Less Is Lost
2022 • 272 pages

Ratings16

Average rating3.7

15

Charmingly absurd and sentimental, but not sure it quite recaptures the magic of the first. Do enjoy the writing, the clever call backs.
In this one we do get the love interest as more than a narrator, but it feels uneven in that you get bits, remembrances of their relationship from both characters, but not much present day from Freddy, and when we do, it doesn't feel like a distinctive voice, just echoes of the same anxiety and insecurity as Less. Freddy only feels like a loving separate entity when narrating Less's adventures. Not sure there's enough there to be concerned about a white author's representation of Freddy Pelu's inner thoughts, but I'd be curious to see own voices reviews on the subject. 
The book's focus, when not considering how ridiculous life can be and what love means, reflects on a lot of areas of anxiety of the modern man: being a gay man in America, what it means to be American, being a novelist, aging, also anxiety born of toxic relationships: bad/absent father, mood swings and ego of partner in first long term relationship - based on long term effects looks like coping/trauma manifesting after abuse.
I'm left with the impression that pieces of more than one novel have made their way into this book, and I wonder, as short as the book is and as sweet as the ending is, if there's a more streamlined  version buried under, or a more thoughtful version buried in, the additions. 🤷🏼‍♂️

August 9, 2023Report this review