Andrew Sean Greer, novelist and gay man, wins Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Link:

Is he a top or a bottom?

BMF

(Big Manuscript Face)

Really!?! It was good - but not THAT good. Weird. Don’t begrudge him - seems like a hard worker and is definitely a good writer. But the book was not exactly Infinite Jest great. Like the title and naming of Mr Less - a little obvious and simple.

I knew a Sean Greer in high school who was hideous. I was almost expecting to see him when I clicked the link

I bought the book a few months ago, read about 10 pages and promptly lost interest. But I guess I'll give it another go this weekend.

And Andrew is very handsome! Anyone read any of his other books?

You sure that’s not him, R5? He might have been a late bloomer?

Ginger Jew? Ginjew?

Max Tivoli was less interesting. As a middle aged gay man, Less is basically me. But I thought it was ok, not great.

I've pretty much learned to avoid buying any fiction that's won the Pulitzer or the Man Booker Prize.

Reminder: The family says PUL-it-sir, not PEW-lit-zer.

A Pulitzer Prize is no guarantee of quality. They gave one to Satchel Farrow.

Whom did he fuck?

I couldn’t finish the book either and I plow through books. It was just too tedious and frenetic.

[QUOTE]It was just too tedious and frenetic.

Perhaps emblematic of his skills in the bedroom.

Looks a bit like Simon Woods.

FYI, that’s an exceedingly good picture of him. I’ve seen others where he just looks nerdy and ok. But like a true gay man, found the best shot possible for his book (I would do the same)

IFHH

Just read the preview pages on Amazon. He's a good writer, but the story is a bit twee, so I don't think I could read the whole thing

Pretty consistent hotness. I'd read his manuscript.

I tried reading Less last month. Could not get through it. Didn't care about the character.

So you couldn't care Less.

I’m a voracious reader and didn’t finish Less. Started strong but I ran out of gas. I’m SHOCKED this won a Pulitzer.

Count me among those who started Less and gave up on it. I don’t think I’ve ever abandoned another novel that won the Pulitzer.

Wow - I can’t believe how many of us didn’t finish the book

As a gay man turning 50, it definitely spoke to me. I’m curious what the broader mass audience found in it. Some insights into life - but nothing groundbreaking. Johnathan Franzen books have unique intelligent insights into life/world- and are well written. Greer seems like a B-grade gay version.

r8 Goosestep back to hell!

I liked the book a lot.

Just adding another voice to the chorus of couldn't-finish-it. And I tried.

I don't know what the Pulitzer rules are.

Do they still award it even if only second-rate rubbish appears that year?

The Nobel Prize has been given to a lot of mediocre people.

R30, no, they don’t always give an award. They didn’t find a deserving winner in 2012, for example.

Yikes! Did anybody love this book?

Read it on the PLANE.

Liked - not loved. Worth reading. A little too neatly packaged cliched ending and unnecessary, uninteresting asides, but a good distraction. (And honestly can’t find anything new I want to read write now so...)

This is a very bizarre win. It wasn’t much to speak of. But if Kendrick Lamar can win, I guess that means the Pulitzer’s are basically over.

He's an identical twin, but this is the only picture I can find of his brother with him

R35 I didn't know what a 'Kendrick Lamar' was until a news report tonight said that a Pulitzer Prize had been given to someone who utters unintelligible gibberish.

lousy book

geez

who picks these things???

She got there first:

I love it when Michael Chabon kvells madly. I wish I felt like kvelling over the book.

I wouldn't even have had to kvell madly...just to kvell at all would have been nice.

R35 isnt joking:

Run the atlas, I'm a natural, I'm alright I'm a savage, I'm a asshole, I'm a king Shimmy-yeah, shimmy-yeah, shimmy-yeah, rock (yeah) You can tell your nigga he can meet me outside (yeah) You can babysit him when I leave him outside Ain't no other love like the one I know I done been down so long I slowed I done came down so hard I slowed I don't sleep forever, all a real nigga want I said I'm geeked and I'm fired up (fired, fire) All I want tonight is just to get high up (yeah)

Proposition gettin money drop a nigga Rush a nigga, stomp a nigga, crush a nigga, dust a nigga Cop a head gon bust nigga Heatin up the winter nigga Somethin to remember nigga Hella sick I gotta spit Curse with a verse like god told me kill this shit Load a clip hecklin cops The hoover king Ba da bing by the dingaling Natural hoover Ving rhames with a vision clearer than visene Asian from bejiing

R37 - Well if you don't know who Kendrick Lamar is he can't possibly deserve a Pulitzer.

