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smpaul's review
4.0
The concept of this book certainly reminded me of the Curious Case of Benjamin Button but I think the plot is less predictable and the characters have more depth. Initially, I had a difficult time immersing myself in the story and didn't care about the characters until I was about halfway through the book. I think I would enjoy the first half of the book now that I know the entire plot and the secrets that get revealed in the second half. I definitely have to read this book again.
chchchazley's review
The world's most self-indulgent, whiny narrator, but an interesting story anyway.
jellokites's review
4.0
Took me awhile to get into to the book, but glad I kept at it. I have never seen "The curious case of Benjamin Button", but wondering if this story was modeled (or vice versa) after it.
As it was a bit slow in the beginning, it does pick up pace, and after that kept me reading to find out how it ended.
As it was a bit slow in the beginning, it does pick up pace, and after that kept me reading to find out how it ended.
janiev's review
3.0
The story of a man who is born old and ages backwards. Max falls in love with a young girl, but his timing is all wrong. Even though he is actually the same age, he inhabits a body of an older man. The love Max has for Alice is a constant for him and in the book they cross paths. Of course he remembers her, but she meets him new each time.
It is an interesting concept. My draw back was I kept wanting to compare it to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which is a personal favorite. It is never wise to do so, but hard not to.
It is an interesting concept. My draw back was I kept wanting to compare it to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which is a personal favorite. It is never wise to do so, but hard not to.
rachel_mft's review
2.0
Depressing, a little disturbing, and honestly the "surprises" didn't surprise me, they were fairly predictable. At least it was a quick read.
dllh's review
4.0
This is one of the more finely wrought things I've read in a while. The prose is beautiful (some might say purple, but it really worked for me), the story weird and funny (and sometimes a little creepy) and crushing. I read it quickly but it deserves to be read slowly.
nicolebonia's review
1.0
“I just wanted the main character to die so that the book would be over.” – a fellow book club member
So, I didn’t feel quite that strongly about Max, but I did return it to the library as soon as I was finished, and I did thank the book gods that I hadn’t bought it. I was so anxious to be done with this book that I forgot to keep it around long enough for reviewing purposes, so I have no quotes or passages to back up anything I say. You’ll just have to take my word for it.
I was so ready to love this book. It had a super interesting premise and it was well-written. A male child is born to a couple and has the face and body of an old man. Now, I understand that certain books require a suspension of disbelief, and I’m okay with that as long as authors follow their own rules. Max Tivoli is born infant sized. There is no description of his mother being torn apart while trying to, literally, birth a man-child, yet later on in the book we are lead to believe that Max appears as an adult (when he is a child) and will shrink in height and physically grow younger until he turns into an infant- which seems to contradict him being born an infant. He starts off as a child appearing to be about 70 years old.
We are told that from the very beginning that Max’s mother has advised him to act the age that he appears to be as opposed to the age his is, but I don’t feel that we ever got any insight as how he goes about doing that or how such deception makes him feel. There are so many interesting places that this book should have lead. How does it feel to grow up with the face of an old man? How does it feel as a child to be forced to interact with people older than you? How does it feel to be physically old when you should be want to run around and play? How does it affect your interactions with your family and people who know your family; people in general? There were so many interesting questions that I would have liked to have just a glimmer of in the narration. Nope. The character is totally isolated and doesn’t make friends or try to interact with anyone besides Hughie, Alice and Madame Dupont – a brothel owner who used to be a maid in his house.
I think Greer was trying to build this great love story where we watch Max get his shot at love three times over a lifetime, as he appears to his love, Alice, as three different versions of himself. The main problem with this is the character of Max Tivoli. The novel collapses under the weight of a completely self centered and uninteresting narrator. It’s never clear why he loves Alice so much, and so his great love always seems like a juvenile crush that he hasn’t had the opportunity to mature into the depths of love that man might feel. Max is also too self-centered to give any of the other characters more than cursory consideration so we don’t get to know or understand them. I found the character of Hughie to be intriguing from the little I could glean from Max’s spare treatment of him, and he appears to be tormented by a secret, but Max doesn’t ever think to ask his best friend what is bothering him, and by the time Hughie’s secret is revealed it’s anti-climactic and to me, implausible.
Greer is a talented writer. He knows his way around a sentence and his descriptive abilities are very good, but the character of Max failed to move me, which is the kiss of death for any character and also kills the book when that character is the one telling the story. I was bored. This would have been helped had the narrative more fully addressed the realities and limitations/benefits of Max’s unique existence, but as a character he always fails to engage. He even meets someone he suspects is like him, and he doesn’t even talk to the person! Greer is a good writer, so I would be curious to read something else of his, but knowing what I know about Max Tivoli I would be quicker to jump ship if his next main character didn’t engage me rather quickly.
So, I didn’t feel quite that strongly about Max, but I did return it to the library as soon as I was finished, and I did thank the book gods that I hadn’t bought it. I was so anxious to be done with this book that I forgot to keep it around long enough for reviewing purposes, so I have no quotes or passages to back up anything I say. You’ll just have to take my word for it.
