The New Yorker Radio Hour: Andrew Sean Greer’s “It’s a Summer Day”

Date: April 24, 2018
Host: Deborah Treisman (Fiction Editor, The New Yorker)
Featured Guest: Andrew Sean Greer (author, reading from Less)
Episode Focus:
A Pulitzer Prize-winning excerpt from Andrew Sean Greer's comic novel Less—the story of Arthur Less, a midlevel novelist spiraling through a series of global literary events to escape heartbreak, as read by the author.

Episode Overview

This bonus episode celebrates Andrew Sean Greer’s recent Pulitzer Prize win for Less with Greer reading an extended excerpt (originally published in The New Yorker as "It’s a Summer Day"). The episode immerses listeners in the wry, comic, and quietly poignant inner world of Arthur Less as he navigates a prize ceremony in Italy—fleeing the wedding of his former lover and facing existential anxieties about love, self-worth, and professional validation.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Arthur Less’s Motivations and Escape

• [00:39] Less, a middling novelist, accepts every distant literary invitation—symposia, professorships, ceremonies—to avoid attending his ex’s wedding.
• Quote:

  "He is escaping a wedding, that of young Freddy to someone named Tom... In his panic state, [Less] grasped at other invitations... so that he could write with satisfaction on the RSVP card: 'Dear Freddy and Tom, my apologies, but I will be out of the country.'"
  [00:41, Andrew Sean Greer reading as narrator]

2. Mishaps and Self-Doubt Abroad

• [02:00–12:00]

  • Less’s journey to Turin is laced with existential insecurity; he feels out of place, bracing for embarrassment, "trading one indignity for a series of new ones."
  • Humorous airport scenes underscore his sense of awkwardness and outsider status, both as an American and as a gay man.

• Quote:

  "He feels un-American. He feels homosexual."
  [04:16, Greer as narrator]

  • A mix-up upon arrival (boarding the wrong car) intensifies his sense of being fate’s comic plaything, leading to fears of being carted off—literally and figuratively—to the wrong life.

• Quote:

  "He knows life's commedia dell'arte and how he has been cast."
  [11:35, Greer as narrator]

3. Alone at the Resort: Melancholy and Comic Solitude

• [13:00–19:00]
  • Les spends almost 24 hours alone at a golf resort, steeped in loneliness but oddly comforted by routine—swimming, saunas, and repetitive meals.
  • He finds delight in nature, especially in discovering "hummingbird moths," a detail symbolizing unexpected joy in exile.

4. Memory, Childhood, and the Weight of Failure

• [20:00–25:00]

  • Flashbacks to an awkward, isolated childhood in Delaware—his parents’ mixed feelings about his (lack of) athletic talent—mirror his adult sense of marginalization.
  • The narrative parallels past and present: "the famous rubber bands" of his makeshift adult workout become a link to his one moment of childhood sporting glory.

• Quote:

  "His father actually had to remind his son's coach... that it was a public athletic league... open to all, even the fumbling oafs among us."
  [23:15, Greer as narrator]

5. The Literary Prize and Its Absurdities

• [26:00–36:00]

  • Les meets the other prize finalists: a parade of intimidating, eccentric, or glamorous writers—each seeming "so intellectual," unlike him.
  • A memorable sequence of awkward small talk, literary one-upmanship, and writerly anxieties:
    • Ricardo (tattooed, young),
    • Louisa (elegant, sharp-tongued),
    • Vittorio (cartoon villain),
    • Harry (mirthful Finn).
  • Foster’s Lancet, the British main prizewinner, embodies both the farce and pathos of the literary circuit:

  “It’s a sad little cockfight they arrange because they have no talent themselves.”
  [33:20, Foster’s Lancet]

  • The final jury are local high school students, a further twist on the arbitrariness of artistic validation.
  • Through a series of comic interviews, Less dodges questions he’s unqualified to answer, clinging to a merry persona to hide ignorance.

• Quote:

  “Refusing to wax philosophical on subjects he chose to write about precisely because he does not understand them.”
  [35:00, Greer as narrator]

6. Ceremony, Self-Realization, and the True Meaning of Prizes

• [37:00]

  • In the prize ceremony (amid thunder, power outages, and awkward speeches), Less is seized by the absurdity and seriousness of the event.

  • He contemplates whether his book’s charm in Italy is due to genius translation—and acknowledges the arbitrariness and randomness of literary success.

  • Robert, Less’s former lover, delivers the episode’s keynote reflection:

  “Prizes aren’t love because people who never met you can’t love you. The slots for winners are already set from here until Judgment Day... Luck, not love. Not that it isn’t nice to have luck. Maybe the only way to think about it is being at the center of all beauty. Just by chance. Today we get to be at the center of all beauty. It doesn't mean I don't want it...”
  [41:15–42:07, Robert via Greer]

• Even as Less feels like an imposter, the prize is awarded to him, and the applause snaps him out of his self-doubt:

  “Thunder unsettles Less from his thoughts... But it isn’t thunder. It is applause. And the young writer is pulling at Less’s coat sleeve for Arthur Less has won.”
  [43:23, Greer as narrator]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Arthur Less’s travel mantra:

  “Passport, wallet, phone. Passport, wallet, phone.”
  [03:12, Greer as narrator]

• On the humiliation of being a writer:

  “He has merely traded one indignity for a series of new ones in Mexico, Germany, and Japan. But first this one in Italy.”
  [00:55, Greer as narrator]

• On professional self-worth:

  “How has it come to this? What god has enough free time to arrange this very special humiliation?”
  [40:25, Greer as narrator]

• The nature of literary prizes:

  “Prizes aren’t love, but this is love. What Frank wrote: ‘It’s a summer day, and I want to be wanted more than anything else in the world. More.’”
  [42:18, Robert via Greer]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:39] — Intro to Less and Arthur Less's plan to avoid grief through literary engagements.
• [04:16] — Less’s feelings of estrangement in European airports.
• [13:00] — Alone at the golf resort; observation of hummingbird moths.
• [23:15] — Flashback: Less’s parent's defense of his right to play softball.
• [26:00] — Introduction to the prize finalists; awkward conversations and posturing.
• [33:20] — Foster's Lancet’s acerbic insight on literary prizes.
• [37:00] — Prize ceremony; Less’s revelation about the meaning (and meaninglessness) of recognition.
• [41:15–42:18] — Robert's speech: the difference between prizes and love.
• [43:23] — The announcement: Arthur Less wins.

Summary & Takeaway

This episode, through Andrew Sean Greer's masterful reading, captures the bittersweet comedy of self-doubt, aging, artistic striving, and the search for validation. With a tone that’s both self-mocking and earnestly tender, Less (and by extension, Greer's reading) dramatizes the existential journey of a man for whom love, art, and recognition are tangled, elusive—and sometimes, unexpectedly, within reach.

Listeners walk away understanding not just the contours of a prize ceremony in Italy, but the universal longing to be seen, wanted, and momentarily at the "center of all beauty."