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smartipants8's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic - at turns laugh aloud and philosophical.
ruthiella's review against another edition
3.0
Alas, I think that no William Boyd novel will ever quite measure up to Any Human Heart. This is the fourth book of his that I have read since AHH. Interestingly enough the conceit of The New Confessions is rather similar to AHH in that it is Western history in the 20th century as seen through the lens of one man’s life. But The New Confessions is not told in journal form but rather as an old man looking back on his life, which is a very different style to read. But similar to AHH, Boyd does seamlessly blend history and fiction to create a believable pseudohistory of a life.
The man is John James Todd and the book’s structure and tone (I suspect?) is supposed to mirror that of Jean Jacques Rousseau’s The Confessions. Unfortunately I am not familiar with Rousseau, so I can’t really be sure. But this is definitely a very “warts and all” confession. Todd often tries to explain his behavior but much of his confessions make him out to be a rather selfish and uncompromising person as he moves from highs to lows, from his time as a soldier in WWI to his years as a celebrated silent film director in Weimar Germany, a victim of McCarthyism, and so on. Definitely worth reading for fans of Boyd. Despite my personal dislike of JJ Todd, he as a character was interesting as was his tumultuous life and the pages turned easily.
The man is John James Todd and the book’s structure and tone (I suspect?) is supposed to mirror that of Jean Jacques Rousseau’s The Confessions. Unfortunately I am not familiar with Rousseau, so I can’t really be sure. But this is definitely a very “warts and all” confession. Todd often tries to explain his behavior but much of his confessions make him out to be a rather selfish and uncompromising person as he moves from highs to lows, from his time as a soldier in WWI to his years as a celebrated silent film director in Weimar Germany, a victim of McCarthyism, and so on. Definitely worth reading for fans of Boyd. Despite my personal dislike of JJ Todd, he as a character was interesting as was his tumultuous life and the pages turned easily.
jillysnz's review
3.0
I usually like his books better, but not likeable characters, and somewhat Job like in story.
rosseroo's review
5.0
This fictional memoir displays Boyd's consummate skill and style to full effect, ranging across time an place to create a vivid tale. Jean Jacques Rousseau's Confessions is (perhaps arguably) first tell-all memoir, and here Boyd updates it through the reminisces of James Todd. The story unfolds chronologically from his birth in 1899 and upbringing in Edinburgh to the 1970s, when he sits incognito on a quiet island writing his memoirs. The years between are a picaresque journey through the first half of the last century and one man's attempt to create meaning in his life.
The early years in his domineering father's household document an unhappy child yearning for love and approval. His father's quest to perfect and patent medicines provides an uncommonly interesting background for this. When a family friend introduces him to photography, the die is cast. As a teenager, like so many British men of his age, he is swallowed by the first World War, where he is wounded at Ypres. Here, Boyd's descriptions manage to breath fresh life into carnage whose horror has been well-documented. Fortuitously, he is then transferred to a propaganda unit, where his talent in photography is applied to the new realm of film. Captured by the Germans, he languishes in prison, where a guard befriends him and gives him a copy of Rousseau's Confessions to pass the time. The work insinuates itself into him, and it percolates in him in the postwar years as he works in the London silent film industry. Despite marrying and fathering several children, his ambitions remain thwarted and he moves to Berlin to pursue his pet project of making an epic version of Rousseau's book.
In Weimar Berlin he embraces the vibrant (if pfenningless) art community and reconnects with his former guard, who is now an actor. Working together, and with Armenian producers, their careers start to take off and Todd becomes embroiled in a lifelong love affair with an actress. Boyd's description of the inter-war Berlin film scene is so vivid, and the discussion of Todd's career so convincing that one is tempted to put the book down and rush to the video store to see his films. With the juice to get his pet Rousseau project made, Todd throws himself full-tilt into the project, only to see the emergence of "talkies" scuttle it. This propels him to Hollywood, where makes some quiet B-Westerns embedded with subtle social messages until the next war finds him scrambling around as a war correspondent for third-tier U.S. newspapers.
Following WWII, he falls afoul of the McCarthy witch hunts for communist in the entertainment industry and appears before HUAC. Here, is perhaps the book's one flaw. The HUAC hearings provide Todd with an opportunity to both stay afloat by naming names (some of whom have already named him), and exact revenge on his longtime archnemesis-but he doesn't take it. Although he's presented as variously idealistic and honorable, it's the one time in the book where the character doesn't hold true. And from here, the book bogs down a little, as Todd's current situation as apparent exile starts to loom over the proceedings. Despite a somewhat unsatisfying ending, the story's overall quality is head and shoulders above the pack. Once again Boyd has researched a plethora of subjects and places, and recreates them perfectly. At the same time he occasionally deploys a light comic touch to lighten this story of the search for meaning and the role of chance in life.
The early years in his domineering father's household document an unhappy child yearning for love and approval. His father's quest to perfect and patent medicines provides an uncommonly interesting background for this. When a family friend introduces him to photography, the die is cast. As a teenager, like so many British men of his age, he is swallowed by the first World War, where he is wounded at Ypres. Here, Boyd's descriptions manage to breath fresh life into carnage whose horror has been well-documented. Fortuitously, he is then transferred to a propaganda unit, where his talent in photography is applied to the new realm of film. Captured by the Germans, he languishes in prison, where a guard befriends him and gives him a copy of Rousseau's Confessions to pass the time. The work insinuates itself into him, and it percolates in him in the postwar years as he works in the London silent film industry. Despite marrying and fathering several children, his ambitions remain thwarted and he moves to Berlin to pursue his pet project of making an epic version of Rousseau's book.
In Weimar Berlin he embraces the vibrant (if pfenningless) art community and reconnects with his former guard, who is now an actor. Working together, and with Armenian producers, their careers start to take off and Todd becomes embroiled in a lifelong love affair with an actress. Boyd's description of the inter-war Berlin film scene is so vivid, and the discussion of Todd's career so convincing that one is tempted to put the book down and rush to the video store to see his films. With the juice to get his pet Rousseau project made, Todd throws himself full-tilt into the project, only to see the emergence of "talkies" scuttle it. This propels him to Hollywood, where makes some quiet B-Westerns embedded with subtle social messages until the next war finds him scrambling around as a war correspondent for third-tier U.S. newspapers.
Following WWII, he falls afoul of the McCarthy witch hunts for communist in the entertainment industry and appears before HUAC. Here, is perhaps the book's one flaw. The HUAC hearings provide Todd with an opportunity to both stay afloat by naming names (some of whom have already named him), and exact revenge on his longtime archnemesis-but he doesn't take it. Although he's presented as variously idealistic and honorable, it's the one time in the book where the character doesn't hold true. And from here, the book bogs down a little, as Todd's current situation as apparent exile starts to loom over the proceedings. Despite a somewhat unsatisfying ending, the story's overall quality is head and shoulders above the pack. Once again Boyd has researched a plethora of subjects and places, and recreates them perfectly. At the same time he occasionally deploys a light comic touch to lighten this story of the search for meaning and the role of chance in life.
borisfeldman's review
3.0
3.5. Boyd is one of my favorite authors. Passages in this novel are underlineable. The overall story of the main character's life is rather bleak. I certainly learned a lot about Rousseau!
akmk's review
2.0
I hated this book for most of the time I was reading it but it did have a solid ending. Really tied it together and left me thinking
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