I was so ready to love this book. It had a super interesting premise and it was well-written. A male child is born to a couple and has the face and body of an old man. Now, I understand that certain books require a suspension of disbelief, and I’m okay with that as long as authors follow their own rules. Max Tivoli is born infant sized. There is no description of his mother being torn apart while trying to, literally, birth a man-child, yet later on in the book we are lead to believe that Max appears as an adult (when he is a child) and will shrink in height and physically grow younger until he turns into an infant- which seems to contradict him being born an infant. He starts off as a child appearing to be about 70 years old.
We are told that from the very beginning that Max’s mother has advised him to act the age that he appears to be as opposed to the age his is, but I don’t feel that we ever got any insight as how he goes about doing that or how such deception makes him feel. There are so many interesting places that this book should have lead. How does it feel to grow up with the face of an old man? How does it feel as a child to be forced to interact with people older than you? How does it feel to be physically old when you should be want to run around and play? How does it affect your interactions with your family and people who know your family; people in general? There were so many interesting questions that I would have liked to have just a glimmer of in the narration. Nope. The character is totally isolated and doesn’t make friends or try to interact with anyone besides Hughie, Alice and Madame Dupont – a brothel owner who used to be a maid in his house.
I think Greer was trying to build this great love story where we watch Max get his shot at love three times over a lifetime, as he appears to his love, Alice, as three different versions of himself. The main problem with this is the character of Max Tivoli. The novel collapses under the weight of a completely self centered and uninteresting narrator. It’s never clear why he loves Alice so much, and so his great love always seems like a juvenile crush that he hasn’t had the opportunity to mature into the depths of love that man might feel. Max is also too self-centered to give any of the other characters more than cursory consideration so we don’t get to know or understand them. I found the character of Hughie to be intriguing from the little I could glean from Max’s spare treatment of him, and he appears to be tormented by a secret, but Max doesn’t ever think to ask his best friend what is bothering him, and by the time Hughie’s secret is revealed it’s anti-climactic and to me, implausible.
Greer is a talented writer. He knows his way around a sentence and his descriptive abilities are very good, but the character of Max failed to move me, which is the kiss of death for any character and also kills the book when that character is the one telling the story. I was bored. This would have been helped had the narrative more fully addressed the realities and limitations/benefits of Max’s unique existence, but as a character he always fails to engage. He even meets someone he suspects is like him, and he doesn’t even talk to the person! Greer is a good writer, so I would be curious to read something else of his, but knowing what I know about Max Tivoli I would be quicker to jump ship if his next main character didn’t engage me rather quickly.
shanviolinlove's review
Hmmm...
Without comparing it to a certain movie with a strongly similar theme, I began reading The Confessions of Max Tivoli, ready to be enticed by the romance of an old man in a young boy's body writing his memoirs to his son (although he addresses others in the novel as well) about his extraordinary life. Though it is not at all badly written, I am inclined to agree with most of the critiques regarding the one-dimensional and unsympathetic characters. The writing always tells the reader, never shows the reader, what to see, how to feel, etc.
I also fail to understand the allure of the character Alice. The proverbial love bug bites whom it will, but at one point, Max exclaims that he feels sorry for anyone who does not know her. I had to ask, why? Conceited, manipulative, in the beginning rather vacant, Alice is a woman who uses him constantly - to perform duties for him during her Sabbath, to appeal to his friend to love her -- and even he acknowledges her unmasked use of him when they meet a second time in the novel. Her situation more destitute, he recognizes (happily, of course) that her state of vulnerability motivates her to pursue him in a way that she had not before.
To be fair, it is beautifully and, at times, poetically written, and in a few years I may revisit this novel and see something that I have missed upon this first reading. But ultimately a novel orbiting around an obsession, heralding a woman as perfection when she is far from it, left me bored and dissatisfied.
Without comparing it to a certain movie with a strongly similar theme, I began reading The Confessions of Max Tivoli, ready to be enticed by the romance of an old man in a young boy's body writing his memoirs to his son (although he addresses others in the novel as well) about his extraordinary life. Though it is not at all badly written, I am inclined to agree with most of the critiques regarding the one-dimensional and unsympathetic characters. The writing always tells the reader, never shows the reader, what to see, how to feel, etc.
I also fail to understand the allure of the character Alice. The proverbial love bug bites whom it will, but at one point, Max exclaims that he feels sorry for anyone who does not know her. I had to ask, why? Conceited, manipulative, in the beginning rather vacant, Alice is a woman who uses him constantly - to perform duties for him during her Sabbath, to appeal to his friend to love her -- and even he acknowledges her unmasked use of him when they meet a second time in the novel. Her situation more destitute, he recognizes (happily, of course) that her state of vulnerability motivates her to pursue him in a way that she had not before.
To be fair, it is beautifully and, at times, poetically written, and in a few years I may revisit this novel and see something that I have missed upon this first reading. But ultimately a novel orbiting around an obsession, heralding a woman as perfection when she is far from it, left me bored and dissatisfied.