If you are looking for a great gay book to read I just finished John Boyne’s “The Heart’s Invisible Furies” and it was awesome - I laughed out loud reading it which I never do - huge, epic story that’s very Dickens. It was so good and I was bummed out when I finished it.

R45- I’ve heard great things about that book. I’m excited to read it. One recommendation I would make in a similar vein is Christadora by Tim Murphy. GREAT read. Sprawling in scope and insanely engrossing. One of the best books I read last year.

There is a video of him singing Material Girl with a ukulele but I can't get it to open

WOW what a cutie. And smart too

Very odd choices this year in both the Fiction and Drama categories ... and interestingly they stopped publicizing who is on the juries ...

Tim Murphy's CHRISTODORA is a brilliant gay novel. I don't think it was awarded a Pulitzer but would have been eligible the year before LESS in any case.

I loved CHRISTODORA. I just ordered THE HEART'S INVISIBLE FURIES. With a title like that, how can I lose?

Does any of you remember a novel (or maybe a multi-part cable series) in which we keep returning to people who are squatting in a failed high-rise condo/apartment building? The whole work doesn't take place there, but we come back to this location frequently. I don't remember the genre, or even if it actually is an example of "genre" fiction.

Well, I'll say it. I thought LESS was a terrific novel: elegant, intelligent, and very moving. Maybe you have to be reader of a certain age to be as impressed as I was, but I hope others recognize its virtues. Totally surprised by its win, though, but gratified that it was honored nonetheless. And I'm happy a gay writer won. First in the fiction category since Michael Cunningham, yes? Unless you count Michael Chabon, which I don't.

What about that other gay novelist, Bram Norton or some ridiculous madeup name who showed dick? He didn't win?

[quote]Maybe you have to be reader of a certain age to be as impressed as I was

I am probably of an even more certain age, and I found LESS less than finishable.

[quote]Unless you count Michael Chabon, which I don't.

I don't count Chabon as gay, either. I did like Kavalier and Clay more than The Hours, though.

Good, definitely not great novel. Almost ruined in my opinion by a hopelessly cliched and pat ending.

I read The Hearts Invisible Furies and really liked it until about the last third. It was funny at times but didn't the shtick get a little old? Will definitely check out Less and Christadora. I just read the Sparsholt Affair as well. It starts really strong but then becomes very uneven and meandering. I felt they should of build the story around the father rather than the son.

I loved Less--read it last fall. I think people underestimate the value of a comic novel--by the end, I was also very moved by it. And with the poetry award going to Frank Bidart, it was a good year for the Eldergays at the Pulitzers.

How has everyone already read this book. I have never even heard of it. No one I know has.

r59, LESS was the cover article on The New York Times Book Review several months ago. And many of us have followed Greer's career for years.

Greer is a charmer and I liked LESS a lot.

Who's his bf?

R41--all's kvell that ends kvell.

After Dylan got the Nobel, I figured most prizes are a joke.

A gay novel that I think is superb :"Was" Complex and moving, by Geoff Ryman, IIRC, a Canadian living in England.

Reading Less right now. So far I like it but it's not an "i couldn't put it down" book in the least.

Agree R65 . Good but not that good. And I thought I was the only one having a hard time finding any good books in the past year. But I guess the Pulitzer committee did too.

These books like Sparsholt Affair, and The Hearts Invisible Furies. They start off great and then go through 6-7 decades. Focus puhlease!!

So Chabon and Greer have slept together? Kinda hot to think about.

I read a short story collection by Andrew Sean Greer, but I don't remember a thing about it. I liked it well enough, but obviously didn't LOVE it. Regardless, I'm happy he got the Pulitzer and this is going on my to-read list.

I bet Greer and Chabon have jacked off together, simultaneously spurting their hot spunkloads all over each other's torsos.

r70 and then you woke up and your jammies were all sticky

Interesting how Less describes a younger guy dating an older guy who was already a famous writer and how that relationship helped give him a career. Write about what you know - right?

R72 REALLY? I haven't read it so have no idea.

But if Chabon is describing him as "our dear friend"......well, the plot (and cock) thickens.

Michael Chabon is the Matthew Sweet of the book world.

Both men were GORGEOUS in their younger days, but allowed themselves to become fat, bearded lumps that look like unmade beds.

Loved Less. Did not like Max Tivoli. Hated Christadora.

