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The Confessions of Max Tivoli

3.62 of 5 stars 3.62 · rating details · 4,073 ratings · 615 reviews

"We are each the love of someone's life." So begins The Confessions of Max Tivoli,
a heartbreaking love story with a narrator like no other.

Born with the physical appearance of an elderly man, Max grows older mentally like any child, but his body appears to age backwards, growing younger every year. And yet, his physical curse proves to be a blessing, allowing him to try to...more

Paperback, 267 pages

Published February 1st 2005 by Picador (first published January 1st 2004)

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Dec 01, 2011 Anca rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 10

Pentru ca toata lumea se leaga de The Curious Case of Benjamin Button cand scrie despre cartea asta, refuz sa fac comparatie intre cele doua. La Fitzgerald era mai mult o idee interesanta prezentata rapid, iar personajul nu e nu-stiu-cat de afectat, e oarecare, la Greer e un blestem care e prilejul de transmitere a altor idei. Pana la urma, ce vrea Greer sa spuna, mai departe de "Fiecare dintre noi e dragostea vietii cuiva" (prima propozitie care oricat de siropos ar suna, pana la urma duce la u...more Pentru ca toata lumea se leaga de The Curious Case of Benjamin Button cand scrie despre cartea asta, refuz sa fac comparatie intre cele doua. La Fitzgerald era mai mult o idee interesanta prezentata rapid, iar personajul nu e nu-stiu-cat de afectat, e oarecare, la Greer e un blestem care e prilejul de transmitere a altor idei. Pana la urma, ce vrea Greer sa spuna, mai departe de "Fiecare dintre noi e dragostea vietii cuiva" (prima propozitie care oricat de siropos ar suna, pana la urma duce la un triunghi interesant, asemanator cu cel din Pamantul de sub talpile ei - brutala comparatie, dar ma rog..) e cat de multe feste ii joaca timpul omului - chiar daca i se scurge in directia care trebuie - prin aceea ca niciodata nu e timpul potrivit si cand e, nu dureaza mult. Tragico-melodramatica | concluzie, ati zice.

Timpul potrivit pentru Max Tivoli e, ca si pentru B.B., la mijlocul vietii cand isi traieste si fizic varsta reala. In adolescenta, cu o infatisare de batran se indragosteste de o fata de 14 ani, chiriasa sa care, evident, il priveste cel mult ca pe un protector. Primii ani ai vietii sint pentru Max Tivoli cei mai importanti cand isi stabileste obsesiile pe care le urmeaza toata viata - isi gaseste si primul prieten care ii cunoaste secretul, isi invata rolul, si-o gaseste pe Alice, The One.

Regula lui Tivoli, stabilita de mama sa in copilarie, "Fii cine cred ei ca esti", e intr-un fel semnificativa doar in cazul Alice, mama ei si in general, apropiatii. Ceilalti oameni sint doar fundalul, ceva vag si sters, Max nu sufera pentru ca nu se poate adapta acolo, ci mai curand ca nu poate fi acceptat unde vrea el - in cercul lui intim si ca nu poate sa-si poarte varsta in afara, sa-si strige tineretea ca sora sa. Nepasarea lui pentru orice altceva in afara de drama lui de la inceputul vietii (justificata prin adolescenta) devine egoism si provoaca enervare (cititorului din mine, cui altcuiva?) cand devine imun la faptul ca toti ceilalti au probleme chiar daca pot fi priviti ca ceea ce sint ei. Ramane rece fata de suferintele prietenului ce imbatraneste si ofileste si fata de monstruozitatea sa, neobservata pana mai tarziu, coplesit de regrete.

Apare (da, din nou) femeia simbol al vietii, unic sens, perfectiune, dragostea vietii. Iar Tivoli isi traieste iubirea in 3 faze: Prima apare ca pedofilie, a doua e casnicie, dar apreciaza gresit caracterul mult iubitei si moare lent, la propriu, iar a treia, sub forma de copil in fata unei mame adoptive, cand ni se sugereaza nevoia de protectie intr-o relatie, din ambele parti.

