August 3, 2025 • 22 mins
Introduces the protagonist, Arthur Less, a novelist approaching fifty who embarks on a global journey to avoid attending his former lover's wedding. The narrative unfolds through Arthur's experiences in various countries, including Mexico, Germany, France, Morocco, India, and Japan, detailing his awkward encounters, professional struggles, and introspective reflections on aging, love, and his past relationships, particularly with the poet Robert Brownburn and his current on-again, off-again boyfriend, Freddy Pelu. The text provides a rich tapestry of cultural observations and humorous self-deprecation, often hinting at a deeper narrative being told by an unnamed, omniscient narrator who seems to know Arthur intimately. Through his travels, Arthur confronts his perceived failures, the nature of his identity as a gay writer, and the lingering presence of his past, ultimately leading him back home to a reunion that brings his journey full circle.
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You can listen and download our episodes for free on more than 10 different platforms:
https://linktr.ee/book_shelter
Get the Book now from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Less-Winner-Pulitzer-Prize-Novel/dp/0316316121?&linkCode=ll1&tag=cvthunderx-20&linkId=73e5bac154cb7854105f36a10203e9e3&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the deep dive. We're the place where we
take your sources and really pull out the key insights
and nuggets of knowledge.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
That's the goal.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Today. We're diving into a novel, a pretty spatial one, actually,
Andrew Sean Grier's Pulitzer Prize winner Less. Our mission basically
is to trace this hilarious but also quite poignant journey
of Arthur Less. He's a man trying, well, pretty desperately
to escape his.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Own life right and maybe just maybe find his way
home in the process.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Exactly. We're going to follow him, Arthur Less, novelist almost fifty,
as he jets off to all these international literary events.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, and what's so interesting, like you said, is it's
not about fame, Not really, It's this incredibly elaborate plan
to flee a wedding invitation.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
From his younger ex lover Freddie Palou ouch big ouch.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
So we'll explore how trying to avoid everything actually forces
him into confronting well everything, love, regret who he even is.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Okay, I'm ready. It sounds like a ride. Prepare for
uh self, deprecating humor glore, some really touching moments, and
definitely a few cringe worthy mishaps, Oh.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Plenty of those. The Accidental Escape New York and a
Journey Underway.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So where does it all kick off? Where? In a
New York hotel? Arthur Less is there? Nearly fifty, still handsome,
the book says, but kind of fading like old bronze.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, that's the description. He's waiting for. This seemingly prestigious
interview with HH Mandarin, big sci fi author.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Sounds impressive, but the catch.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
The catch is it's unpaid. He only took it because,
and the narrator tells us this straight up, he was
terribly desperate and it fit the escape plan itinerary.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Ah, the itinerary. So the humiliation starts right away, doesn't it?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Pretty much immediately, Mandum's escort mistakes and for a woman
calls him miss Arthur.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Miss Arthur why.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Apparently because one of his ebooks had a really compelling
female narrator, which the narrator points out is ironically one
of the few rave reviews he's ever gotten.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Wow. Okay, so he's a minor author, not getting recognized.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
On planes, definitely not. And this whole world tour panels,
teaching gigs, weird festivals, it's all just this complex architecture
of avoidance.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
To dodge Freddy's wedding. He couldn't just RSVP no, apparently not.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Couldn't face the sympathy or maybe the cackling as he
puts it, from their old group of friends. So easier
to just circumnavigate the globe as you do, echoes of
the past, loves, losses, and the literary path.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Right, Okay, So to really get Arthur, we need to
rewind a bit, you know, understand the baggage she's carrying.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Absolutely. His defining relationship for a long time, anyway, was
with Robert Brownburn, older guy, famous poet, major figure, and
Less live with him, Yeah, from his early twenties into
his thirties in this little shack on the Vulcan steps
in San Francisco. Sounds quite romantic actually.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And Robert nurtured his writing. He did.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Less's first novel, Calypso, came out of that time. It's
a retelling of the Calypso myth, but with a twist.