Yeah - thought I’d give Max Tivoli after kinda liking (not loving) Less. Couldn’t finish it. I loved Christadora - brought me back to my early days in NYC when I was always intrigued by that building. And good story telling.

r44 you missed the best part: it was the Pulitzer Prize for **Music**

It was a surprise win. Not the fact that he is a gay writer, that was bound to happen sooner or later (with Marlon James winning the Booker and James Hannaham winning the PEN/Faulkner, but the fact that the novel is a comedy. Curiously 2017 didn't seemed so great in terms of gay writers, in 2016 there were way more gay novels (or novels writen by gay writers) on the radar during the award season, What belongs to you, Christodora, The Queen of the night or Imagine me gone (which was a finalist of the Pulitzer). The truth is Less received attention but it flied under the radar during the award season

"it flied under the radar during"

"Bound to happen sooner or later"? Are you suggesting that no other gay writer has won the Prize? Michael Cunningham would beg to differ.

[quote]A Pulitzer Prize is no guarantee of quality. They gave one to Satchel Farrow.

There has to be a trumpet joke there.

Looks like a grifter

R78, I would also add AT DANCETERIA AND OTHER STORIES to that list of great gay novels of 2016 (although it’s a collection of short stories). One of the best books I read last year. Fans of CHRISTODORA will also love it as they both cover slightly similar territory (though through the lens of different milieus).

I read LESS earlier this year and was also surprised that it won the Pulitzer. I’m happy for the author as I thought it was an atypical, but not undeserving, choice. The book is not “twee”; it is, at times, rather profound and sad and definitely accumulates in meaning as it progresses. The pat, happy ending though is not great and slightly ruined what had come before.

Tim Murphy (author of CHRISTODORA) blurbed the new book by the author of AT DANCETERIA AND OTHER STORIES so they must know each other.

Alexander Chee (QUEEN OF THE NIGHT) and Garth Greenwell (WHAT BELONGS TO YOU) were both at Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference during the summer of 2016.

Baby you won a pulitzer, you can afford Supercuts!

R69, I bought Greer’s short story collection after reading LESS. It’s called HOW OT WAS FOR ME. Looking forward to diggingin after your post.

*IT.

R80 Not to mention old closet case Allen Drury for that dreary Advise and Consent!

r80, is that true? First time I heard that Drury was gay. Altho to be fair, it's the first gossip I've EVER heard about him.

79 Sorry for the mistake, english is not my first language (nor the second) And i know that Cunninham won the prize, but as far as i know no other gay writer won after him. There were some finalist (Adam Hasslett was finalist two times) and there were a good bunch of novels writen by gay writers that were clear candidates to win but none of them end winning the prize till this year (while there were gay winners of the Booker or the PEN/Faulkner)

I thought this book would win the Lambda Literary Award last night.

North Morgan must be devastated.

Has anyone read Enigma Variations by Andre Acimen? I just started it. Seems sort of similar to CMBYN early on, obsessive love/teen/man.

Doesn’t Andre Acimen claim to be straight?

Yes, Aciman is supposed to be straight. It's not rare for straight writers to write gay main characters now but generally in books with a good bunch of main characters (The art of fielding, City on fire). CMBYN is a strange debut for a straight man (of course you have Days without end, but it's not a debut novel and it's dedicated to his gay son). I'm maybe one of the few that hated CMBYN back in the day. Aciman's writing is gorgeous but i found Elio incredibly annoying and Oliver a coward. Maybe Aciman is simply going back to the type of storyline that worked better for him, as far as i know his second and third novels have different themes

r57 typed "he should of". I thought only frauen did this.

I'm told that Aciman has found that only his gay-themed work sells, so he is concentrating on that genre. ENIGMA has many similarities to CMBYN, especially sexual obsession, and I enjoyed it a lot. He definitely has daddy issues, since the father in each book figures strongly in the character's psychology.

Oh, Christ, it's turning into another Call My By Your Name thread.

Has anyone here fucked Greer?

Here's the book for those who haven't yet read it.

See his author page at Amazon for his other stuff.

HEY!!! We don't like successful gays here on DL.

I thought it was just me! Read 39 pages and just could not muster a fuck.

Possibly the luckiest Pulitzer Prize winner ever.

You can be both lucky and deserving.

Is his asshole hairy or smooth? Asking for a friend.

Ginger; you figure it out.

So do his friends and family always call him Andrew Sean when referring to him? Or just Andrew? Or Sean?

I mean - it sounds a little pretentious using the two names doesn’t it?

I went to school with a kid tho - we called him Les - or Leslie if teasing him! - but his Austrian mother always called him Leslie Roland - like they should have been hyphenated.

