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sjj169's review against another edition
1.0
Borefest. I thought I would really like this book. Nope.
shanviolinlove's review against another edition
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.
ablimkie's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
jlange64's review against another edition
4.0
This is a book reminiscent of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in that the main character is born elderly and ages in reverse. It is a pretty short book but it covers a lot of ground. It is basically the main characters struggle with his condition and encountering the "love of his life" at three different times in his life. It was pretty good but so many times I found myself wishing the main character would make different decisions. I can definitely see how this would be a great book for a book club discussion.
tbsims's review against another edition
2.0
kept wondering if this was the basis of the curious case of Benjamin button, or was the book based on that. Super similar.
taliaissmart's review against another edition
1.0
DNF (audio) @ 60%.
The plot interests me, but I find the narrator so insufferable (both in the past, which he is recounting, as well as in the present, via the recounting itself). He is completely self-absorbed and self-pitying, without any real hint of growth. While this may be the point of the novel, I just can't put up with it any longer.
The plot interests me, but I find the narrator so insufferable (both in the past, which he is recounting, as well as in the present, via the recounting itself). He is completely self-absorbed and self-pitying, without any real hint of growth. While this may be the point of the novel, I just can't put up with it any longer.
ikabonifacio's review against another edition
5.0
"We are each the love of someone's life."
I first read snippets of this book at an age too young — when I was still in elementary school, in fact. I was eleven years old and had not come from an English-speaking household, so I neither had the proper language skills nor sufficient life experience to fully grasp the scenes described, much less the meaning behind them. Yet, it was one of the very few books in our house, so I sometimes found myself squinting at the pages, trying to extract meaning from what little words I knew.
Every few years since then, I've read and reread the story from front to back. Each time, it would reveal a secret to me — a message or another I had missed from my last reading. Maybe it is this constant revisiting that made me fall in love with the story much like Max meeting with Alice in several, disparate points in his life. It's a story of a romance doomed from the very beginning. The lust for a life well-lived, a desire one cannot satisfy, a contrast of wealth and poverty and old age and youth and tragedy and love — all these come together to hammer in the message: "we are each the love of someone's life."
I first read snippets of this book at an age too young — when I was still in elementary school, in fact. I was eleven years old and had not come from an English-speaking household, so I neither had the proper language skills nor sufficient life experience to fully grasp the scenes described, much less the meaning behind them. Yet, it was one of the very few books in our house, so I sometimes found myself squinting at the pages, trying to extract meaning from what little words I knew.
Every few years since then, I've read and reread the story from front to back. Each time, it would reveal a secret to me — a message or another I had missed from my last reading. Maybe it is this constant revisiting that made me fall in love with the story much like Max meeting with Alice in several, disparate points in his life. It's a story of a romance doomed from the very beginning. The lust for a life well-lived, a desire one cannot satisfy, a contrast of wealth and poverty and old age and youth and tragedy and love — all these come together to hammer in the message: "we are each the love of someone's life."
auntblh's review against another edition
1.0
I just couldn't get into this book. I got about 75 pages into it and really didn't care about any of the characters. Sometimes if I stop reading a book, I wonder in the back of mind if it got better or not. With this one, I didn't have that thought and I didn't really care.