Set in an international high school in Paris, YOU DESERVE NOTHING is told in three voices: that of Will, a charismatic young teacher who brings ide...
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reviews
Dec 06, 2011
UPDATE: November 29, 2011
Turns out this book really was based on the author's transgressions. The Will Silver character is Maksik himself.
http://jezebel.com/5863188/how-a-teacher...
With this new development, I'm going to leave the book without a rating. Here is my original four-star review:
Bleak but mighty impressive.
Teacher worship. Is there anything more universal or more potentially devastating? At the International School of France, Will Silv More...
Turns out this book really was based on the author's transgressions. The Will Silver character is Maksik himself.
http://jezebel.com/5863188/how-a-teacher...
With this new development, I'm going to leave the book without a rating. Here is my original four-star review:
Bleak but mighty impressive.
Teacher worship. Is there anything more universal or more potentially devastating? At the International School of France, Will Silv More...
7 comments
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(8 people liked it)
Sep 21, 2011
switterbug (Betsey)
rated it: 
In existential philosophy, the words "You deserve nothing" are not reproachful. Rather, they define human responsibility and imperative, and the fundamental freedom to choose (versus the determinist ideology of fate). Essence comes after existence, not before. Human beings encounter themselves, surge up in this world, and have the burden of choice. We are not blobs of fate and destiny powered by an outside, ontological force. We are that force; there is no karmic essence--the world, as
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(7 people liked it)
Aug 23, 2011
Lindsay (Little Reader Library)
rated it:
The setting is Paris, at an international high school, where we meet William Silver, a charismatic, inspiring young English teacher. Mr Silver’s classes are popular, the students find him interesting and inspiring, he challenges them to think for themselves, to question, to lead the class, to engage in discussion with him and with each other. He gets them thinking about big issues, life and death, religion, fate, through the medium of the literature they are studying. As we join the story, a suc
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Sep 30, 2011
Evan
rated it:
I received my advance copy of Alexander Maksik's debut novel from a publisher rep (I'm a bookseller). The rep briefly explained that the teacher (more or less the protagonist) is similar to Robin Williams' character from the film "Dead Poets Society", and that he starts an inappropriate relationship with a student, and that it gets interesting from there. Though this review refers to a pre-publication galley, I sincerely hope they publish the novel as is. It is enthralling (even if you
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Oct 02, 2011
Tajma
rated it: 
Had I known just how good this novel would be, I would have saved it for a perfect winter day, with snow falling outside and the fireplace roaring.
11 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Feb 18, 2012
Jeania
rated it:
I heard about this book via the controversy surrounding the author who writes about a male teacher who has an affair with a female student at a school very much like the American School in Paris where he was fired from his job for doing the same. I thought the book well written and loved the literary references, however, I wish the author had not gone first person with Marie’s perspective. I think this was the only thing that detracted from the novel for me, and it doesn’t help his case with the
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Feb 16, 2012
Scott
rated it:
Alexander Maksik’s 21st century Paris is a flurry of multiculturalism, parties and protest. Politically reactive and morally ambiguous, certitude about anything – from relationships to cultural classes – is at best difficult to grasp. It is in this world that American William Silver teaches his small cadre of sheltered, private-high-school students. Cynical children of diplomats and international jet-setters, they are enamored by every word professed by the Great Man. Struggling with his own dif
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Feb 01, 2012
Kurt
rated it: 
This is a book about a teacher in an international high school in Paris. He is charismatic but he is empty inside, perhaps due to the deaths of his parents, which in turn led to the break-up of his marriage. This emptiness, which is never really explained, leads to an existential moment of WTF in which he sleeps with a student, although she is not in any of his classes. Their sex is described in graphic detail.
He is also the object of obsessed, probably non-sexual attention on the More...
He is also the object of obsessed, probably non-sexual attention on the More...
