Andrew Sean Greer Refuses to Kill His Darlings

Like so many others (including the Pulitzer Prize committee), I read Andrew Sean Greer’s Less in 2017 and was endlessly charmed by the singularity of Greer’s voice. Rollicking through vivid landscapes and madcap scenarios, Greer’s novels commit to comedy and eccentricity, standing out in an often muted literary landscape. His newest book, Villa Coco, set in a ramshackle villa in the Italian countryside, is just as vibrant; while reading it, I laughed out loud at jokes about superstitions and mistranslations, and I was captivated by the protagonist’s messy romance with a married man. Most of all, though, I was touched by the coming-of-age narrative at its heart. Greer’s characters can be entertaining to a tranquilizing degree: It’s impossible to pinpoint the emotional effect they’re having on you until you turn the very last page and miss them immediately.

I had the pleasure of meeting with Greer over Zoom for Electric Lit’s 23 Questions. He claimed that his workspace was messy and covered in clementine peels, but I failed to see a...