World War two soldier washes ashore, falls for a local man,
then goes back to his wife.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Hmm. Interesting. Did it do well?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Moderately successful? Yeah, but it also got him his first
real taste of critical savaging this reviewer Richard Champion.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Oh, I remember this bit? What did he call him?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
A magniloquent spoony? A magniloquent spoony which apparently means like
foolishly sentimental or tenderhearted, but in a really dismissive way.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Ouch. And then Robert wins a pulletzer around the same.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Time, exactly talk about feeling overshadowed. Robert's friend Stella Berry
even tells Less sort of cynically, don't win one of these,
implying it kills your real writing.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Heavy stuff. And then Robert leads him.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Just says, I will not be coming home brutal. So
you see how all this, the early praise, the harsh criticism,
the big loss, shapes his whole self image.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
And there's Robert's ex wife too, right Mary and Brownburn, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Adding another layer. She apparently warned young Arthur on a
beach once take care of my Robert, so Less stepped
into this already complicated dynamic.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Okay, so that's Robert. Then there's Freddie Palou, the reason
for the whole trip. How did they meet?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
It's kind of tangled. Freddie is the son of Carlos Palou,
who was an old rival of Less's.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
An old rival son.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Oh yeah, Freddy couldn't stand living with his dad, so
he started crashing at Less's place a lot. Eventually Just moved.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
In, and Less saw him as.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
What initially just a diversion. Less usually went for older men. Remember,
Freddie was young, dreamy, simple, lusty, bookish, you know, harmless.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
But it wasn't just a diversion, was it.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Not at all? It lasted nine years, became arguably the
central relationship of his life, even if he didn't quite
grasp it at the time. It shows how these things
you don't expect can become well profound.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
And Freddy grew up during that time, became mister Pillu,
a teacher.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Exactly matured. And then he's the one who ends it,
just states I can't come around here anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And Less couldn't say goodbye.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Nope, just managed it's not really goodbye, which is what
Frenny asks the killer question, You.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Want me to stay here with you forever?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah, and Less just doesn't answer, or can't, And that silence,
that unspoken yes he couldn't voice, hangs over everything. Huge
regret man.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
We also find out Less wasn't exactly faithful right the ring.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Story, Yeah, the Cartier wedding ring incident. Yes, Robert's ring
lost it in a mushroom bin at the grocery store
while being unfaithful in a mushroom bin. Seriously, seriously, he
had to get help from a bunch of straight guys,
this band of brothers to find it, and even though
he got it back, the story goes that when he
told Robert later, Robert saw everything, knew exactly what had happened.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
So Less has this pattern of messing things up. Yet
Freddy called him braves.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah, Freddie apparently told someone Less was the bravest person
I know, which is just worlds away from how Less
sees himself as this clumsy, spoony failure.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
And his agent didn't help matters. Rejecting his new book
swift Yep.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Peter Hunt basically said it was too wistful, too poignant,
code for two games Less figures, and adds insult to
injury by saying it's hard to feel bad for this
swift fellow.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Oof no wonder he needed to escape the global gauntlet misunderstandings, mediocrity,
and moments of truth. Okay, so the escape route first
proper stop after that New York intro Mexico city.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Right, he gets assign this young poet escort Arturo. Seems
helpful at first, but Arturo drops the bomb that the
whole festival for the next two days, anyway, is entirely
in Spanish.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
And less studied German.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Diligently studied German. So he's basically sidelined frustrated. Oh and
the hotel owner also calls him miss Arthur. It's becoming
a theme.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
This is just wow. What else happens in Mexico.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Well, there's a city tour with Arturo and another writer
just called the Head. They ride the subway which has
these cool pictograms. Flower to tomb.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Is one flower to tomb Poetic, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
They go to a market see crickets and worms for sale,
standard tourist stuff kinda. But then the Head asks Less
point blank about living with a genius like Robert and
if Less thinks of himself as well mediocrity directly ask
him that Yep, hits Less right where it hurts, especially
after his agent just rejected Swift for being essentially not compelling.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Enough any other classic Less moments.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Oh, absolutely the chili tasting contest. He tries the super
spicy one and declares it tastes like his grandmother's chow
chow okay, which, apparently due to a Spanish false cognate,
is absolutely hilarious and may be a bit rude. Everyone
cracks up. He just keeps stumping at it.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Poor Arthur. Was there anyone he wanted to see there?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Well, sort of dreaded, but also maybe wanted. Marian Brownburne,
Robert's ex wife, was scheduled to be on a panel with.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Him, the one who warned him to take care of Robert.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
That's her. He's terrified she'll judge him for, you know,
taking Robert away. But then she cancels broken.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Hip and he's relieved.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Surprisingly, no, he feels this horrible, deflating sorrow, genuine worry
about her. It's complex, His feelings are never simple. And
then the panel gets renamed Una Noche called Arthur Less.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
An evening with Arthur Less. Yeah, after the other.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Person canceled, exactly, setting him up ironically to talk about mediocrity.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Okay, moving on where next? Italy Sounds promising a literary prize.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
That's the lure. Yeah, but the journey starts badly, of course,
confusing airport pickup. He ends up at a golf resort
because he misread the sign Sriess as well himself less.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Oh, for goodness sake, But he is a finalist for
a prize.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
He is for a prestigious one. But even that brings
back bad memories likewi like a previous nomination, the Wildenstein
literary laurels, where that critic Finley.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Dwyer, the magniloquent spoony guy. No wait, different critic, different.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Critic, same kind of pain. Finley Dwyer, publicly called calypso
assimilationist and self hating, said Less belonged in the garden
of bad gaze.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
The garden of bad gays.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
That's harsh, extremely It made Less feel shrunk tiny. So
even in Italy with this new nomination, he feels like
an impostor. He meets the other finalists, all super intellectual
and intimidating, and.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
He assumes his book is only good in Italian, pretty much.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
He fantasizes that the translator Juliana Monti must have super
translated his mediocre English into something brilliant. He feels the
minusculitude of his.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Own worth minusculatude. Okay, any bright spots in Italy A
tiny one.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
A call from his Italian publisher corrects his birth year.
He's actually forty nine, not fifty. Buys himself a little
more time.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
It's a small victory. Indeed, did he keep up his
exercise routine?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
He had a rubber band set, Yeah, abandon it in
Italy another failed attempt at self improvement.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
I guess all right, Germany next, the land of the
language he actually studied, finally.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
And he decides to go all in speak only German
bravely but clumsily.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
How clumsy.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Well, he almost gets locked out of his apartment on
day one because of a confusing key fob system, and
he says things like I accept the pedestal power by mistake,
you know, classic Less, Oh.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Arthur said, something different happens here? Right? A connection?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, this is quite sweet. Actually he connects with his
young assistant, Bastion, a business student. How So, Bastian gets sick,
and Less, who's not known for his bedside manner, ends
up genuinely caring for him, feels heartsick with worry.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Oh that's a shift.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
It is Bastian even dreams Less gave him Brussels sprout juice,
which is weirdly specific. Less starts thinking he's contigious as
other people around the university gets sick too, But there's
real warmth there.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
He also teaches a class, a.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Very unconventional writing class at the UH Liberated University, gets
students cutting up books with scissors and white.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Out cutting up books to help them.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Love language again, apparently to break down reverence and just play.