Jan 23, 2012
Sonia
rated it: 
Wow, wow, wow. I hated the teacher at the heart of this book, and it turns out the pathology of this man, Silver, may actually be the pathology of the author himself, judging by the extensive controversy around Maksik's past teaching history and dismissal, for having an affair with a student. (Others have posted the Jezebel article below.) But metacognitively, this book can serve as a study on the droll and maybe dangerous interpretations of existentialism by someone who clearly has some mental
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 17, 2012
Tim
rated it:
"You Deserve Nothing" serves up little new in plot or basic approach — worship of teacher, stimulating give-and-take of the academic environment, an instructor's affair with a high school student — but in its moral ambiguity, its telling of the tale in alternating first-person takes (two students, one teacher) and in its refusal to go for easy titillation or finger-pointing, it feels real. Maybe too real; reportedly some of the former students of the real-life author feel this is a mem
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Dec 29, 2011
Jane
rated it:
An easy book to get absorbed in. Narrated by three characters--Will, the charismatic American teacher in a French international school, Marie, a senior in the school, and Gilad, a boy who is a student in Will's senior English seminar. Wonderful scenes and conversations in the classroom, lots of wonderful Paris scenes, and then the tangled relationships, which are foreshadowed right from the start. Interesting to read this right before reading Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout...it's the same
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Dec 25, 2011
Leah
rated it:
The three stars is largely for the early chapters of YOU DESERVE NOTHING. Maksik's descriptions of lonely, stoic people wandering through Paris and a Greek seaside village are spare and lovely and obviously owe much to Hemingway. It's when the school year starts that things go downhill.
Will Silver, an English teacher at a gated, insular American high school in Paris, is recovering from a failed marriage and compensating by courting the adoration of his students. This leads, unsurprisin More...
Will Silver, an English teacher at a gated, insular American high school in Paris, is recovering from a failed marriage and compensating by courting the adoration of his students. This leads, unsurprisin More...
Dec 24, 2011
Miriam
rated it: 
The characters seem almost cliched - the intellectual and loved teacher, the enlightened and different boy, the giddy infatuated girl - but I was relieved that the plot was more interesting. The main three characters each narrate portions of the book. The story revolves around the teacher, a character whom everyone else loves and admires but is somewhat of a mystery. Yet while the reader is granted insight into his mind through his own narration of the events, he doesn't reveal anything about hi
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Dec 11, 2011
Michel
rated it:
Remember the Million Little Pieces scandal, when Frey's "memoir" turned out to be fictitious? Well this is the same thing in reverse: a "novel" which turns out to be a memoir. The appalling story of a teacher committing custodial rape on a 17 year old student.
No apology, no atonement, au contraire, she seduced him, you see, she asked for it, she felt good about it, she still dreams of him, all the usual excuses! How did Sebold, his editor and a rape victim herself, l More...
No apology, no atonement, au contraire, she seduced him, you see, she asked for it, she felt good about it, she still dreams of him, all the usual excuses! How did Sebold, his editor and a rape victim herself, l More...
Dec 08, 2011
Sonia
rated it:
Non immaginavo un coinvolgimento totale da questo romanzo, dal titolo duro e dalla copertina difficile da capire, se non lo si è letto prima. Non avevo idea di cosa aspettarmi, ma ero convinta che mi sarei trovata di fronte ad una storia intrisa di realismo e pessimismo, che alla fine non avrebbe rispecchiato le mie idee o peggio ancora i miei ideali. Ma da buona lettrice, avrei cercato di comprenderne le ragioni.
Insomma il libro era già stato schedato e valutato prima ancora di dare uno s More...
Insomma il libro era già stato schedato e valutato prima ancora di dare uno s More...
Oct 15, 2011
Judy
rated it:
I had many high expectations for this novel. It is set in Paris, a city I love. It was given to me by a reading friend who has similar tastes. It was edited by Alice Sebold. Most of all, I had read that the author was inspired by Albert Camus's The Stranger, a book and an author I rather revere. However, as the title proclaims, I deserve nothing.
Reading the book was pure pleasure, almost guilty pleasure. What could be more enjoyable than a love story between an older man and a ver More...
Oct 06, 2011
Alla
rated it:
“You deserve nothing” by Alexander Maksik is about a brilliant professor of literature in the International School of France, Will Silver, whose life drastically changes after he accidentally begins an affair with one of the students, high school senior Marie Le Clere. As the story follows both Will and Marie, it also follows Gilad—a student who struggles with his own attraction to Silver, while trying to fit in and figure out how to go about his own life.
I loved Maksik’s spin on the More...
I loved Maksik’s spin on the More...
