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webbywebb's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
mattwhitby's review against another edition
5.0
Similar in style and tone to Any Human Heart (though it pre-dates it). A tale touching on enough history to give it the feel of a true autobiography. Even side characters feel as though they have a life outside of the book.
kylewilkinson's review against another edition
2.0
Overly vigorous and mundane examination of John James Todd (Hey, three first names!) and his various encounters throughout life, from the battlefront in the trenches during world war 1 to his filmmaking attempts to make a nine-hour epic of Jean Jacques Rousseau's the new confessions culminating in him being a victim of McCarthyism. The biggest issue here is that Boyd assumes the reader has an intricate interest in Rousseau's life and the filmmaking techniques he used to make a grandeur epic, but in reality, this took up half the book for me. If I wanted to read about the making of a silent film epic, I would just read production stories of Napoleon (1927), which Boyd was clearly inspired by.
If John James Todd was a fascinating character, all the overwriting could be forgiven, but he isn't lacking the self-awareness you think might have come in abundance during his later years.
Boyd seems to adore writing fictional biographies about people, but based on my personal experiences with this one, I won't be rushing to read them anytime soon.
If John James Todd was a fascinating character, all the overwriting could be forgiven, but he isn't lacking the self-awareness you think might have come in abundance during his later years.
Boyd seems to adore writing fictional biographies about people, but based on my personal experiences with this one, I won't be rushing to read them anytime soon.
joshtenet's review against another edition
was really interesting until it got to about the halfway point and all the film talk made it run out of steam. having a book be about a visual medium primarily doesn't really work in this case.
katherinebryant1999's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kylewilkinson's review against another edition
2.0
Overly vigorous and mundane examination of John James Todd (Hey, three first names!) and his various encounters throughout life, from the battlefront in the trenches during world war 1 to his filmmaking attempts to make a nine-hour epic of Jean Jacques Rousseau's the new confessions culminating in him being a victim of McCarthyism. The biggest issue here is that Boyd assumes the reader has an intricate interest in Rousseau's life and the filmmaking techniques he used to make a grandeur epic, but in reality, this took up half the book for me. If I wanted to read about the making of a silent film epic, I would just read production stories of Napoleon (1927), which Boyd was clearly inspired by.
If John James Todd was a fascinating character, all the overwriting could be forgiven, but he isn't lacking the self-awareness you think might have come in abundance during his later years.
Boyd seems to adore writing fictional biographies about people, but based on my personal experiences with this one, I won't be rushing to read them anytime soon.
If John James Todd was a fascinating character, all the overwriting could be forgiven, but he isn't lacking the self-awareness you think might have come in abundance during his later years.
Boyd seems to adore writing fictional biographies about people, but based on my personal experiences with this one, I won't be rushing to read them anytime soon.
stewg's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
zjunjunia's review against another edition
5.0
My third Boyd and it just continues to reaffirm my fascination and appreciation of his writing. Reflecting back, I see his stories as a graph. Starting gently, with a small gradient as he helps introduce the character. And what is quite interesting is many of those aspects and stories from the protagonist's childhood foreshadow the behaviour and results in the future. The curve, however, starts to get steeper and reaches one of its turning points. And then there are a couple more of those. A major plot shit and then us getting used to it to then once more be faced with a significant change. There is a distance-preserving homomorphism that maps this curve to the graph which charts the amount I read each night - an isometry. Because although I can start slow, I soon reach a point where I have to put the book down as I physically cannot keep my eyes open. I think this is what also makes Boyd such a great screenwriter though I am yet to see any of his work (planning to see the TV adaptation of Any Human Heart).
I digress and use inaccurate mathematical analogies (forgive me those who have studied some level of university mathematics). The story starts in Edinburgh, a city I love, spends time in Berlin and LA, places I am keen to visit, and gets deep into filmmaking across both World Wars. I had not heard of Rosseau before this but from what I understood, this story is inspired by Rosseau's life story which he captured in his autobiography, The Confessions. Thus the apt title, 'The New Confessions'. Yet it is not simply a modernisation but a clever story which not only acknowledges but makes the inspiration the central theme of the book as it follows our protagonist through the many years of him writing the film adaptation of The Confessions. The only wonderment I'm left with is whether our protagonist ever realises that his attraction to Rosseau's story was because he saw himself in it?
I digress and use inaccurate mathematical analogies (forgive me those who have studied some level of university mathematics). The story starts in Edinburgh, a city I love, spends time in Berlin and LA, places I am keen to visit, and gets deep into filmmaking across both World Wars. I had not heard of Rosseau before this but from what I understood, this story is inspired by Rosseau's life story which he captured in his autobiography, The Confessions. Thus the apt title, 'The New Confessions'. Yet it is not simply a modernisation but a clever story which not only acknowledges but makes the inspiration the central theme of the book as it follows our protagonist through the many years of him writing the film adaptation of The Confessions. The only wonderment I'm left with is whether our protagonist ever realises that his attraction to Rosseau's story was because he saw himself in it?
smartipants8's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic - at turns laugh aloud and philosophical.