Mi-a placut stilul lui Greer, nu e rau, are si caderi in patetism, dar nu discordante. Ce-ar putea sa enerveze sunt panseurile prea dese despre singuratate, diformitate, neacceptare, dragoste. Dar macar originale si cu suflul personajului (clar!). Stiu ca pare deja cliseu in gura mea, dar pentru mine atmosfera si constructia de scena ramane cel mai mult timp in memorie, nu personaje, nu vorbe, nici macar idei (ceea ce e rau, probabil). Iar Greer si-a creat bine peisajul de ansamblu si vocea cu care sa spuna ce are de zis. Si calatoria prin America impreuna cu prietenul lui la batranete mi s-a parut de 1000 de ori mai buna decat a lui Kerouac (hai, omorati-ma) pentru ca peisajele nu-mi erau bagate pe gat ca sa simt cat de liberi erau, pentru ca mi se spune clar ca si personajele se plictiseau dupa atata mers, nu doar noi, muritorii. Si si serile pe veranda mi-au placut, desi Alice adolescenta ma agasa. Si schimbarile bruste din viata lor si atmosfera din casa lor de casatoriti cu faianta din farfurii sparte. Si zapada din San Francisco in care se pierd urme, si Woodward's Gardens, chiar si la sfarsitul sfarsitului zilelor de glorie. Ah, si placut scena de conversatie dintre prieteni la batranete:

Dupa multi ani, cand am imbatranit amandoi si am inceput sa uitam, i-am adus aminte lui Hughie de dupa-amiaza aceea la Woodward's Gardens, cand ne-am vazut pentru prima oara sub balonul miraculos al profesorului Martin. [..:]
-Balon? intrebase el. Nu prea cred.
-Ba da, era un balon argintiu urias si tu m-ai intrebat ce-o mai fi ala.
[...:]
-Uiti tot felul de lucruri, Hughie. Esti batran.
-Si tu la fel, remarcase el.
[..:]
-Era un balon, asa ne-am imprietenit.
-Nu-i adevarat, eu ti-am aratat un numar de magie pe scara.
-Nu-mi aduc aminte ca tu sa fi stiut smecherii cu carti de joc.
Isi scosese ochelarii.
-Am intrat in casa cu tata. Tu incercai sa te ascunzi dupa usa ca un copilas, desi aratai ca senatorul Roosevelt in costum de marinar. Erai foarte caraghios. Am scos dama de pica dintre frunzele ferigii si de atunci ai inceput sa ma admiri.
-Ma rog.
-Ma rog.
Amandoi priviseram spre parcare, plictisiti si fara astampar in calatoriile noastre, sperand sa aflam acolo ceva familiar. Ne-am intors la ziar si respectiv, la chioraitul matelor si n-am mai vorbit un ceas. Asta inseamna sa ai un prieten vechi.

Concluzie: placut, nu dat pe spate, dar facut sa ma simt confortabil cand ma apucam de ea dupa o pauza. Si asta ii trebuia cuiva care nu mai citise de mult si care nu mai are perspective de citit in viitorul apropiat.:)

obs:1. pentru ca probabil n-am reusit sa zic cum trebuie de ce cine nu-i excesiv de cinic poate sa se apropie linistit de ea, aici e ceva mai bine conturat.
2. coperta romaneasca e groaznica, nu vad ce treaba are cu totul, in afara de faptul ca personajul isi scrie memoriile (cartea, practic) cu un pix. partea proasta e ca indeparteaza lumea cu rozul ala. mda. (less)

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Dec 26, 2008 Laurel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Max Tivoli was born looking like a 70 year old man, with white hair, wrinkled skin and liver spots. Though his mind ages normally, his body grows younger with each passing year.

As I read (or, listened to) this book, I couldn't help but wonder how it compares to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which is essentially (from what I understand) the same story. I've yet to read Benjamin Button, but I would assume that Andrew Sean Greer borrowed heavily from Fitzgerald, even if...more Max Tivoli was born looking like a 70 year old man, with white hair, wrinkled skin and liver spots. Though his mind ages normally, his body grows younger with each passing year.

As I read (or, listened to) this book, I couldn't help but wonder how it compares to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which is essentially (from what I understand) the same story. I've yet to read Benjamin Button, but I would assume that Andrew Sean Greer borrowed heavily from Fitzgerald, even if only in concept. [Actually, I've since learned that this is not the case; oddly enough, Greer got the idea from a Bob Dylan song:].

