I'm probably getting old enough that I should sympathise more with middle aged people searching for rejuvenation after a life of regrets, but I still don't find them that interesting. I guess I'll give it another ten years.

The novel follows Arthur Less, a largely unknown novelist who plans a trip around the world in order to avoid his ex-boyfriend's wedding. As he journeys from his home in San Francisco to New York City to Mexico City to Turin to probably other places after that (I gave up in the Frankfurt airport, as so many have), he suffers from a series of grinding indignities, and sees a variety of local scenery. This is all intercut with flashbacks to explain how he got to this place, and why he has so many regrets.

The writing is often clever, but the story leans pretty hard on the reader finding the main character relatable, and I just found him really, really boring. Plus, I generally don't enjoy the genre of "finding yourself via 'exotic' travel."

This won the Pulitzer, so either it did a hard left turn later, or I was missing something big. Or, more likely, the Pulitzer jury is stacked with the kind of people who found Arthur Less relatable.