Journal Entry 1 by KF-in-Georgia from Marietta, Georgia USA on Sunday, October 23, 2005

This second copy of The Confessions of Max Tivoli has been donated by a member of my book club. Good thing: my recent efforts to set up a bookray have netted 13 participants. Now I can split the list between the two copies.

“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 backward, growing younger every year. And yet, his physical curse proves to be a blessing, allowing him to try to win the heart of the same woman three times as at each successive encounter she fails to recognize him, taking him for a stranger, so giving Max another chance at love.

Set against the historical backdrop of San Francisco at the turn of the twentieth century, The Confessions of Max Tivoli is a beautiful and daring feat of the imagination, questioning the very nature of love, time, and what it means to be human.

_____That’s the cover synopsis for this critically acclaimed book. Back-cover excerpts from reviewers indicate the book was loved by John Updike, Esquire, People, The New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, Michael Cunningham, San Francisco Chronicle, Michael Chabon, The Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, Salon.com, Peter Carey, The Washington Post, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Neil LaBute, Library Journal, Bookpage, Elle.com, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and The Times (London).
_____But me? Not so much. It’s a novel idea (excuse the pun), and it’s well executed and well written. But it just didn’t engage me. Here’s an excerpt from the text, so you can get a feel for Greer’s lovely style:
_____We have no heart at seventeen. We think we do; we think we have been cursed with a holy, bloated thing that twitches at the name we adore, but it is not a heart because though it will forfeit anything in the world—the mind, the body, the future, even the last lonely hour it has—it will not sacrifice itself. It is not a heart at seventeen. It is a fat queen murmuring in her hive. … But there was no heart in me. When do we grow one? Twenty, thirty years after we need it? (page 76)

_____So here’s your invitation: Come see why I’m wrong and the reviewers are right. This book is going out on an international bookray. If you’re interested, PM me with your location and your mailing preference.
_____Here are the book’s physical specs: This edition is a trade paperback: 267 pages; approximately 5.5” x 8.25” (14cm x 21cm); 9.8 oz (.278kg).
 

Journal Entry 2 by KF-in-Georgia from Marietta, Georgia USA on Sunday, October 23, 2005

If you’d like to see the reviews of the participants on the U.S. ray, check here.

This bookray’s participants:

1. Tazzell (in Scotland, mail in Europe)
   Nell-Lu (in Scotland, mail to U.K. or Europe)
   
2. flajol (in the U.K., mail internationally)
   
3. Sternschnuppe28 (in Germany, mail internationally)--it's here
   
4. Flicki (in Germany, mail internationally)
   
5. mairbu (in Japan, mail internationally)
   
6. hshah (in India, mail internationally)
   

Journal Entry 3 by KF-in-Georgia from Marietta, Georgia USA on Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Journal Entry 4 by Tazzell from Laurencekirk, Scotland United Kingdom on Saturday, October 29, 2005

Arrived today - Thanks KF ;) Made it here in 4 days how cool is that :) 

Journal Entry 5 by Tazzell from Laurencekirk, Scotland United Kingdom on Wednesday, November 30, 2005

I really enjoyed this book but felt there was something missing all the way through the book. That and the sensation that I wanted to shake Max to stop him being so self-centred and niave. Can't say I like the ending so much either did he really think it was a better option? All in all I'm glad I read the book and got to go on the journey with him, thanks KF for setting up this ring and sharing :)
Book will be off to Nell-Lu in the post first thing tomorrow. 

Journal Entry 6 by Nell-Lu from Edinburgh, Scotland United Kingdom on Monday, December 05, 2005

Just arrived - thanks Tazzell, and thanks KF-in-Georgia for setting up the ray. I'll read it later this week, once I've finished my current book. 

Journal Entry 7 by Nell-Lu from Edinburgh, Scotland United Kingdom on Friday, December 09, 2005

I thought this was great.

I liked the writing style - it drew me in to the story and the characters - and enjoyed the conceit of one character aging backwards. I think this is handled very well, and works as a way of looking at the world through the eyes of a stranger/outsider. Max is very self-centered, but I also found his vulnerability and loneliness was enough to make me care for him. His obsession with Alice and his inability to see other people's feelings seems to ring true. As the story progresses, the pathos of that first sentence "We are each the love of someone's life" becomes clearer.

Thanks for sharing, KF-in-Georgia. It's all packaged up and ready to go to flajol. I'll take it to the Post Office at lunchtime. 

Journal Entry 8 by flajol from Preston, Lancashire United Kingdom on Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Oooh - I've been looking forward to this book. It goes very near the top of my Christmas TBR pile.

Thanks for sharing, KF-in-Georgia, and thanks for the chocolate, Nell-Lu. ;o)

 

Journal Entry 9 by flajol from Preston, Lancashire United Kingdom on Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Well-written and touching, but very sad. I felt so sorry for Max through to his middle years, but really started to dislike him and his insensitivity in his later years. His final actions smack of the utmost selfishness - made me angry with him! KF-in-Georgia's excerpt is well-chosen. I wonder if Max ever grew a heart at all?

Although I found Max himself unsympathetic, I was drawn in by the story, and really enjoyed the author's style. I'd like to read more of Greer's work.

All parcelled up and ready to fly off to Sternschnuppe28 tomorrow morning.



 

Journal Entry 10 by Sternschnuppe28 from Mainz, Rheinland-Pfalz Germany on Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Thanks! Just received, TBR soon. 

Journal Entry 11 by Sternschnuppe28 from Mainz, Rheinland-Pfalz Germany on Thursday, January 19, 2006

It took me quite a time to get warm with the story and acquainted to its characters, but in the end I liked it a lot. Every single story line came together, and things fell in their right positions. I loved the ending, though it is so sad, but only like this it makes sense, another ending would have made the story kitschy and unbelievable.

"The confessions of Max Tivoli" have continued travelling to Flicki today. 

Journal Entry 12 by Flicki from Emden, Niedersachsen Germany on Monday, January 23, 2006

Received this today - thanks so much! I hope I'll get around to it soon, there are just a few books ahead! :-) 

Journal Entry 13 by Flicki from Emden, Niedersachsen Germany on Wednesday, May 03, 2006

It's hard to believe but it's actually true: I HAVE FINISHED THE BOOK!!! :-) Sorry for the delay, though, I was really busy and had a lot of books to read for work while at it. Bad combination. Nevertheless, I'm through it now and don't really know what to say: In a way I quite liked 'Max Tivoli', but I guess I expected more something like 'The Timetraveler's Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger and this is not like it. The main difference is probably that it is set in the US at a time that I don't know much about, so it was rather foreign to me, but somehow pretty enchanting. The whole story has some kind of... Viennese feeling to it that I quite appreciated but couldn't feel at home with at the same time. Then the whole story with Alice... well... it's quite credible that Max' love is not returned, but somehow I would have really liked it if Max had been the reason for Alice to fall in love with Ramsey because actually that old guy Max Tivoli (aka Max at 17) turned out to be the love of her life after leaving SF and so that was the reason for her being into old men which Max just couldn't come up with when he was actually fortysomething but in a much younger body. This way over Hughie was rather strange... what was there to fall in love with about him at the time? Anyway, it all comes together when we talk about 'We are each the love of someone's life'. The problem about the book is probably that everybody in there is obviously the love of someone's life and it's always the wrong one - by principle. That makes the story a little bit constructed.

Anyway, I'll send it on to the next person in line soon, already have the address! (Hopefully she hasn't moved in the last few months I have the book... ahem...) Hope you enjoy it, too! :-)