This was much duller than I expected. It’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button as a novel spun out in endless dull details, mostly concerning the ever-present trope of the ONE woman, Alice. It wasn’t clever, subversive, or anything but a long slog of a dude who is creepily infatuated with a 14 year old girl, and can’t shut up about how he is ageing backwards. Just no. Pointless.

It did not encourage me to seek out more of Greer’s work. ( )

A good story, but there was so much introspection and poetic waxing by the main character that much of it was a slog. ( )

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. ( )

One of the best novels I have read in a long time. Tightly constructed, beautifully written, with rich vocabulary and characters who are humanly flawed and tragically sympathetic. I took notes as I read to remind myself of the new words I encountered and the exquisite craft technique that the author showed. ( )

Max Tivoli is an odd person. He is born an old man and is growing old even though his body becomes younger. His parents at first keep him mostly hidden, cared for by a Maid and his grandmother. Slowly, he is allowed to interact with others and find companions, such as Hughie, who simply accepts him for who or what he is.

The book is very thoughtful. It explores interactions among people and the psychology not only of being different but of the process of aging and the disparity between people of different ages. The writing is beautiful--so evocative of a time in the past and a pervasive love. Amazingly--in the middle of the book--I realized that the name of the “monster” and the woman he loved were Max and Alice--the exact names of my parents!

I think this is a gorgeous love story. There is something about a forbidden love or a transient love that almost has more power than a love which is consummated and then allowed to fade over time. I found this book very passionate--both in emotion and in thoughts. It made me think about the transient nature of relationships--among acquaintances, friends, family, and the great loves of a person’s life. This book examines these from all angles so poignantly and in such a beautiful manner.

I really, really loved this book. I thought the writing was beautiful in how well it expressed the agonies, not only of unrequited love, but also what it's like being "different" in today's society. Although the premise of the story (a person being born old and growing younger) might not be real, being considered a "monster" in today's society (for various reasons in which one person might be different from another) is certainly true enough. The thoughts about which Max wrote show a real understanding of the pain of such marginalization.

Another reason I was impressed with this story was its mind-bending aspect! I had enough of a problem trying to figure out how a person who is growing younger while others are growing older would relate psychologically, physically, and chronologically to others...but the author made it all seem so easy! He did it with such eloquence.

I really got into the character of Max, felt for him, and much appreciated the character of Hughie, a true friend.

There were some chords that struck unusually close to home. Max and Alice (the two most important characters in this novel) were also the names of my parents! I believe that the author grew up in Rockville, Maryland (my home town). ( )

Based on the same premise as F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, this is the tale of Max Tivoli who is born an old man and endures a life in reverse, his body growing ever younger whilst his mind ages as normal. Except for a few fleeting years in the middle of his life, Tivoli's mind and body are always out of step with each other, an immature child when others see him as an old man, and at the other end of his life an older man in a child's body.

At a young age, when outwardly an old man, Tivoli falls for the young girl who lives in the flat below him, and much of the novel centres around his complicated lifelong love for Alice.

This was a most frustrating read for me. For the first two thirds I couldn't wait for it to finish - I didn't give a fig for Max or any of the other characters, and felt that Greer was poorly repurposing an idea from one of writing's masters with little emotional substance. However, in the last third when everything started to be revealed, it did become more of a page-turner.

3 stars - a great final burst, but disappointingly much too late. ( )

Disappointing. A love story which draws all its affect from its fantastic premise. If you're looking for an undemanding, romantic, tragic tale with an interesting McGuffin, this is that - but it could have been so much more. The characterisation, in particular, is poor - you never get a sense of just what it is about the hero's lifelong beloved that makes his devotion to her so all-consuming, nor is there any real development other than that mandated by the plot events. It's a terrible passion which is neither terrible nor passionate, while the really terrible events - family breakups, desertions etc. - seem not to have much of an effect on anyone. Tivoli's topsy-turvy life, including an off-stage war, doesn't appear to alter him a jot. Perhaps this is the point? But I found it hard to swallow when Greer sent him to dissipate in a flophouse for several years only for a chance visit from his one true friend to make it all right again.