Just curious as to what the story is here with our Pulitzer-winning writer...?

R108 My guess is there are a number of Andrew Greers, even among writers. He may have decided to use the middle name so as not to be confused with them. I know that people in business and academia often used first name m.i. last name (e.g. Andrew S. Greer), but that may have seemed too prosaic.

R74, so spot-on, lol.

Add Andrew Sullivan to that list.

Anyway, I just bought the book and now I see everyone seems to hate it!

Looks like he might have a nice anus

It's a fun enough, breezy read, but I really struggle to see the Pulitzer-worthiness.

Lots of books are Pulitzer winner headscratchers, but in this case I was delighted that it gave the little-known author a professional leg up.

He seems to have a very rewarding and fulfilled life so I hate him.

Thanks R114, you speak for all of here at DL.

I would like to shave his hole and then watch him ride a dildo while he read his book aloud.

Is he really that little known? because he had his previous books published all over Europe and some of them had nice sales. In fact one of the things that seemed to prevent him from winning was being too commercial (of course The Goldfinch broke that bareer for good some years ago). And it's something that happens every year that a book with good sales win (The goldfinch, All the light we can not see) there's a good amount of criticism. I found Tinkers an interesting but very unconsistent novel, but of course it was a book totally under the radar, the small publisher, the unknown writer wich of course means zero criticism after its victory

Little known compared to a lot of writers. As evidenced by the number of people on this thread who said they had no idea who he was.

Speaking of reading, has there been a recent thread on What Are You Reading? If so, I've missed it.

Yes, but that doesn't mean a thing. Sometimes a read bestsellers list and most of the names are totally unknown for me (and in most cases those books are not even the first bestseller from that author). It's easier not knowing successful writers (or critically aclaimed) than singers or actors who are successful (even if you don't listen mainstream music or don't go to cinema often) I usually follow a webpage that makes predictions about the possible Pulitzer winner, Less was number 10 on that prediction so it was clearly one of the favourites (but for most people on that site that fact went unnoticed till he won the prize). As far as i know the novel had good sales before winning the Pulitzer

R118, here is the current “What are you reading?” thread.

Thanks, r120!

I sorta liked "LESS" thought it was a bit clever and funny at times. Didn't love it and surprised it won a pull it sir (please, a few more times till i finish) award

R117. I liked tinkers a lot, but it probably helped harding’s chances that his advisor, Marilynne Robinson, was on the committee that year,

I know it's not cool what i am going to say but my feelings about Tinkers are the same that i have at The Goldfinch. Both have great parts but are clearly uneven. Give the pulitzer to Tinkers was cool because it was a small novel from an unkown writer and it was the opposite with The Goldfinch because it was a bestseller and Donna Tartt has millions of fans. The difference is that being uneven in a short novel is more problematic for me than being uneven in a very long one. My problem with The Goldfinch winning is that i loved a lot of novels that year than in my opinion were way better, and if they wanted to give the award to an uneven novel i prefered The interestings. In the end is a bunch of people given an award, the discussions on the Booker are legendary (with a lot of controversies) and sometimes the winner is simply bad (i hate Life of Pi) but following literary awards can be very useful to find new writers (or discover some that you didn't know)

LESS is a perfectly entertaining rueful-comic novel, so I am wondering what else was in the mix for the Pulitzer. Is this really the best work of American fiction in 2017?

Well, the comments on a page that makes predictions about the winner was that this was not a particularly strong year. The favourite was Sing, unburied, sing, but i had very clear that they were not going to give the award to a National book award winner for the second year in a row (i'm very curious about that novel because i had very ambivalent feelings about Ward's previous novel, Salvage the bones). To be honest i thought they would give the award to Joyce Carol Oates or Alice McDermott, both had strong novels and were nominated several times before (but i was completely wrong)

I doubt that GOLDFINCH won because it was wildly popular. I think juries often go out of their way to do just the opposite—call attention to a book that isn't on the bestseller list. Is it beyond the realm of possibility that they disagree with you about its quality? Like any prize, it's a subjective decision, based on three judges—different every year—whose consensus opinion is subject to a wide variety of influences. Was LESS the best novel of the year? Maybe, maybe not. I'm just happy that went to a book that treated its gay main character with sympathy, intelligence, and wit.

Tinkers (which I like nonetheless) probably won because Marilynne Robinson was on the Fiction jury that year and Paul Harding had been her student. I doubt it would have come to anyone's attention otherwise--though I like it a lot (despite seeing its flaws). A friend of mine said she thought it seemed like a draft--it may well have been stronger with more guided editing.