Anyway, The Confessions of Max Tivoli begins when Max is nearing 60 years old, but looks to be a boy of 10 or 12. Knowing he is in the last years of his life, he decides to write his story, in part to confess his secrets to the love of his life, and also so that someday his son might know the truth about him (his son is unaware that Max is his father, since he appears to be a boy of the same age). What follows is a tale of love (sort of), loss and self-reflection.

I didn’t find Max to be a particularly likable man. Often selfish and full of melancholy over his predicament, he seems to lack any interest in life outside of one single obsession -- a girl named Alice.

When Max first meets Alice, she is a young girl of 14 and thinks he (17) is a man in his 60's. We are (I think) supposed to feel sympathy for Max for what he cannot have. But Max sort of makes it hard for us to feel sorry for him, as he already does such a good job at it himself.

I also did not find Max’s love for Alice to appear very genuine. It seemed to me more like a destructive, life long infatuation. At one point, Max himself says to the reader: "You are thinking this is not love. This sounds like a wretchedly broken heart."

I think it was for these reasons that I had a hard time getting fully absorbed into the story. I grew so tired of Max's constant woefulness that I felt myself distancing from him more and more as the story went on.

Despite all this, there were some aspects I enjoyed. The book is well written, with rich prose and a lovely descriptive style.

Also, with my own health struggles, I could relate to the idea of being trapped in a body that doesn't function properly, and all the frustrations that brings with it (except without so much whining :)). I also think most of us can relate to the sense that our body doesn't match the age we feel in our mind and soul. I remember when my late grandmother turned 80, she told my mom she didn't FEEL like she was 80. Time has a way of slipping by more quickly than we want or expect it to, whether it is moving forward, or in Max's case, backwards.

Anyway, this review got longer than I was expecting. Overall, it was an interesting concept and well presented, but the characters simply didn't resonate with me as much as I'd hoped. If nothing else, it made me all the more curious (sorry) to read the case of Benjamin Button.

(less)

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Sep 14, 2007 Penny rated it 2 of 5 stars

An interesting concept -- a man is born old and ages backward -- but in the end, I didn't enjoy the book. I came to really dislike the main character, Max. He has a difficult fate, it's true, but he seemed to me to be so consumed with self-pity that he had a hard time relating to anyone else. And he's so very passive -- uninterested in his job or his world. He even sleeps through the San Francisco earthquake! What's the point of placing your novel during the 1906 earthquake if your protagonist s...more

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Jul 31, 2007 Lillian rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, reviewed

The premise of this book was tantalizing: a man who ages in reverse tries to find and win his one true love time after time. I was hoping it would be akin to The Time Traveler's Wife, whose characters I quickly came to love. The Confessions of Max Tivoli, though, is a completely different beast. For one, I had no idea that it would be narrated in the style of a Victorian novel, complete with frequent exhortations to the "Dear Reader." The prose was lovely, but initially, I found the style a bit...more

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May 22, 2008 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: sophisticated, educated readers who are not too jaded to enjoy a tall tale or a meaningful fantasy

This is one of the better books I've read in quite awhile. Part of this is because I haven't been reading much this year, but also this is a beautifully worded book, a delicious slow read with an imaginative premise and poetry and philosophy on nearly every page. It has, however, two unforgivable flaws.

The most glaring unforgivable flaw is the ending, which is frankly unworthy of the rest of the book, in the words of my true love "a cop-out all around." I won't discuss that here (but might on my...more This is one of the better books I've read in quite awhile. Part of this is because I haven't been reading much this year, but also this is a beautifully worded book, a delicious slow read with an imaginative premise and poetry and philosophy on nearly every page. It has, however, two unforgivable flaws.

The most glaring unforgivable flaw is the ending, which is frankly unworthy of the rest of the book, in the words of my true love "a cop-out all around." I won't discuss that here (but might on my blog in a day or two, if I have time) because it is still a wonderful book, and you should read it if you find yourself with the time and opportunity. I don't want to spoil it for you; there is a mysteriousness to it which is part of the pleasure of just letting it unfold, and despite some questionable narrative conveniences here and there, the real sinking weakness doesn't happen until the last ten pages. At that point there is a choice the author could have made, and it would have been the right choice, the smart, generous, and credible choice, and he talks about it as the character who should have made it, and then he doesn't choose it but instead picks the most melodramatic, least credible, and most heartless finish, and wraps it all up in pretty, impassioned words that I guess are supposed to make it romantic and Supremely Human but instead just make it go on too long.