Oct 05, 2011
Jill
rated it:
Where do I start with this magnificent debut book? That it was so mesmerizing that I read 200 pages at one clip, skipping dinner, not coming up for air? That it was so brilliantly done that even now, I am mulling over some key scenes? That it combines very real characters with themes such as existentialism and myth-making and how we learn and why we learn?
Let’s start at the beginning. Will Silver is a charismatic and damaged English teacher who teaches at the International School o More...
Let’s start at the beginning. Will Silver is a charismatic and damaged English teacher who teaches at the International School o More...
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Oct 01, 2011
Stefanie
rated it:
I had high expectations for this novel as an existentialist manifesto. This is a quick, enjoyable read, with well crafted prose, yet, despite the subject matter, it lacks depth and authenticity.
The scenario creates a very human, universal experience, but the treatment lacks relationship with the human condition. The narration was so distanced that I felt very little for these characters; they recount their thoughts and actions as a plot rather than a development. At times, I felt th More...
The scenario creates a very human, universal experience, but the treatment lacks relationship with the human condition. The narration was so distanced that I felt very little for these characters; they recount their thoughts and actions as a plot rather than a development. At times, I felt th More...
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Sep 16, 2011
Nancy
rated it:
for the longer review, click on through.
The basic story is this: Will Silver is an English teacher at the International Foreign School in Paris. He introduces his students to existentialist literature in a senior seminar, and for the most part, his students look up to him in a hero-worshipping sort of way. Will loves it. But as a new school year begins, Will meets Marie, another student at the IFS, and his actions, as well as his inactions, will have a profound effect on all of tho More...
The basic story is this: Will Silver is an English teacher at the International Foreign School in Paris. He introduces his students to existentialist literature in a senior seminar, and for the most part, his students look up to him in a hero-worshipping sort of way. Will loves it. But as a new school year begins, Will meets Marie, another student at the IFS, and his actions, as well as his inactions, will have a profound effect on all of tho More...
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Aug 30, 2011
Jut
rated it:
"You Deserve Nothing" is a superb novel, so good in fact it is hard to believe it is Maksik's first. His writing is assured, his language is pristine, and his characters are so alive that I have not been able to get them out of my mind.
The story is told from three convincing points of view and Maksik is able to inhabit his characters with such thorough understanding and precision that I came to care deeply for each one. One of the characters is a teen-aged girl and it is a More...
The story is told from three convincing points of view and Maksik is able to inhabit his characters with such thorough understanding and precision that I came to care deeply for each one. One of the characters is a teen-aged girl and it is a More...
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May 27, 2011
Drew
rated it:
William Silver is a young teacher at the ISF, a high school for international students, in Paris. He is a well liked and dynamic literature teacher whose senior seminar is one of the highlights of many students careers at the school. The school year in which the story takes place, Silver is teaching literature, that while not exclusively existentialist, leans in that direction and is exposing most of his students to this philosophy for the first time.
Yet, as he is teaching these st More...
Yet, as he is teaching these st More...
Feb 20, 2012
Mary
rated it:
You Deserve Nothing
By Alexander Maksik
Copyright 2012 John Murray Publishers
ISBN: 978-1848545724
308 pages
You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik is a controversial Novel written by a former teacher. The Novel is told by three narrators........William Silver, the Charismatic English teacher at an American High School in Paris catering to children of diplomats and rich people, Marie De Clery, a fifteen-year-old student, and Gilad, an impressionable student who More...
By Alexander Maksik
Copyright 2012 John Murray Publishers
ISBN: 978-1848545724
308 pages
You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik is a controversial Novel written by a former teacher. The Novel is told by three narrators........William Silver, the Charismatic English teacher at an American High School in Paris catering to children of diplomats and rich people, Marie De Clery, a fifteen-year-old student, and Gilad, an impressionable student who More...
Feb 03, 2012
Lindsay
rated it:
I can not begin to tell you how much i enjoyed this book. I don't want to say to much and spoil it for other readers so i will keep the descriptions brief.
The story is told from 3 different view points. Will, the teacher, Gilad, a new student and Marie, a senior student. The setting is an international school in Paris for the sons and daughters of Ambassadors etc.
The story revolves around Will, the handsome english teacher that all the students love, think Robin Williams char More...
The story is told from 3 different view points. Will, the teacher, Gilad, a new student and Marie, a senior student. The setting is an international school in Paris for the sons and daughters of Ambassadors etc.