I think I may have dated this guy, a million years ago.

1-800-GAY-FACE

"Bestselling author Andrew Sean Greer is popular with his students"

Both of them.

Andy Greer Andy Greer yes he was just Andy Greer at Brown and not all that. I guess he's better looking now. I can't even remember if I slept with him or one of my boyfriends did. But thats a nice prize to win! Congrats!

Tinkers sucked.

Looks better with facial hair:

Bulk seems to suit him:

Don't forget that the final choice is made not by the jury but by the full Pulitzer board - that helps account for prizes to popular novels like Goldfinch and All the Light (though not for ones like Tinkers) - and maybe also accessible/relatable ones like Less

Did North Morgan send him a congratulatory telegram or tweet?

My library has 21 copies, and I'm down to #180 on the waiting list.

R136: I don't think being a popular writer help you at all unless you are a writer on the vein of Phillip Roth or Cormac McCarthy. The goldfinch was a big anomaly back in the day, Donna Tartt was considered mid brow, a good writer but too mainstream for big awards (like John Irving, for example). Her victory was not exactly surprised because the book received a lot of praise (being an elusive writer help her) but after winning receive a lot of backlash for the flaws of the book (in my opinion Tinkers is equaly unever but in a lot less pages). To be true i think part of the backlash was due to the fact that it was a strong year with a lot of great novels

All the light we can not see is a different kind of anomaly. It's true the novel was inmensely popular but the writer was not that known before the novel. It was nominated to the NBA first, but most people thought it would not win because the theme. Pulitzer generaly goes for american themes, and All the light we can not see was the first year in a good while that the american theme was not prevalent (its win made possible the wins of The orphan master's son and The sympathizer).

Less is a weird winner, but not because Sean Greer is a popular writer but because it's a comedy, something very rare on this type of awards. Empire Falls has a lot of fun but everybody knows how it ends. The novel was a bit under the radar but it was it was in the predictions to win (not the same case with the finalists). Maybe they wanted something more surprising after a year where the winner and the finalists were very predictable

I tried to read Less and made it about 20 pages and gave up.

They needed a gay to fill their token quota. Good for him. Boring book.

R141: Sorry but that's absurd. They have plenty of opportunities to give the award to a gay man in recent years and they didn't. The last gay winner (if there are other i don't know) it was Michael Cunningham with The hours almost twenty years ago.

If they want to go with tendencies they would award a woman. Since Donna Tartt all the winner were men

I just put a hold on this book at my library to check on all the hubbub. I am number 27 in line with 13 copies out. See ya at Christmas! (he could be my type, btw)

"They ha[d] plenty of opportunities to give the award to a gay man in recent years and they didn't. "

Precisely why they did; he's innocuously pale and cute, a token gay. There's nothing radical or super-gay about the boring little book.

Cunningham's a gay who's mainstream. He only includes a gay character in family sagas. Not a "gay" writer, but an author who is gay.

I loved it. It was the perfect summer beach read. Glad he won.

"Summer beach reads" are not Pulitzer-worthy.

R145, do you also think Pia Zadora was robbed of an Oscar?

I liked it. Some of the protagonist’s adventures felt too sitcom-ish: unrealistic behaviour by the people he meets, clearly there for a punchline. But when Greer focused on the interior world of Less, and his past failed romances... those passages hit close to home, like a sucker punch.

R144: So basically Alan Hollinghurst is the only gay writer who won a big award that matters to you, because Marlon James and James Hannaham novels are not about being gay either.

And no, they could care less about giving the award to a minority for the sake of it. They gave the award to man after man in recent years when everything is about women right now.

Curiously What belongs to you which plot is so gay that seems a cliche got nominated to two big awards (mainstream).

Anyway awards make mistakes constantly. The bestseller between the booker winners is Life of Pi which is probably one of the worst winners ever

Stephen McCauley’s latest novel is one of my favorites this year.

I wonder if The Great Believers will receive award attention?

R150: There's a lot of 80's revival. The truth is Christodora was on a lot best of the year lists but didn't got any big award nomination.

I don't remember any Pulitzer winner that deals with AIDS apart of The hours

I wouldn't touch a book that had been fingered by dozens of readers before me.

Reading Christadora now so far so good but I had to laugh when he revealed Jared's cock. Of course it was huge.

Is there a “What books are you reading in 2018” Part II thread? The other one just maxed out.

R154: Yes, there's a brand new thread