Don’t pretend, differences must be asserted
Andrew Sean Greer is on a flying visit to the Ceylon Literary Festival because he has a novel with a deadline waiting at home. Andrew is the 2018 Pulitzer-winning author of Less, a comic novel about the globetrotting of a gay man who just wants to avoid his former boyfriend’s wedding…
It’s comic “because I don’t think gay men are sad any more”, he says laughing. Indeed he is a happy sight with his bright clothing.
Andrew Sean Greer: Enjoying meeting Lankan authors
Andrew is a contemporary of Shyam Selvadurai, who he says is “maybe braver than myself – I admire him… It’s part of the fun of these festivals that we run into people you normally won’t meet in daily life.”
I ask Andrew how much of himself was transmitted into Arthur Less who is the protagonist of his novel (who also appears in the 2022 sequel Less is Lost). Andrew says he wrote the book from notes taken down in notebook, yet “it’s a work of fiction”.
“I worked carefully to make it a novel because life is not (like in the book) satisfying; life is not necessarily funny. He is me but the comic part is not myself – he’s a better man than myself.” Asked if he will feature Less again he says he might. “But I’ll have to wait till I’m older.”
Gay stereotypes are harmful, agrees Andrew, but part of queer culture has been to support that and turn those stereotypes which are seen as weaknesses – into strengths. “So rather than pretend that there are no differences”, gay men must assert their differences.
Travelling across rural America changed a lot of Andrew’s views on queerness –- “that there’s queer culture all across the United States and it wasn’t similar to urban culture”. Some sections of gay society are underrepresented, says Andrew. “The men of colour- and also quieter, nerdy men- because they are not made for television.”
The novel he is in a hurry to finish is a comedy set in his time in Italy. “I’m so happy to be writing it because life is so shitty right now for everyone that it’s nice to make something that I think will relieve pain.”
In Italy there’s a large Sri Lankan community and Andrew says “that community got me really curious about Sri Lanka. There’s a spirit of joy and hardships- they travel to Italy for work.”
While wishing his sojourn here was longer to allow visits outside Colombo, Andrew is enjoying meeting Sri Lankan writers. “We have the same experience inside, but in completely different languages and cultures – so it’s wonderful and humbling.”
Andrew was in a conversation with Molly Royden Winter on Saturday titled Not All Heroes Wear Capes.
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