child rearing is anything less than a completely fulfilling,

less than在非比较性表达中,并不是表示“少于”而是：by mo means,not at all 毫不但是这是一半的句子,楼主说的没错,可是在全句的主句中还有一个否定词呢。It's no surprise that Jennifer Senior's insightful,provocative magazine cover story,“I love My Children,I Hate My Life,” is arousing much chatter – JS的犀利的封面故事《I love My Children,I Hate My Life》引起了一场口水之战【Nothing gets people talking like the suggestion that [child rearing is anything less than a completely fulfilling,life-enriching experience。]】这里前面有一个nothing啊,nothing与none,no,not,never等的地位是一样的,是一个否定词,意思就是not at all :in no degree 结合上文句子,其实在那篇封面故事中,女主人公表达了这样一种态度：child rearing is something less than a completely fulfilling,life-enriching experience。养孩子并不是一件愉悦充实的事情。但是这样的态度引起了所有人的反对,然后说,你没有理由得出这样的结论：nothing gets people talking like this。this 也就是指 the suggestion that 【child rearing is something less than a completely fulfilling,life-enriching experience。】否定句中something要用anything来表达。或者是说,就如同I don't think you are right 表达的其实是 I think you're not right一样,否定的是后面的内容而不是自己的动作。其实上句话就完全等同于：people think that child rearing is nothing less than a completely fulfilling,life-enriching experience。[nothing less than] = completely; totally 【人们认为养孩子是一件非常愉悦和幸福充实的事情。】