Arthur Less is a middling, middle-aged novelist whose old boyfriend is getting married to someone else. Less decides that the only way to decline the wedding invite is to be out of town, so he cobbles together an itinerary of book events that will take him around the world.

I'll be honest - I was very skeptical of this book despite it having won the Pulitzer Prize. It sounded to me like EAT PRAY LOVE for a man, and literary books advertised as "hilarious" are usually some weird satire I don't understand. Well, I am here to eat crow and tell you I loved this book.

It is actually funny! It's a dry, sarcastic, British-style humor, making light of all the ways life disappoints Less. The way things underwhelm him, the way he is unremarkable, and the way he is never quite sure about how he got to where he is reminded me of another literary Arthur, Arthur Dent from the HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE books.

I really loved the ongoing discussion in this book about what makes a relationship worthwhile and successful. LESS really breaks apart the societal message that you must be married to one person for your entire life to have truly known love. A variety of forms of commitment and togetherness are represented in the book, and represented as real and accepted. It felt truly refreshing.