BINDERY: Andrew Sean Greer / Less

Wednesday, May 23, 2018 - 7:00pm to 9:00pm
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Booksmith hosts Andrew Sean Greer for the paperback launch of Less, one of our favorite novels of 2017 and winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Joining Andy in conversation is R. O. Kwon. Come celebrate with us!

 

Please note: This event—which is now rescheduled for May 23 at 7pm—will be at The Bindery, 1727 Haight. If you would like to reserve a seat for the event, please pre-purchase a copy of Less **by noon on Wednesday, 5/23** via the form below and specify that you would like to reserve a seat in the comments field.

 

Who says you can't run away from your problems? You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can't say yes—it would be too awkward—and you can't say no—it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world.

 

Question: How do you arrange to skip town?

 

Answer: You accept them all.

 

What would possibly go wrong? Arthur Less will almost fall in love in Paris, almost fall to his death in Berlin, barely escape to a Moroccan ski chalet from a Saharan sandstorm, accidentally book himself as the (only) writer-in-residence at a Christian Retreat Center in Southern India, and encounter, on a desert island in the Arabian Sea, the last person on Earth he wants to face. Somewhere in there: he will turn fifty. Through it all, there is his first love. And there is his last.

 

Because, despite all these mishaps, missteps, misunderstandings and mistakes, Less is, above all, a love story.

 

A scintillating satire of the American abroad, a rumination on time and the human heart, a bittersweet romance of chances lost, by an author The New York Times has hailed as "inspired, lyrical," "elegiac," "ingenious," as well as "too sappy by half," Less shows a writer at the peak of his talents raising the curtain on our shared human comedy.

 

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Less is the funniest, smartest and most humane novel I've read since Tom Rachman's 2010 debut, The Imperfectionists....Greer writes sentences of arresting lyricism and beauty. His metaphors come at you like fireflies....Like Arthur, Andrew Sean Greer's Less is excellent company. It's no less than bedazzling, bewitching and be-wonderful." —New York Times Book Review

 

"Greer's novel is philosophical, poignant, funny and wise, filled with unexpected turns....Although Greer is gifted and subtle in comic moments, he's just as adept at ruminating on the deeper stuff. His protagonist grapples with aging, loneliness, creativity, grief, self-pity and more."—San Francisco Chronicle

 

"I recommend it with my whole heart." —Ann Patchett

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Andrew Sean Greer is the bestselling author of five works of fiction, including The Confessions of Max Tivoli, which was named a best book of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune. He is the recipient of the Northern California Book Award, the California Book Award, the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, the O Henry award for short fiction and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Public Library. Greer lives in San Francisco. He has traveled to all of the locations in this novel, but he is only big in Italy. 

 

R. O. Kwon’s first novel, The Incendiaries, is forthcoming from Riverhead in July of 2018. She is a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, Vice, BuzzFeed, Noon, Time, Electric Literature, Playboy, San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere. She has received awards and fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, Omi International, and the Norman Mailer Writers' Colony. Born in South Korea, she’s mostly lived in the United States.

 

If you cannot attend the event but would like a request a signed copy of Less and/or any of Andrew's other books, order below and put your request in the comments field.

 

Bar opens at 6:30, event begins at 7pm.

 

Books: 
Less (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize): A Novel (The Arthur Less Books #1) By Andrew Sean Greer Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780316316125
Availability: Out of Stock - Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Lee Boudreaux Books - July 18th, 2017

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells: A Novel By Andrew Sean Greer Cover Image
$14.99
ISBN: 9780062213792
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Ecco - April 15th, 2014

The Story of a Marriage: A Novel By Andrew Sean Greer Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780312428280
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Picador - March 31st, 2009

The Confessions of Max Tivoli: A Novel By Andrew Sean Greer Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780312423810
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Picador - February 1st, 2005

How It Was for Me: Stories By Andrew Sean Greer Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780312241261
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Picador - April 7th, 2001

The Path of Minor Planets: A Novel By Andrew Sean Greer Cover Image
$21.00
ISBN: 9780312306052
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Picador - October 4th, 2002