It's actually kind.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Of radical, as his reading, is it in his a
staid lecture hall.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Oh, definitely not. It's in a nightclub called Spy Club.
Techno music, people dressed a spies under the train tracks,
totally surreal.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Spy club Okay, and something significant happens that night.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Huge Right there amidst the pulsing music and fake double agents,
he realizes it's a night of Freddy's wedding back in California.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Oh God. While he's at Spy Club, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
He pictures the whole thing, the beach, the white linen
ensues Joni Mitchell playing. Meanwhile, people are literally fainting during
his reading.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Fainting because of his German.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
He assumes it's his terrible German like ear poisoning. But
despite all that, or maybe because of it, he has
this moment of release. He dances like Peter Pan, feels
loved somehow.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Wow, that's quite a scene, it is.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
He wakes up the next morning at Baston's place and
he's fifty, truly.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Fifty, and how does that feel?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Hits him hard. He thinks about Freddy again, about not
being able to say yes to forever. He looks at
his novel swift and just sees a mess about a fool,
and that thought comes back hard to feel bad for
a middle aged white man, echoing the criticism.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Paris city alight, city of love, city of bureaucracy.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Seems like it for less. He gets tangled up in
the VAT refund system, you know, trying to get the
sales tax back.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Oh, that can be a nightmare.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Exactly, And it becomes this whole ordeal that forces him
to admit maybe his distress isn't just about turning fifty.
It's also about well, the money being broke.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
He does manage to snag an overbooked flight voucher, though.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
A little win gives him some cash and time in Paris.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, and he reconnects with someone from his past, Alexander
Layton from the Russian River School, a poet who left
the US because of racism.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
And he wanders around Paris.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
He does revisits places he and Freddy went years ago
during this indulgent week they spent there, and that triggers
a memory. With memory, he realizes Freddy had nursed him
through the flu on that trip, completely flips his script
about who took care of whom, shows him Freddy's quiet strength.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Again, that's a powerful But Paris also holds another less
pleasant encounter.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Ough Yes, Finley Dwyer, the garden of Baggay's critic. He
runs into him met a party.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Oh no, it's pretty much. Dwyer just lays into him again,
calls him a bad gay for not being inspiring enough.
Makes Less feel shrunk all over again.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Just brutal good. Then maybe a spark, a.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Very intense spark. At the same party, he meets Javier
handsome spaniard, green gold eyes. Major flirtation happening. Okay, potential rebound,
it seems like it until Hattier drops his own bombshell.
He's forty nine less his agent married for eighteen years.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Another dead end.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, Less is left with this intense longing. He just
wishes Javier would ask him to stay. Ask me, he thinks,
echoing that Freddie moment again, But now he's the one
wanting to be asked.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Did anything good come out of that night?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Well? Javier helps him finally mail his vat form, a
tiny practical victory emits the emotional wreckage. But that ask
me feeling lingers Morocco.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Next sounds exotic. Does the chaos continue? Oh?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
It starts with chaos. Landing is pure mayhem. A mob
scene at immigration. He meets up with his old friend
Lewis and Zora, who's fiftieth birthday.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
They're celebrating a joint fiftieth trip.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Fun accepts, except Lewis drops his own bombshell. He and
his husband Clark are divorcing after twenty years.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Twenty years? Why?
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Apparently Clark had set the secret timer on the relationship
years ago, and the timer just went off. Clark's marrying
someone else and Lewis is reading a poem at their wedding.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Wait, Lewis is reading at his ex husband's wedding to
someone else.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, Less is absolutely gutted. He saw Lewis and Clark
as his only hope for you know, lasting gay love.
But Lewis insists the separation is actually a success, completing
the journey they agreed on.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
A success. That's a perspective.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Does Zorra offer any comfort?
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Not exactly comfort. Zorra, who sounds pretty formidable, gives less
her critique of Swift basically the same thing. Hard to
feel sorry for a privileged white guy, even a gay one,
walling in his sorrows unless his reaction it finally snaps back,
tells her to bugger off. You can feel his frustration.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Boiling over doesn't sound like the most relaxing birthday trip.
What about the Sahara Camels?
Speaker 1 (15:01):
They do a camel track. Unless he sees these two
young camel boys just casually openly embracing it hits him
how hard that simple affection is for a gay man
back home, or even just close straight male friends in
say Chicago. Society's constraints makes him think about being alone.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, he reflects on how he's never really been alone,
always needing a man as a mirror. He starts to
wonder about embracing solitude even though it terrifies.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Him, and Zora has her own story.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Too, turns out yes. During a sandstorm, she confesses her
partner Janet, left her for the love of her life.
Zora's cynical about it. She asks Less, is that real?
