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.