The tone is self-consciously "confessional", the 1st person protagonist constantly addressing his beloved (presumptive reader) as "my sweet', "my love", "oh my dear" etc etc. The prose too is sentimental, oozing with romantic flourishes which nauseate after a while. There's a road-trip tacked on at the end, which just shows that Greer writes about the rest of America in the same cloying, period-clichéd way he describes turn-of-the-century San Francisco. The author has plotted diligently and been sure to dot the narrative with stand-out historical events, but the artifice is apparent. I wish he had been more ambitious and not used the concept and setting (one of my favourites) in the service of such a one-dimensional romance.

I'd rate it less than 4/10, but I sense that it was written and sold as a book-group romance, and on those terms I suppose it's a success. ( )

This is quite simply a beautifully told, deeply moving story. Max Tivoli is born in 1871, wrinkled, palsied, and blind with the cataracts of a 70-year old man. Max, it seems, is a physical oddity -- his body will age backwards. Warned by his parents never to let anyone know the truth, Max follows "The Rule" most of his life, and considers himself cursed, a "Monster".
The story is told from Max’s point of view, as if writing an autobiographical history to his son Sammy. As the story starts out, Max (58 years old and passing himself off as 12), has managed to insinuate himself into his son’s life in order to be near him. The story of Max’s life mostly revolves around Alice, the love of his life who he unfortunately meets when he is 17 and she is 14. Since he looks like a 53-year old, he can’t pursue her as any other normal boy. Other than his family, the other major relationship in his life is Hughie, who he meets on his first real outing at a park when the boys are both 6 years old. Too young and surprised to see a real boy close up for the first time to censor himself, Max blurts out to Hughie the truth about his age. After questioning him, Hughie believes him and begins a life-long friendship.

The author’s writing is beautifully descriptive, even if it seems melodramatic at times. And some of his similes definitely need work. But these are nitpicks in an otherwise wonderful novel. One small warning -- have a box of Kleenex handy when you begin the book. I’ll admit I cried at several different passages.

I would highly recommend Confessions as a book club selection due to its many layers, themes, and the situations the characters experience.
( )

Recommended to me by a friend, this is a good book - but not one that really suited my mood this week. It's a melancholy musing on the futility of love.

The narrator, Max Tivoli, was born appearing to be a wizened old man of 70 - and for his entire life, ages backwards, gaining perspective and experience as physically, he becomes younger.

At 17 (when he appears to be an elderly gentleman), he meets the love of his life, Alice. However, she falls in love with Max's best friend, the young and handsome Hughie. Max has an affair with Alice's mother instead, but the two women move away when the elder notices Max's seemingly perverted attentions to her daughter.

Years later, Max rediscovers Alice and, under an assumed identity, marries her. They are happy for a while, but then she leaves him for another man.

Hughie sticks by Max's side, even as he gets younger and younger.
When Max appears to be only 11, he concocts a scheme to infiltrate Alice's life yet again, this time becoming her adopted son.
However, he drags Hughie into this scheme - not considering the emotional ramifications - that Alice has always loved Hughie, and that Hughie, all these years, has actually loved Max.
No one actually ever gets to have and keep what they truly want.

The language of the book is very flowery - some may find it to be a bit much. Max is a rather self-pitying character - not as loathsome as he makes himself out to be, but not that attractive, either.

[Goodreads has done its job for me! I picked up a copy of this on the free shelf at work, and nearly started reading it again... until this review reminded me that I've already read it. So, update: around 7 years later, I didn't find this book too memorable.] ( )

It's just I forgot how much I really liked this book until now :) ( )

It's just I forgot how much I really liked this book until now :) ( )

Max Tivoli is aging backwards. When he was born, he resembled an old man. He knows he will die in 1941, so he is aging backwards from 70 years old. When he is 17 (but looks like a man in his 50s), he falls in love with 14-year old Alice. Of course, he can't do anything about it. He loves Alice for the rest of his life and does meet her again when they are both in their 30s. She doesn't recognize him from when she was 14.

It was ok. It was sometimes hard to follow as Max went back and forth in time from when he was writing to tell the “confessions” of his life, and the dividing line in time wasn't always clear. I certainly didn't agree with many of the things Max did or decisions he made. I did think the end “fit”. ( )

La scrittura procede di nuvola in nuvola. Questo è il tono dei libri di G. Delicati, erotici nel loro lento, lentissimo dispiegamento dei fatti. Pur sapendo dove si andrà a parare, la seduzione della trama - che narra di cose antiche, di immagini dimenticate e forse mai osservate, del tempo in cui le emozioni e il sentire erano altra cosa rispetto all'oggi - è pervasiva. Ogni tanto, come lampo di macchina fotografica, una successiva rivelazione che aumenta la curiosità dell'epilogo, speciale e intenso. ( )

I read this one just after reading Behind the Scenes at the Museum , which was interesting, because both stories begin just before the birth of the narrator. In this case, Max Tivoli. He’s born an old man of about 70, meaning he’s young on the inside, but looks old on the outside. As he ages internally, he grows younger externally. This is the story of his life. It’s well-written and interesting, tying in historical events (the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, for one) and capturing the world through the eyes of a man who isn’t seen for who he is by the world.