Or is love just the everyday stuff, the partnership, walking,
the fucking dog, doing taxes.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
That's a deep question. Did Less have an answer?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
The book doesn't say explicitly, but it forces him to
think about his loves. Were they earth shattering or were
they the daily stuff? Or both?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
And he turns fifty again sort of in Morocco.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Well, he turns fifty wall in Morocco.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
In this alpine resort, their guide Mohammed, who's secretly a
writer himself, tells him age is nothing. He has nothing
to fear.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Is Less believe him.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Less knows he usually gets things wrong. He accepts he's
a fool. Swift still feels like a mess. But then
he remembers Carlos's voice.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
From that dream the Rival whose son Freddie is.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah, Carlos saying lest his whole life is a comedy,
and that despite the bumbling, he's somehow woned. It's this
idea that maybe his failures aren't failures at all. The
home stretch, fractures, fate in full circles.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Okay, almost there, India a Christian retreat. M M, that
sounds unexpected.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
It was Carlos's suggestion, and yeah, it's bizarre warnings about
snakes and bats. A past or obsessed with recycling, who
also explains why local motorcyclists don't wear helmets properly. I
don't they so they can take phone calls while driving,
apparently because there's no side of the road to pull over.
Just wild. And Less can't write because of constant noise
from picnickers outside his weird pentagonal room.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Sounds stressful, and then he gets injured physically injured.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yeah, fractures his ankle on a sewing needle left on
the floor.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
A sewing needle hat.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
It's just speak less clumsiness really lands him in the hospital.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
And who shows up, let me guess Carlos.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Carlos himself, and he's not just there to comfort. He
wants to buy Less's old letters from Robert Brownburn for
his Carlos Pollute collection.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Trying to buy Less his past.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Pretty much trying to own the narrative. Then Carlos shares.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
His theory the comedy tragedy thing.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, first, he says Less started commutic but became tragic.
But then he flips it, says Less his whole life
is a comedy, that he's one, that he has the
best life of anyone. I know.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Wow. That must have been jarring for Less completely.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
But maybe it sinks in a little because he starts
working on Swift again, deciding to make the character an
out and out loser for laughs, embracing the comedy.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Did Carlos strand him on an island? I remember something
about that?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
He did? A brief weird test of trust. Makes Less
think again about Freddy, about give him up, not fighting
for him. That regret keeps bubbling up.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Final stop Japan? What awaits him there?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Lost luggage naturally and a job he's totally unqualified for
reviewing kaiseki cuisine. That's super elaborate Japanese meal.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
He knows nothing about it, nothing at all.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
He admits. He gets to the end, the proprietress apologizes
he's too early for the cherry blossoms. Another thing missed?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Any literary ghosts here?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yes, his room was apparently a favorite of the famous
novelist Callabada Yasunari. He even sees the garden Yasunari wrote about.
Then the proprietress's elderly mother mistakes him for Charlie Chaplin
from an old photo Charlie Chaplin.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Okay, and the proprietress is meeting the emperor.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Having tea with the Emperor while Less feels utterly insignificant standard.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
But then the big news arrives.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
The telegram from Marion Brownburn, the woman he once feared.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
What does it say?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Robert has had a stroke? Back home now?
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Oh wow? Full circle back to Robert exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
He manages a video call. Robert is frail, slurring, but alive,
and he tells Less.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
What does Robert say?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
He says, you're young, You'll always be that way for me,
and confirms Less didn't marry Freddy, which Robert had somehow thought.
And then love you always, Arthur Less.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Closure, real closure, That's.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Huge, absolutely massive, a final validation maybe?
Speaker 1 (19:19):
So how does he handle Japan? After that? The food,
the suit?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
He has another kaisaki meal, finds it amazing but also
familiar that theme again. He gets a new gray suit,
replacing the blue one he lost, somewhere a fresh start,
maybe does he drive? He rents a car, navigates driving
on the other side, gets freaked out by shrieking toll
booth ladies. It triggers all his anxieties again, being a
(19:43):
bad writer, bad gay, letting Freddy go.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Even at the end, the self doubt is there.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
It is. But then a truly strange, poignant moment at
his last restaurant, Yes, he sees a woman wearing his
mother's orange scarf, a specific cherish scarf he thought was
lost forever after she died.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
His mother's scarf.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
It's never explained, just this moment of impossible connection, and
it reminds him of Freddy comforting him when his mother died,
another quiet act of love he'd maybe overlooked.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
And the tea room, the tiny door.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Ah, Yes, he has to crawl through this tiny door
to enter a ceremonial tea room, ultimate humility, and inside
he sees the full sized version of this miniature Japanese
garden he loved as a child, a garden that seemed
to hold the past. It's like finding a missing piece.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
And then the book gives us the biggest reveal of all.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
The narrator, the voice, telling us this whole story, guiding
us through Less's mishaps and heartaches.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
It's Freddy Palou, It's.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Freddy all along. We find him waking up into heati
next to his new husband Tom, and Freddy realizes he
depends on Less. Less is his landmark. He realizes he
was wrong to leave, that he did want Less to
stay forever, that he should have understood Less's silence.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
So Less comes home.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Finally returns to San Francisco, trips on a rose bush,
snagging his new suit, still clumsy, Old Arthur and Freddie.
Freddie is there waiting on the porch, looking at Old Arthur,
old love, and Less looks up towards home, towards Freddie.
It's open ended but hopeful a return outro.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Wow, what a journey, I mean, around the world and
back again, emotionally and literally.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
It really is extraordinary, escaping a wedding, snumbling through humiliations,
but somehow finding well, maybe love again, or at least
the possibility.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
It's set a profound look at aging, at love, regret,
and finally being seen, maybe seeing yourself clearly.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
For the first time exactly, And think about Freddie narrating it.
Less's life, which seems like a comedy of errors or
a tragedy depending on who you ask. Freddie reframes it.
It makes you wonder, doesn't it. How do we narrate
our own lives?