The other unforgivable flaw is a completely gratuitous episode of animal cruelty which happens on pp. 106-109 of my edition (which says it is the first edition but has a "Today's Book Club" logo worked into the cover design). This is a terrible, terrible scene, and it adds nothing to the book, nothing, especially for the type of reader most likely to enjoy this book, someone already well aware what that time and place were like, but now it is stuck in my head forever. (Oh, thanks.) I highly recommend you bleep over it when you come to it.

It is a credit to the writing of this book that I didn't slam it shut at this point and throw it away. I did read the rest of the book warily, though, and will not automatically reach for another book by this author because inclusion of this scene as well as the insufferably weak choices that the author made at the very end of his own tale lead me not to trust him to tell me a story on which I will be glad to have spent time. I don't regret most of the time spent on this one, though. The wordcraft alone was quite dazzling.(less)

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Nov 20, 2008 Carolee Wheeler rated it 2 of 5 stars

I'd put this in the "Time-Traveler's Wife" genre of literature--sort of mind-bending, as long as you don't think too much about it. It's airplane reading, disposable literature you can leave in the seat back pocket when you're finished and not give it another thought. Some might argue that books like that are the reason TV was created, but it's nice to be able to read something, now and then, that just flows over you and leaves no confusing aftertaste.

That said, the period details in the book we...more

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Jul 29, 2007 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this book years ago and it has remained one of my favorites. I'm still recommending it to people. Much like One Hundred Years of Solitude, it's a moving, sad, and funny story about love. It's hard to imagine (although impossible) what it would be like to age backwards. The levels and types of love displayed in this book are amazing. You won't be able to put it down.

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Mar 26, 2009 Judith rated it 3 of 5 stars

I can't decide if I would have like this more or less if I had not seen "Benjamin Buttons". I am not sure why the movie purports to be based on a short story by Gatsby because this book seems too much like the movie to be coincidence. Regardless, it is more interesting in some ways because the love story is so much more complicated and the setting is San Francisco, rather than the whole world. The psychological aspects of aging backwards are explored in much greater detail through this narrative...more

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Feb 28, 2009 liz rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary, life-stories

Okay, so it's the life story of a man who's born old, but baby-tiny, and as he gets bigger and older, he looks younger and younger. You're confusing it with that movie, aren't you? Well, I've seen the movie (and would love to discuss the tugboat-submarine scene with anyone who knows a lot about boats, BTW), and they are actually really different. "Max Tivoli" is more complicated, and his life takes very different turns (although there are some similarities in terms of the story arc about "the gi...more

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Feb 12, 2009 Carolyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Andrew Sean Greer's novel took a bit of time to weave its spell for me, but once the spell was cast, I was thoroughly enchanted. Greer conjures up a gorgeous, bustling turn-of-the-20th-century San Francisco, my beloved City, with details so precise and poignant that they will stay with you long after you are done reading. And Max Tivoli, born old and growing ever younger, faces terrible obstacles in love, but then, so do we all. "Be what they think you are," Max Tivoli's parents implore him at t...more

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May 24, 2008 Claire Monahan rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who like romances

Shelves: wee-bit-overrated, romance

It's now been twenty-one hours since I finished this book, and my afterthoughts have definitely fluctuated since then. However, I think three stars is still a reasonable rating for Max Tivoli. As a solid character alone, though, that rating would be too generous.

I think I've come to my own conclusion that I'm much harsher on romance stories than any other genre of books. Rarely have I come upon one that has knocked me off my feet (The English Patient in particular), but I can't imagine that sto...more

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May 19, 2008 J rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It is a delicate task to write a book in which the main character repeatedly ruins the life of and frightens almost to death another major character and to make that protagonist sympathetic. You understand why he does what he does, you see how he fools himself into believing the consequences of his actions will not be bad as they truly unfold to be, and you watch with great empathy for both him and his victim. It is a balancing act to show such obsessive love as Andrew Sean Greer does in The Con...more It is a delicate task to write a book in which the main character repeatedly ruins the life of and frightens almost to death another major character and to make that protagonist sympathetic. You understand why he does what he does, you see how he fools himself into believing the consequences of his actions will not be bad as they truly unfold to be, and you watch with great empathy for both him and his victim. It is a balancing act to show such obsessive love as Andrew Sean Greer does in The Confessions of Max Tivoli while not shirking from the end results of such love.