About a day-long read, a fun and occasionally thought-provoking distraction. ( )

When I first started it, I was extremely doubtful. The premise sounded interesting, but the writing was so thick and wordy. Something about it just left me extremely bored. I didn't really care about Max and none of his problems got me interested.

I'm not sure where that changed. At some point it got super deep and fascinating and I found myself wishing I were reading it whenever I wasn't. The last half sped by. I finally got to the point where I didn't want to put it down. The wordy writing turned eloquent and beautiful, and my heart started to break a bit with every new problem Max had to go through.

Sometimes he was stupid. Sometimes I couldn't believe the choices he made. But I don't think I ever hated him. It was all too tragic and perhaps beautiful.

In short, it's a very beautiful and powerful book. Yet, I'm still not sure if I liked it or not. ( )

I was under the impression the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was based on this book. This is not the case. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a short story around 1921 with the same title. It amazes me the author has not been questioned about how similar the stories are. ( )

San Francisco, magical realism, 2014 ( )

It's basically a less romantic, creepier version of Benjamin Button. It doesn't really seem to have anything new to add so if you've already seen the movie of that there's not much point to reading this book. ( )

This novel reminded me of Fitzgerald's short story "Benjamin Button" - in that it is about a baby that is born an old man and as he ages his body gets younger and younger. Written as a memoir it is a story of the joys of childhood, the importance of finding love and the enduring power of friendship. Max's life journey is wrought with mixed emotions as he wishes his body was like others' his age and then deals with both unrequited love and the loss of his relationships. "The Confessions of Max Trivoli" is a powerful novel that will draw you in as you fall under the spell of the easy read and then will make you live the life of a man cursed to live in a child's body as his friends and loved ones age. You will cry but they will be tears shed with the knowledge that Max's curse may have been difficult to live with but he lived the fullest life knowing how important the little things really are. ( )

“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. ( )

I love this book. ( )

I love this book. ( )

This is a book that just floored me-it's really a worthwhile book of creative fiction about a man who ages in reverse and hides it from most everyone. He is running out of time the opposite way everyone else is...He knows he will inevitably become a child and then infant...it's heartbreaking on so many levels. ( )

We are each the love of someone's life.
I wanted to put that down in case I am discovered and unable to complete these pages, in case you become so disturbed by the facts of my confession that you throw it into the fire before I get to tell you of great love and murder...
I have so much to explain, but first you must believe:
Inside this wretched body, I grow old. But outside - in every part of me but my mind and soul - I grow young.

And so begins the tale of Max Tivoli, who began life as a gnarled old infant. His chronological age and mental age always add up to seventy - a daunting balancing act that is his personal hell. Through the years as he grows ever younger, he struggles to hold on to the love of the one woman who captured his heart and maintain his only true friendship.

A long time ago LT member SqueakyChu recommended this book to me. I filed away the title along with the hundreds of other books on my To Be Read roster but I was not in any hurry to find a copy to read. In this, I was a fool.

The Confessions of Max Tivoli is beautifully written - I drank in every word on these pages. And what a story! If you're worried, it's not gimmicky or filled with science-fictiony explanations. It's a human story - of love and life and loss. And as I turned the last page I was utterly bereft because it had ended.

So don't do as I did - read this one immediately! Oh, and thank you Madeline! I owe you a recommendation. ( )

4561. The Confessions of Max Tivoli, by Andrew Sean Greer (read 19 Apr 2009) This 2004 novel tells of a guy who lives his life backwards--he starts out with the body of an old man and gets younger instead of older. The concept is worked out fairly well, and of course he has lots of problems but it makes for an interesting and ultimately poignant story. While I suppose not a 'manly' book I found it good reading, and not as "precious" as say "Memoirs of a Geisha" or other maybe designed for women books. ( )