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah? Are we the fool, the hero? Or maybe, like Less,
we're kind of winners in this unexpected comedy, especially when
seen through the eyes of someone who really loves us.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
And maybe, like Freddie, seems to realize, the big earth
shattering romance isn't the point. Maybe the real love stories
just a recognizing home, recognizing that person who feels like home,
and finding your.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Way back, even if it takes a ridiculously complicated trip
around the globe to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Precisely, a really compelling thought to leave you with. Thanks
for joining us for this deep dive into the wonderful,
complicated world of Arthur Less.
Welcome to the deep dive. We're the place where we
take your sources and really pull out the key insights
and nuggets of knowledge.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
That's the goal.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Today. We're diving into a novel, a pretty spatial one, actually,
Andrew Sean Grier's Pulitzer Prize winner Less. Our mission basically
is to trace this hilarious but also quite poignant journey
of Arthur Less. He's a man trying, well, pretty desperately
to escape his.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Own life right and maybe just maybe find his way
home in the process.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Exactly. We're going to follow him, Arthur Less, novelist almost fifty,
as he jets off to all these international literary events.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, and what's so interesting, like you said, is it's
not about fame, Not really, It's this incredibly elaborate plan
to flee a wedding invitation.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
From his younger ex lover Freddie Palou ouch big ouch.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
So we'll explore how trying to avoid everything actually forces
him into confronting well everything, love, regret who he even is.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Okay, I'm ready. It sounds like a ride. Prepare for
uh self, deprecating humor glore, some really touching moments, and
definitely a few cringe worthy mishaps, Oh.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Plenty of those. The Accidental Escape New York and a
Journey Underway.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So where does it all kick off? Where? In a
New York hotel? Arthur Less is there? Nearly fifty, still handsome,
the book says, but kind of fading like old bronze.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, that's the description. He's waiting for. This seemingly prestigious
interview with HH Mandarin, big sci fi author.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Sounds impressive, but the catch.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
The catch is it's unpaid. He only took it because,
and the narrator tells us this straight up, he was
terribly desperate and it fit the escape plan itinerary.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Ah, the itinerary. So the humiliation starts right away, doesn't it?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Pretty much immediately, Mandum's escort mistakes and for a woman
calls him miss Arthur.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Miss Arthur why.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Apparently because one of his ebooks had a really compelling
female narrator, which the narrator points out is ironically one
of the few rave reviews he's ever gotten.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Wow. Okay, so he's a minor author, not getting recognized.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
On planes, definitely not. And this whole world tour panels,
teaching gigs, weird festivals, it's all just this complex architecture
of avoidance.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
To dodge Freddy's wedding. He couldn't just RSVP no, apparently not.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Couldn't face the sympathy or maybe the cackling as he
puts it, from their old group of friends. So easier
to just circumnavigate the globe as you do, echoes of
the past, loves, losses, and the literary path.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Right, Okay, So to really get Arthur, we need to
rewind a bit, you know, understand the baggage she's carrying.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Absolutely. His defining relationship for a long time, anyway, was
with Robert Brownburn, older guy, famous poet, major figure, and
Less live with him, Yeah, from his early twenties into
his thirties in this little shack on the Vulcan steps
in San Francisco. Sounds quite romantic actually.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And Robert nurtured his writing. He did.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Less's first novel, Calypso, came out of that time. It's
a retelling of the Calypso myth, but with a twist.
World War two soldier washes ashore, falls for a local man,
then goes back to his wife.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Hmm. Interesting. Did it do well?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Moderately successful? Yeah, but it also got him his first
real taste of critical savaging this reviewer Richard Champion.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Oh, I remember this bit? What did he call him?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
A magniloquent spoony? A magniloquent spoony which apparently means like
foolishly sentimental or tenderhearted, but in a really dismissive way.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Ouch. And then Robert wins a pulletzer around the same.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Time, exactly talk about feeling overshadowed. Robert's friend Stella Berry
even tells Less sort of cynically, don't win one of these,
implying it kills your real writing.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Heavy stuff. And then Robert leads him.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Just says, I will not be coming home brutal. So
you see how all this, the early praise, the harsh criticism,
the big loss, shapes his whole self image.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
And there's Robert's ex wife too, right Mary and Brownburn, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Adding another layer. She apparently warned young Arthur on a
beach once take care of my Robert, so Less stepped
into this already complicated dynamic.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Okay, so that's Robert. Then there's Freddie Palou, the reason
for the whole trip. How did they meet?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
It's kind of tangled. Freddie is the son of Carlos Palou,
who was an old rival of Less's.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
An old rival son.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Oh yeah, Freddy couldn't stand living with his dad, so
he started crashing at Less's place a lot. Eventually Just moved.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
In, and Less saw him as.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
What initially just a diversion. Less usually went for older men. Remember,
Freddie was young, dreamy, simple, lusty, bookish, you know, harmless.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
But it wasn't just a diversion, was it.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Not at all? It lasted nine years, became arguably the
central relationship of his life, even if he didn't quite
grasp it at the time. It shows how these things
you don't expect can become well profound.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
And Freddy grew up during that time, became mister Pillu,
a teacher.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Exactly matured. And then he's the one who ends it,
just states I can't come around here anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And Less couldn't say goodbye.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Nope, just managed it's not really goodbye, which is what
Frenny asks the killer question, You.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Want me to stay here with you forever?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah, and Less just doesn't answer, or can't, And that silence,