Let me just also add that this demanding balancing act also has to exist within the confines of an entire book built around a peculiar fantastical device. Like something quite similar to the joke conceit of the Jonathan Winters character Mearth from 70s sitcom, Mork & Mindy, the titular protagonist is born a shriveled, decrepit old man who grows physically younger as he ages chronologically. We are spared the considerations of scale in the actual birthing process by the oddity of Max being infant-sized then rapidly growing into the size and shape and appearance of a 70 year old man. Seventy is indeed the magical number, Max’s apparent age always 70 minus his chronological age. Thus the book opens with what appears to be a twelve year old writing down his experiences over the last 58 years.

Starting from his birth in 1871, Max’s experiences also manage to form some rather fine historical set-piece writing by Greer filled with a sort of filigreed detailing, small touches here and there like a man’s vulcanized rubber tooth fillings, a beetle attached to a minuscule gold chain worn as a leashed pendant, whorehouse tricks with latch keys. And so we have here on our hands what amounts to a romanticized fantasy historical novel about the corrosive effects of obsessive love wrapped up in a morbid reflection on one’s own ever present mortality. Did I mention this is only Greer’s second novel?

While the course of the story sometimes veers into sentimentality, it never feels terribly mawkish or absurd, more an outgrowth out of a certain type of young man who grew up in a certain time and place. Greer directs him right into the kind of trouble a seventeen year old would get up to, falling in love with a girl a little younger, then stirs up the tensions with the fact of Max’s fifty year looks. Alice, the object of his affection, we get to watch grow up the normal fashion, as Max’s desperate pursuit of her, her inability to believe his tale, and his dying quest to end his life with her, slowly warp and twist her life into a thing of hidden bitterness.

Originally falling in love with Alice when she is the fourteen year old daughter of his family’s tenant, Max kisses her one night after her heart is broken by another boy. This leads to her mother packing up all their belongings and moving away, disappearing into the turn of the century, escaping the apparent child molester. When he refinds Alice, it is a charming moment, Max given a second chance at love in a strange new way. Greer knows how to sweetly slide the blade in. “This sounds like a wretchedly broken heart, you’re thinking; this sounds like revenge.” When they both confess to each other the story of their first kisses, meaning each other years ago, it is a fanciful dance of perspective, hers filling in the other half of the story, his avoiding it. Max should learn from this a lesson his entire life should have prepared him for: your perspective is not reality.

Indeed, it is Max’s inability to see past his own specific wants and desires that is the novel’s weakest element. Max ought to know better than anyone that perception can radically depart from reality and he ought to better understand Alice’s reaction to the old him of years ago and how he cast a shadow over her present life with him. That he remains so trapped in his own ideas can’t be excused by his — what shall we call it? — temporal condition because his entire life is lived according to the precept his parents instilled in him “Be what they think you are.” At one point he muses, “What do we abandon to claim our heart’s desire? What do we become?” but the question is rather moot as he never does this, even in the face of Alice’s horror.

I had, while listening, a great sense at the book’s beginning that the author wanted to write a deep, intellectual book with a fantastical conceit, wanted to show us the real world, the simpler, more profound world under all our nonsense, but it didn’t seem at first as if Greer were really capable of writing that kind of book. As things moved along, the book started to work on me, yet there remained a nagging feeling that this wasn’t smart enough, nor clever enough, not sensitive or wise enough to pierce the skin of existence quite as deeply as he wanted. I was won over to the book after some initial struggle, but that tense feeling remained until I read through many of the quotes I took from the novel, until I had time away from the actual reading of it.

And that was when it struck me how instrumental a reader can be to one’s judgment of a novel, and how correct my wife was in insisting that part of what made listening to an audiobook fundamentally different from reading it was the interpretive spin a reader brought to the words. Keeler has a saccharine voice on the high end of the register, a pleasant tootling little trumpet better suited to mystery novels wherein cats solve crimes and smoke meerschaums while dressed in feline model deerstalkers.