The story revolves around Will, the handsome english teacher that all the students love, think Robin Williams char More...
Jun 22, 2011
Paola
rated it:
(My review - originally posted on Amazon UK)
The blurb at the back of the advance copy sent by Amazon Vine says ‘will appear to readers of Donna Tartt and J D Salinger’, placing this somewhere in between the ‘Coming of Age’ and the ‘campus’ novel genres. Despite its rather ominous title, which is misleadingly reminiscent of the “miserabilist” memoirs so popular at the moment, "You Deserve Nothing" is centred around three characters - Will Silver, a teacher, and two students, M More...
The blurb at the back of the advance copy sent by Amazon Vine says ‘will appear to readers of Donna Tartt and J D Salinger’, placing this somewhere in between the ‘Coming of Age’ and the ‘campus’ novel genres. Despite its rather ominous title, which is misleadingly reminiscent of the “miserabilist” memoirs so popular at the moment, "You Deserve Nothing" is centred around three characters - Will Silver, a teacher, and two students, M More...
Feb 14, 2012
Xanthi
rated it:
I wanted to hate this book, and at the beginning I did. I read about the controversy of this book and its author and I hate to admit it but that is what drew me in to read it in the first place. I might not have heard about it otherwise, nor chosen to read it. I do wonder how thinly veiled this story is. My guess is very thinly and that is what makes it even more compelling.
At the beginning of the book, I felt annoyed that the author's main character was being made to look like such a wond More...
At the beginning of the book, I felt annoyed that the author's main character was being made to look like such a wond More...
Jan 14, 2012
George
rated it:
It might be more difficult to read this book after hearing that it in fact is not a work of fiction, but a thinly veiled memoir of the author's time as a teacher at American School in Paris. This is relevant because the story is of a teacher who gets sexually involved with a student.
Apart from that, and yes I can divorce myself from those proceedings, I thought the book was excellent, perhaps even brilliant. In fact, given that the core themes of the book are existentialist, the tens More...
Apart from that, and yes I can divorce myself from those proceedings, I thought the book was excellent, perhaps even brilliant. In fact, given that the core themes of the book are existentialist, the tens More...
Dec 09, 2011
I confess, I read this book only because my curiosity was peaked by the article about it on Jezebel, and I wanted to be able to judge it for myself.
That said, it's sickening.
The tone somehow manages to strike a balance between self-loathing and unparalleled conceit, which is a pretty staggering achievement in its own perverse way. I am, of course, reading this work through the lens provided me, that the characters involved and goodly number of the events portrayed are rea More...
That said, it's sickening.
The tone somehow manages to strike a balance between self-loathing and unparalleled conceit, which is a pretty staggering achievement in its own perverse way. I am, of course, reading this work through the lens provided me, that the characters involved and goodly number of the events portrayed are rea More...
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Jan 26, 2012
Douglas
rated it:
It was more or less impossible to separate 'fact from fiction' while reading this novel, thanks to some rather damning articles that have surfaced suggesting Mr. Maksik has some truly 'inside information' when it comes to charismatic teachers philandering with high-school students.
That said, the prose itself is well written, the plot has its structural weaknesses (more on this below) but is propulsive, and most of the characters are well drawn. This is one of the quickest 300+ page bo More...
That said, the prose itself is well written, the plot has its structural weaknesses (more on this below) but is propulsive, and most of the characters are well drawn. This is one of the quickest 300+ page bo More...
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Jan 09, 2012
Kirby
rated it:
I have a whole mess of mixed feeling on this one.
If you've heard of You Deserve Nothing, chances are you've heard of the controversy surrounding its author. The novel tells the story of a young, popular teacher at an American high school in Paris, where he is a god among teens, with his inspirational philosophizing and dreamy good looks. Unfortunately, drama breaks loose when he and one of the school's female students start a secret affair.
So here are my major thought More...
If you've heard of You Deserve Nothing, chances are you've heard of the controversy surrounding its author. The novel tells the story of a young, popular teacher at an American high school in Paris, where he is a god among teens, with his inspirational philosophizing and dreamy good looks. Unfortunately, drama breaks loose when he and one of the school's female students start a secret affair.
So here are my major thought More...