that unspoken yes he couldn't voice, hangs over everything. Huge
regret man.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
We also find out Less wasn't exactly faithful right the ring.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Story, Yeah, the Cartier wedding ring incident. Yes, Robert's ring
lost it in a mushroom bin at the grocery store
while being unfaithful in a mushroom bin. Seriously, seriously, he
had to get help from a bunch of straight guys,
this band of brothers to find it, and even though
he got it back, the story goes that when he
told Robert later, Robert saw everything, knew exactly what had happened.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
So Less has this pattern of messing things up. Yet
Freddy called him braves.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah, Freddie apparently told someone Less was the bravest person
I know, which is just worlds away from how Less
sees himself as this clumsy, spoony failure.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
And his agent didn't help matters. Rejecting his new book
swift Yep.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Peter Hunt basically said it was too wistful, too poignant,
code for two games Less figures, and adds insult to
injury by saying it's hard to feel bad for this
swift fellow.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Oof no wonder he needed to escape the global gauntlet misunderstandings, mediocrity,
and moments of truth. Okay, so the escape route first
proper stop after that New York intro Mexico city.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Right, he gets assign this young poet escort Arturo. Seems
helpful at first, but Arturo drops the bomb that the
whole festival for the next two days, anyway, is entirely
in Spanish.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
And less studied German.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Diligently studied German. So he's basically sidelined frustrated. Oh and
the hotel owner also calls him miss Arthur. It's becoming
a theme.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
This is just wow. What else happens in Mexico.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Well, there's a city tour with Arturo and another writer
just called the Head. They ride the subway which has
these cool pictograms. Flower to tomb.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Is one flower to tomb Poetic, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
They go to a market see crickets and worms for sale,
standard tourist stuff kinda. But then the Head asks Less
point blank about living with a genius like Robert and
if Less thinks of himself as well mediocrity directly ask
him that Yep, hits Less right where it hurts, especially
after his agent just rejected Swift for being essentially not compelling.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Enough any other classic Less moments.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Oh, absolutely the chili tasting contest. He tries the super
spicy one and declares it tastes like his grandmother's chow
chow okay, which, apparently due to a Spanish false cognate,
is absolutely hilarious and may be a bit rude. Everyone
cracks up. He just keeps stumping at it.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Poor Arthur. Was there anyone he wanted to see there?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Well, sort of dreaded, but also maybe wanted. Marian Brownburne,
Robert's ex wife, was scheduled to be on a panel with.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Him, the one who warned him to take care of Robert.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
That's her. He's terrified she'll judge him for, you know,
taking Robert away. But then she cancels broken.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Hip and he's relieved.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Surprisingly, no, he feels this horrible, deflating sorrow, genuine worry
about her. It's complex, His feelings are never simple. And
then the panel gets renamed Una Noche called Arthur Less.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
An evening with Arthur Less. Yeah, after the other.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Person canceled, exactly, setting him up ironically to talk about mediocrity.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Okay, moving on where next? Italy Sounds promising a literary prize.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
That's the lure. Yeah, but the journey starts badly, of course,
confusing airport pickup. He ends up at a golf resort
because he misread the sign Sriess as well himself less.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Oh, for goodness sake, But he is a finalist for
a prize.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
He is for a prestigious one. But even that brings
back bad memories likewi like a previous nomination, the Wildenstein
literary laurels, where that critic Finley.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Dwyer, the magniloquent spoony guy. No wait, different critic, different.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Critic, same kind of pain. Finley Dwyer, publicly called calypso
assimilationist and self hating, said Less belonged in the garden
of bad gaze.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
The garden of bad gays.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
That's harsh, extremely It made Less feel shrunk tiny. So
even in Italy with this new nomination, he feels like
an impostor. He meets the other finalists, all super intellectual
and intimidating, and.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
He assumes his book is only good in Italian, pretty much.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
He fantasizes that the translator Juliana Monti must have super
translated his mediocre English into something brilliant. He feels the
minusculitude of his.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Own worth minusculatude. Okay, any bright spots in Italy A
tiny one.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
A call from his Italian publisher corrects his birth year.
He's actually forty nine, not fifty. Buys himself a little
more time.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
It's a small victory. Indeed, did he keep up his
exercise routine?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
He had a rubber band set, Yeah, abandon it in
Italy another failed attempt at self improvement.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
I guess all right, Germany next, the land of the
language he actually studied, finally.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
And he decides to go all in speak only German
bravely but clumsily.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
How clumsy.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Well, he almost gets locked out of his apartment on
day one because of a confusing key fob system, and
he says things like I accept the pedestal power by mistake,
you know, classic Less, Oh.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Arthur said, something different happens here? Right? A connection?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, this is quite sweet. Actually he connects with his
young assistant, Bastion, a business student. How So, Bastian gets sick,
and Less, who's not known for his bedside manner, ends
up genuinely caring for him, feels heartsick with worry.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Oh that's a shift.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
It is Bastian even dreams Less gave him Brussels sprout juice,
which is weirdly specific. Less starts thinking he's contigious as
other people around the university gets sick too, But there's
real warmth there.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
He also teaches a class, a.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Very unconventional writing class at the UH Liberated University, gets
students cutting up books with scissors and white.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Out cutting up books to help them.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Love language again, apparently to break down reverence and just play.
It's actually kind.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Of radical, as his reading, is it in his a
staid lecture hall.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Oh, definitely not. It's in a nightclub called Spy Club.