This story is a sad one, melancholy, bitter even, yet Keeler reads as though he were narrating one of those sweeter Hallmark Presents coming-of-age made-for-TV movies. Lines like “We all hate what we become,” referring to the self loathing that comes over us as we age, is not a sticky line of plucked heart strings, but the reader sounds like a well-coifed, friendly uncle telling you a charming tale of sleeping princesses. “The body, that pale spider, stuns the mind” is another fine phrase made a bit treacley by the narration. Occasionally, he can work his voice up to a sneering emotion, such as the elderly Max’s irritation at having to pretend to be a boy and learn the times tables, but this edge is missing throughout when it is most necessary.

It is for this reason that I have pledged to revisit this novel some months from now, long after the effects of a particularly cloying reading have vanished, long after the taint may have subsided, when I can return to Max Tivoli once more. I plan to dilute the effect prior to this by tracking down Greer’s other works, his debut novel, The Path of Minor Planets as well as his short story collection, How It Was for Me. It is clear from his abilities here that Greer writes with an uncommonly confident style.(less)

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Sep 15, 2007 Cecilia rated it 3 of 5 stars

I launched into this book on the basis that I feel like I don’t read enough local authors. I definitely - in my head - support local artists, local authors, local press, etc., but sometimes it hard to put that into practice. So I did, and I was rewarded for my, you know, doing what I should be doing.

I knew the general plot going in, but the details of it still kind of hit you. However, once you get used to the conceit - the story of a man who is living life in reverse, born as an old man and gro...more

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Sep 29, 2008 Bobby rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

Max Tivoli is born in 1870's San Francisco with the body of an old man which gets younger and younger as time goes on. With this simple and fantastical premise, Andrew Sean Greer manages to construct a very original and rather believable--all things considering--love story (one with gothic overtones). Most of the story is told sixty or so years later, i.e., when Max has the body of a young boy but the life experience and mind of an "old man," as he writes in his journal. Though the writing felt...more

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Oct 01, 2008 Cassi rated it 3 of 5 stars

While the premise itself was sometimes frustrating, I was impressed that the author could get across very realistic frustrations of the main character.

I thought the book started off really bad and got much better. By the middle of the book, I enjoyed it.

I do think you need a bit of an idea of the story of the book before you read it- it makes it much more enjoyable.

Oh! And I have now come up with a new addition to "most annoying things about a book"
1. When the female character is so beautiful th...more

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Jan 16, 2012 manyhighways rated it 3 of 5 stars

Max Tivoli begins life as a young man in an old man's body and his confessions tell what it is like to grow younger as he grows older. In other words, he gradually gets smaller, regressing from a man of 60-something to a young boy. It's an interesting way to frame a story, much less a love story, which is what this book is.

Max meets the love of his life, Alice, when he is about 16 but looks like an old man. This rather perverted situation ends with Alice and her mother moving away after Max decl...more

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Jul 17, 2011 Shawn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Having known so much about this book before picking it up it is difficult to judge without pre-existing notions butting their way into my thought processes. Fortunately this is a very emotional book and doesn't lend itself well to analytical critique.

What stands out the most in my mind after reading this book, other than the fact that the main character ages backward, is the fervent obsession with love. It was so acute as to almost become obscene at times. That and the author's overuse of creati...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Brynn Sugarman rated it 5 of 5 stars

I found this book to be completely magical! When "Benjamin Button" came out, I kept thinking that they must have based it on Greer's book, since both involve a man who ages backwards but it seems that there was simultaneous inspiration, since Greer denies having ever read Fitzgerald's story. Such a brilliant idea!

Greer's writing is beautiful: lyrical, poetic and perfect. He does a wonderful job of evoking the missed opportunities of the protagonist: the ironies and tragedy of loving the same wo...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Erica Verrillo rated it 5 of 5 stars

Greer begins The Confessions of Max Tivoli with the statement "We are all the love of someone's life..." And with that tantalizing opening, Greer begins to unravel the tale, and the life, of Max Tivoli, a man who is born a wizened infant of 70 and then "ages" in reverse. The premise is, of course, far-fetched, but disbelief is suspended in the face of such sensitive and honest characterizations. Not only Max, whose confessions we are reading, but all the characters are portrayed with such depth...more

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Apr 21, 2012 Marsha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, literature-fiction

A variation on the Benjamin Button tale, the protagonist ages backwards while his mind matures, just like any other human being. Max’s particular trial, however, is to fall helplessly in love with one woman and try to woo her at three different points in his life.

