember from a lot of typing. Well, this book is supposedly satirical, i.e. funny, but describes some blood-curling scenes like Oscar being beaten to almost-death and the perps jumping on his head with both legs and his great-grandfather being tortured in Trujillo prison by having wet rope tied to his skull and then dried in the hot sun, causing permanent brain damage. Shit, I'm going to have nightmares about those for life.  Definitely not a good idea to read it in this condition, but my condition was not bad when I started. 

Anyway, the book is describing horrifying events through the lens of satire and sci-fi/fantasy obsession of the main character, the obese, love-hungry Dominican-American Oscar who wants to fall in love, but no girl in the US would have him so he goes back to Dominican where he falls in love with a former prostitute who is currently banging a corrupt police chief who orders the cruel beating and eventual murder of Oscar. The US authorities couldn't care less, of course, as long as the Trujillo regime is hunting 'commies'.  Commies were more important to the US than the lives of its own citizens. 

The books goes several generations back, with Oscar's mother, grandmother, and great-grandfather and what happened to them as a result of that animal Rafael Leonidas Trujillo being left to run amok since the US wanted him to kill more 'commies'. If you think Trump's regime is bad, checkout the US from the 50s and 60s - unbelievable.  Google Operation Condor too.

Anyway, very well written book, very flowing style and funny parts, but certain scenes are lifelong traumatizing, especially when you know that it was all actually true and most of these perp animals were never punished (El Dentista).