Techno music, people dressed a spies under the train tracks,
totally surreal.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Spy club Okay, and something significant happens that night.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Huge Right there amidst the pulsing music and fake double agents,
he realizes it's a night of Freddy's wedding back in California.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Oh God. While he's at Spy Club, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
He pictures the whole thing, the beach, the white linen
ensues Joni Mitchell playing. Meanwhile, people are literally fainting during
his reading.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Fainting because of his German.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
He assumes it's his terrible German like ear poisoning. But
despite all that, or maybe because of it, he has
this moment of release. He dances like Peter Pan, feels
loved somehow.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Wow, that's quite a scene, it is.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
He wakes up the next morning at Baston's place and
he's fifty, truly.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Fifty, and how does that feel?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Hits him hard. He thinks about Freddy again, about not
being able to say yes to forever. He looks at
his novel swift and just sees a mess about a fool,
and that thought comes back hard to feel bad for
a middle aged white man, echoing the criticism.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Paris city alight, city of love, city of bureaucracy.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Seems like it for less. He gets tangled up in
the VAT refund system, you know, trying to get the
sales tax back.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Oh, that can be a nightmare.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Exactly, And it becomes this whole ordeal that forces him
to admit maybe his distress isn't just about turning fifty.
It's also about well, the money being broke.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
He does manage to snag an overbooked flight voucher, though.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
A little win gives him some cash and time in Paris.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, and he reconnects with someone from his past, Alexander
Layton from the Russian River School, a poet who left
the US because of racism.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
And he wanders around Paris.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
He does revisits places he and Freddy went years ago
during this indulgent week they spent there, and that triggers
a memory. With memory, he realizes Freddy had nursed him
through the flu on that trip, completely flips his script
about who took care of whom, shows him Freddy's quiet strength.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Again, that's a powerful But Paris also holds another less
pleasant encounter.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Ough Yes, Finley Dwyer, the garden of Baggay's critic. He
runs into him met a party.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Oh no, it's pretty much. Dwyer just lays into him again,
calls him a bad gay for not being inspiring enough.
Makes Less feel shrunk all over again.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Just brutal good. Then maybe a spark, a.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Very intense spark. At the same party, he meets Javier
handsome spaniard, green gold eyes. Major flirtation happening. Okay, potential rebound,
it seems like it until Hattier drops his own bombshell.
He's forty nine less his agent married for eighteen years.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Another dead end.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, Less is left with this intense longing. He just
wishes Javier would ask him to stay. Ask me, he thinks,
echoing that Freddie moment again, But now he's the one
wanting to be asked.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Did anything good come out of that night?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Well? Javier helps him finally mail his vat form, a
tiny practical victory emits the emotional wreckage. But that ask
me feeling lingers Morocco.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Next sounds exotic. Does the chaos continue? Oh?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
It starts with chaos. Landing is pure mayhem. A mob
scene at immigration. He meets up with his old friend
Lewis and Zora, who's fiftieth birthday.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
They're celebrating a joint fiftieth trip.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Fun accepts, except Lewis drops his own bombshell. He and
his husband Clark are divorcing after twenty years.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Twenty years? Why?
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Apparently Clark had set the secret timer on the relationship
years ago, and the timer just went off. Clark's marrying
someone else and Lewis is reading a poem at their wedding.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Wait, Lewis is reading at his ex husband's wedding to
someone else.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, Less is absolutely gutted. He saw Lewis and Clark
as his only hope for you know, lasting gay love.
But Lewis insists the separation is actually a success, completing
the journey they agreed on.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
A success. That's a perspective.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Does Zorra offer any comfort?
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Not exactly comfort. Zorra, who sounds pretty formidable, gives less
her critique of Swift basically the same thing. Hard to
feel sorry for a privileged white guy, even a gay one,
walling in his sorrows unless his reaction it finally snaps back,
tells her to bugger off. You can feel his frustration.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Boiling over doesn't sound like the most relaxing birthday trip.
What about the Sahara Camels?
Speaker 1 (15:01):
They do a camel track. Unless he sees these two
young camel boys just casually openly embracing it hits him
how hard that simple affection is for a gay man
back home, or even just close straight male friends in
say Chicago. Society's constraints makes him think about being alone.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, he reflects on how he's never really been alone,
always needing a man as a mirror. He starts to
wonder about embracing solitude even though it terrifies.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Him, and Zora has her own story.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Too, turns out yes. During a sandstorm, she confesses her
partner Janet, left her for the love of her life.
Zora's cynical about it. She asks Less, is that real?
Or is love just the everyday stuff, the partnership, walking,
the fucking dog, doing taxes.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
That's a deep question. Did Less have an answer?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
The book doesn't say explicitly, but it forces him to
think about his loves. Were they earth shattering or were
they the daily stuff? Or both?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
And he turns fifty again sort of in Morocco.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Well, he turns fifty wall in Morocco.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
In this alpine resort, their guide Mohammed, who's secretly a
writer himself, tells him age is nothing. He has nothing
to fear.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Is Less believe him.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Less knows he usually gets things wrong. He accepts he's
a fool. Swift still feels like a mess. But then
he remembers Carlos's voice.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
From that dream the Rival whose son Freddie is.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah, Carlos saying lest his whole life is a comedy,
and that despite the bumbling, he's somehow woned. It's this
idea that maybe his failures aren't failures at all. The
home stretch, fractures, fate in full circles.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Okay, almost there, India a Christian retreat. M M, that
sounds unexpected.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
It was Carlos's suggestion, and yeah, it's bizarre warnings about
snakes and bats. A past or obsessed with recycling, who
also explains why local motorcyclists don't wear helmets properly. I
don't they so they can take phone calls while driving,
apparently because there's no side of the road to pull over.