Filled with lyrical prose as he struggles to meet the demands of a society that sees him inappropriately as an old man, youth and little boy even while he yearns to connect with his beloved Alice, the book makes the reader reel with th...more

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Nov 09, 2011 Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fic-speculative, fic-literary

***1/2

You might be surprised that this book preceded the move "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", which was made after I read it (in 2008), and that the two works are unconnected. Except, of course, for the central plot idea, which Greer might have also borrowed from F. Scott Fitzgerald: a child is born in an old man's body and from there ages backwards.

Despite the sci-fi premise, the story is lyrical and character-focused. Greer, admirably, doesn't give Max any easy outs from his situation o...more

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Aug 14, 2010 Laura Bang rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This book drew me in from the first sentence ("We are each the love of someone's life.") and my interest never wavered for the entire story. Max is cursed with a rare disease: his body ages in reverse, so that as a newborn, he appears to be a tiny 70-year-old man, and as he grows older in mind and years his body grows younger in physical appearance. He is writing his "confessions" in his late-fifties, with the physical appearance of a 12-year-old boy. While this may sound like a weird premise fo...more

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May 12, 2010 Paula rated it 5 of 5 stars

‘The Confessions of Max Tivoli’ tells the extraordinary story of Max, born in 1871 with the skin of an old man and ageing backwards, he may have a child’s body but he has an adult mind and soul. At the beginning, Max now has the body of a 12 year old and is aged 58 years old, Max at this point has lived a life of regrets and lost love.

Without giving to much away, ‘The Confessions of Max Tivoli’ shares one similarity with the book, ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ by F Scott Fitzgerald, the...more

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Jun 14, 2009 Night rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

By this time, when most people knew the movie adapted from the Curious Case of Benjamin Button (F. Fitzgerald), I think some would have come to know this book too, for it's about a man aging backwards too.

I came across this book and was suddenly drawn to its strange plot. The narrative is beautiful--though a little bit too beau for me. (I prefer straight-forward, cut-to-the-heart narrative.) The writer gives good details on how the protagonist adapts to his new age in a certain period of time.

I...more

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Apr 29, 2009 Dorie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-sci-fi

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, M...more

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Dec 03, 2009 Kit rated it 1 of 5 stars

OK, terrible book. I chose not to see the movie Benjamin Button because I knew I couldn't suspend disbelief enough to manage the premise. So, I should have known this was not the book for me; the whole concept of reverse aging made my brain hurt.

I'll tell you another thing that made my brain hurt: the writing of Andrew Sean Greer! I've not read anything else of his, and after reading Max Tivoli, I know I'll NEVER read anything else. The only reason I finished this one is because I only read it...more

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May 05, 2009 Grace rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, read-in-2009

I think people need to stop comparing this book to F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." Yes, they are both stories about growing young while those around you grow old, but, like everything else in literature - it's all been done before. Most books you read will have similarities to something you've read - a certain type of conflict, unrequited love, coming of age, etc. And this book is about a man who grows young instead of old. I'm also slightly annoyed by t...more I think people need to stop comparing this book to F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." Yes, they are both stories about growing young while those around you grow old, but, like everything else in literature - it's all been done before. Most books you read will have similarities to something you've read - a certain type of conflict, unrequited love, coming of age, etc. And this book is about a man who grows young instead of old. I'm also slightly annoyed by the comparison since the a big reason why the comparison is out there is because it was just made into a major motion picture starring Brad Pitt.

Author Andrew Sean Greer crafts a story that blends fantasy with fiction. He makes the impossible: growing young instead of old, seem realistic through back story (other examples of the similar phenomenon) and his portrayal of Max Tivoli. Max may not read like the most likable character in modern fiction, but I'm not sure if that's the point of the novel. It's kind of hard to like, empathize, or sympathize with a character who is going through something we could never begin to fathom. The idea of loving a teenage girl while you are an old man, marrying that same woman when she is in her 30's and you are about middle aged, and then loving her like a mother when she's in her 50's and you are 12 is not something I could even begin to imagine. Nor could I imagine sharing a room with my teenage son, who thinks I'm a little "duckbrain."

But, I can relate to the love Max feels for Alice. Sure, he goes about it the wrong way sometimes. He also doesn't take her feelings and reactions into account when he says and does things. But he's just a man trying to make his way through the world and the relationships we build in that world, just like the rest of us. He just has the unfortunate lot in life to have to do it looking old when he is young and looking young when he is old.

