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Title: The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer ISBN: 0-374-12871-5 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 01 February, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.43 (30 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: It Has Faults, but It's Very Human
Comment: It seems that lately, a lot of books, in an effort to be original, are based more on "gimmicks" than true originality. Many of these "gimmicky" books are based on time travel or reversals in time. I found THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE to be one of the worst of the lot and I simply hated it.
Now, we have THE CONFESSIONS OF MAX TIVOLI, and, while I found it rather "gimmicky" and unbelievable (and I suspend my disbelief very easily), I still found it far, far better than THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE simply because it seemed more human, more honest and more sincere.
THE CONFESSIONS OF MAX TIVOLI concerns, Max Tivoli, of course. Max is unique in that he was born an old man (about seventy) and grows ever more youthful as time marches on. While this may sound wonderful, Max doesn't think much of it. For example, he knows, from the very beginning of his life, the date of his death (just as "normal" persons know that date of their birth) and, except for one brief instance, he can never really "act his age." (His mother advises him to "be what they think you are," but this really doesn't work for Max, either.)
Not being able to act his age complicates Max's life, but never more so than in the realm of romance. Early (or in Max's case, late) in his life, he finds his one, true love, Alice. Max falls in love with Alice when she is but fourteen, but Alice, alas, thinks Max is the proverbial "dirty old man." The upside to this is that Max gets to try again to win the affections of Alice more than once...three times, to be precise, at twenty-year intervals. (Since Max is growing younger year by year, Alice does not recognize him each time he tries to win her love.) Does Max win Alice? Well, that would certainly not be fair to answer because Max's unfailing love for Alice, and only Alice, is the anchor of this book. It's the reason (mostly) you keep on reading.
THE CONFESSIONS OF MAX TIVOLI is a highly original premise and one that would have worked wonderfully in the hands of a better writer. Unfortunately, Andrew Sean Greer failed to do his homework regarding part of the book while other parts are so overwritten they are definitely venturing into the "purple" and made me wince.
While Greer has invested his characters with plenty of complexity and emotion, they simply don't talk and act like people in the late 19th and early 20th century (the time setting of the book) would talk and act. This struck a very false note and caused me to put the book aside more than once.
While the missteps in characterization could have been corrected with more research, the overwritten and highly melodramatic prose is, I think, the result of a writer who simply hasn't had enough experience. That's not to say that writers should learn at the expense of readers. They shouldn't. They should know what they're doing before attempting to publish a book.
That said, THE CONFESSIONS OF MAX TIVOLI, while having some faults, is still a book that is highly original without resorting to "gimmicks," is complex enough to hold an intelligent reader's interest and, most of all contains a theme that is relevant to almost every human being alive. THE CONFESSIONS OF MAX TIVOLI has its faults, but at its heart, it's a very human, and often very touching, book.
I would recommend THE CONFESSIONS OF MAX TIVOLI to anyone who is interested in something very different and who can tolerate the book's faults. For those of you who have stacks and stacks of books waiting to be read, I would skip this one and wait for Greer's next book. Perhaps by then he'll have his prose under control.
Rating: 5
Summary: Keep reading. Max sneaks up on you and grabs you good
Comment: The Book Lust lady says to subtract your age from 100 and if you're not engaged in a book after than many pages, set it aside and start another one: there are too many books one must read to waste time reading one you just can't get into.
Well, if I'd followed that advice, I'd have quit reading Max Tivoli at about page 40. I loved the writing, but I thought the story idea (a child who ages chronologically with regard to emotions and mental capacity, but who lives life in reverse: born old, he becomes progressively younger and is destined to die as an infant in 1941) far too contrived and ridiculous to hold my attention thru a whole book. It smacked of sci-fi, a genre which I don't read.
I was wrong. On approximately page 41, I was captivated and held in thrall thru the rest of the book - and sobbed sloppy tears at the end.
Max falls in love at about 16 (when he looks like an elderly man) with 14yo Alice - and she is destined to be his lifelong love. Alice becomes his wife when they are both in their 30s, and it's the only time in his life that Max's real age and apparent age are in synch. But the marriage ends and they go their separate ways. Then, 20 yrs later when Max appears to be a boy of about 12, circumstances arrange for Max to become Alice's son and the brother of his own son.
Throughout this convoluted tale is Max's lifelong friend, Hughie, who sees thru to who Max really is and accepts him as just Max - but there's more, much, much more to this story. The meaning of the memorable first line, We are each the love of someone's life, becomes crystal clear about ¾ thru the book, and then it's repeated again just a few pages from the end, just in case you somehow missed it. A simple chronicle of the events in this book does not begin to do justice to the brilliance of the writing, the heartbreak of Max's situation, and the beauty of the awkward, delicate relationships - hinted at in that opening line - which must be kept in perfect balance for this all to work.
And it does, oh how well it does.
Don't miss it. And if, like me, you're not in love after 40 pages, just trust me: Keep reading.
Rating: 5
Summary: An absolute joy to read
Comment: I am in grad school, busy reading assignments, yet the draw of Max Tivoli was too powerful. After reading a wonderful review, I couldn't wait to get started and I am so glad I did! Max Tivoli is one of my all-time favorite books, next to The Man Who Fell In Love with the Moon by Tom Spanbauer (sp?). This book is an absolute joy. Buy it, then be prepared to buy it again and again as you share it with everyone who you can think of...it is a wonderful escape.
If only college textbooks were as engaging and fun to read!
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Title: The Path of Minor Planets: A Novel by Andrew Sean Greer ISBN: 0312306059 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 04 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Time Traveler's Wife (Today Show Book Club #15) by Audrey Niffenegger ISBN: 1931561648 Publisher: MacAdam/Cage Publishing Pub. Date: 17 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Little Children : A Novel by Tom Perrotta ISBN: 0312315716 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Well of Lost Plots: A Thursday Next Novel by Jasper Fforde ISBN: 0670032891 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 19 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Today Show Book Club #13) by Mark Haddon ISBN: 0385512104 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 31 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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