Just wild. And Less can't write because of constant noise
from picnickers outside his weird pentagonal room.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Sounds stressful, and then he gets injured physically injured.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yeah, fractures his ankle on a sewing needle left on
the floor.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
A sewing needle hat.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
It's just speak less clumsiness really lands him in the hospital.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
And who shows up, let me guess Carlos.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Carlos himself, and he's not just there to comfort. He
wants to buy Less's old letters from Robert Brownburn for
his Carlos Pollute collection.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Trying to buy Less his past.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Pretty much trying to own the narrative. Then Carlos shares.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
His theory the comedy tragedy thing.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, first, he says Less started commutic but became tragic.
But then he flips it, says Less his whole life
is a comedy, that he's one, that he has the
best life of anyone. I know.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Wow. That must have been jarring for Less completely.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
But maybe it sinks in a little because he starts
working on Swift again, deciding to make the character an
out and out loser for laughs, embracing the comedy.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Did Carlos strand him on an island? I remember something
about that?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
He did? A brief weird test of trust. Makes Less
think again about Freddy, about give him up, not fighting
for him. That regret keeps bubbling up.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Final stop Japan? What awaits him there?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Lost luggage naturally and a job he's totally unqualified for
reviewing kaiseki cuisine. That's super elaborate Japanese meal.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
He knows nothing about it, nothing at all.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
He admits. He gets to the end, the proprietress apologizes
he's too early for the cherry blossoms. Another thing missed?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Any literary ghosts here?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yes, his room was apparently a favorite of the famous
novelist Callabada Yasunari. He even sees the garden Yasunari wrote about.
Then the proprietress's elderly mother mistakes him for Charlie Chaplin
from an old photo Charlie Chaplin.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Okay, and the proprietress is meeting the emperor.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Having tea with the Emperor while Less feels utterly insignificant standard.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
But then the big news arrives.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
The telegram from Marion Brownburn, the woman he once feared.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
What does it say?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Robert has had a stroke? Back home now?
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Oh wow? Full circle back to Robert exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
He manages a video call. Robert is frail, slurring, but alive,
and he tells Less.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
What does Robert say?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
He says, you're young, You'll always be that way for me,
and confirms Less didn't marry Freddy, which Robert had somehow thought.
And then love you always, Arthur Less.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Closure, real closure, That's.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Huge, absolutely massive, a final validation maybe?
Speaker 1 (19:19):
So how does he handle Japan? After that? The food,
the suit?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
He has another kaisaki meal, finds it amazing but also
familiar that theme again. He gets a new gray suit,
replacing the blue one he lost, somewhere a fresh start,
maybe does he drive? He rents a car, navigates driving
on the other side, gets freaked out by shrieking toll
booth ladies. It triggers all his anxieties again, being a
(19:43):
bad writer, bad gay, letting Freddy go.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Even at the end, the self doubt is there.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
It is. But then a truly strange, poignant moment at
his last restaurant, Yes, he sees a woman wearing his
mother's orange scarf, a specific cherish scarf he thought was
lost forever after she died.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
His mother's scarf.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
It's never explained, just this moment of impossible connection, and
it reminds him of Freddy comforting him when his mother died,
another quiet act of love he'd maybe overlooked.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
And the tea room, the tiny door.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Ah, Yes, he has to crawl through this tiny door
to enter a ceremonial tea room, ultimate humility, and inside
he sees the full sized version of this miniature Japanese
garden he loved as a child, a garden that seemed
to hold the past. It's like finding a missing piece.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
And then the book gives us the biggest reveal of all.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
The narrator, the voice, telling us this whole story, guiding
us through Less's mishaps and heartaches.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
It's Freddy Palou, It's.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Freddy all along. We find him waking up into heati
next to his new husband Tom, and Freddy realizes he
depends on Less. Less is his landmark. He realizes he
was wrong to leave, that he did want Less to
stay forever, that he should have understood Less's silence.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
So Less comes home.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Finally returns to San Francisco, trips on a rose bush,
snagging his new suit, still clumsy, Old Arthur and Freddie.
Freddie is there waiting on the porch, looking at Old Arthur,
old love, and Less looks up towards home, towards Freddie.
It's open ended but hopeful a return outro.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Wow, what a journey, I mean, around the world and
back again, emotionally and literally.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
It really is extraordinary, escaping a wedding, snumbling through humiliations,
but somehow finding well, maybe love again, or at least
the possibility.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
It's set a profound look at aging, at love, regret,
and finally being seen, maybe seeing yourself clearly.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
For the first time exactly, And think about Freddie narrating it.
Less's life, which seems like a comedy of errors or
a tragedy depending on who you ask. Freddie reframes it.
It makes you wonder, doesn't it. How do we narrate
our own lives?
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah? Are we the fool, the hero? Or maybe, like Less,
we're kind of winners in this unexpected comedy, especially when
seen through the eyes of someone who really loves us.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
And maybe, like Freddie, seems to realize, the big earth
shattering romance isn't the point. Maybe the real love stories
just a recognizing home, recognizing that person who feels like home,
and finding your.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Way back, even if it takes a ridiculously complicated trip
around the globe to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Precisely, a really compelling thought to leave you with. Thanks
for joining us for this deep dive into the wonderful,
complicated world of Arthur Less.
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