Overall, I liked the book. It was a good, thought provoking read. You can't ask for much more than that.

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Apr 10, 2012 Michelle Powers rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I really didn’t expect to like this book as much as I may have. I’m still not quite sure if I did like it or not. Yet, I listened to the audio book and found myself turning the CD player on before putting the car in gear and not minding traffic and red lights. (Any story that can make someone not mind traffic deserved 4 stars, no?)

I don’t really know who would like this book. This is not a story or a character you want to go back and think about. It’s a sad story. Every character in this book l...more I really didn’t expect to like this book as much as I may have. I’m still not quite sure if I did like it or not. Yet, I listened to the audio book and found myself turning the CD player on before putting the car in gear and not minding traffic and red lights. (Any story that can make someone not mind traffic deserved 4 stars, no?)

I don’t really know who would like this book. This is not a story or a character you want to go back and think about. It’s a sad story. Every character in this book loves someone who is incapable of loving them back to the same degree-or in the same way.

From the description you’ll see that it’s the story of a man growing young rather than old and meeting the woman he loves throughout his life. I think the piece that is really missing for me, is that we never really get to know this woman. At least I didn’t feel like I ever really knew who she was-what she was thinking or feeling---why she did the things she did. Yet, it’s not meant to be a story of her, it’s his story—Max Tivoli’s, and it remains amazingly true to that purpose. It is a very in-depth portrait of one man. In the end I didn’t particularly like him; although I think the reasons I didn’t like him were that he was so remarkably human—flawed, selfish, obsessed with the wrong thing. Though, I don’t think it matters either way. It’s like reading someone’s diary—you’re interested in reading it no matter what you really think of the person.

At times I thought the language was a bit overly dramatic. I may have found this more difficult to bear had I been reading it, but the narrator of the audio book was amazing.

As another reviewer commented, I skipped the part about the animal cruelty---once I sensed this coming, which wasn’t hard to do. Maybe that was the same section that gave away all the secrets of the woman he loved, though I doubt it.

I guess I would have to suggest you give it 50 pages….a few tracks on the CD…meet Max and hear his confessions for yourself.
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May 19, 2010 David rated it 2 of 5 stars

I tried to read this book over a year ago and just couldn't shake how much the voice of the character and the narration mimics Nabokov's character Humbert Humbert in Lolita. A trusted source encouraged me to try again, because they thought the prose was beautiful (in places) and that the story was well crafted.

So I tried again. And I'm still convinced that if you set out to intone the feel of HH in the way he makes appeals to his "dear readers" and to the object of his obsession, and the caregiv...more

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May 22, 2012 Lauren rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: meh

I'm not really sure if I liked this. I'm leaning towards no, I didn't.. It's just utterly boring. The main piece of the story, the romance between Max and Alice is, at best, shallow and, at worst, downright creepy and unhealthy. Max is totally selfish and obsessive towards her, to the point it's not cute, 'special' or loves young dream, it bordered on being sick. How desperate does someone have to be so obsessively jealous that they corner their spouse because they spoke to a member of the oppos...more

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About Andrew Sean Greer

Andrew Sean Greer (born 1970) is an American novelist and short story writer.

He is the bestselling author of The Story of a Marriage, which The New York Times has called an “inspired, lyrical novel,” and The Confessions of Max Tivoli, which was named one of the best books of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle and received a California Book Award.

The child of two scientists, Greer studied writing...more

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“We are each the love of someone's life.” — 26 people liked it

“People always say the greatest love story in the world is Romeo and Juliet. I don't know. At fourteen, at seventeen, I remember, it takes over your whole life." Alice was worked up now, her face flushed and alive, her hands cutting through the night-blooming air. "You think about nobody, nothing else, you don't eat or sleep, you just think about this . . . it's overwhelming. I know, I remember. But is it love? Like how you have cheap brandy when you're young and you think it's marvelous, just so elegant, and you don't know, you don't know anything . . . because, you've never tasted anything better. You're fourteen."

It was no time for lying. "I think it's love"

You do?"

I think maybe it's the only true love."

She was about to say something, and stopped herself. I'd surprised her, I suppose. "How sad if you're right," she said, closing her eyes for a moment. "Because we never end up with them. How sad and stupid if that's how it works.” — 23 people liked it

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