Sorry I am late

Hi. Sorry I am late. I really enjoyed the book. I love to read and this book had an unusual concept and was beautifully written.

I found two concepts of the book compelling. The first was isolation Max felt as a person with a disability. Already isolated by his unique condition, he was further isolated by his mom who insisted that he "be who they think you are" (sorry if I misquoted there). Max never really had the opportunity to be true to himself and honest with the world- instead he lived in some made-up world where he scrambled to meet everyone else's superficial assumptions of who he was. How lonely a life that would be.

I work with people with disabilities and often see a similar frustration in the people I work with. Often, the world looks at them and sees a person using a wheelchair or a person who looks "crazy" and makes assumptions- never bothering to check the accuracies of their biases. This, too, leads to isolation and loneliness.

The second theme I saw was the idea of waiting for your life to happen. Max wanted and dreamed of loving, being loved by, and sharing his life with Alice. It seemed that he stopped living in the moment- and instead lived in the future- waiting for his chance to be with Alice. I saw this in his inability to love or truly know those around him. For example, it seemed that Max never really appreciated Hughie and his loyalty and friendship.

This struck a chord with me for several reasons. I think we all do this to a certain extent. My brother is single and 26. He is frustrated with not being married or in a relationship and I know it causes him great concern. We have talked about it at length and it seems that he is finally understanding that his life is happening NOW and that NOW is a good place to be. Sometimes, we just have to stop and look at our NOW and help ourselves appreciate it.

I really appreciated the book's honesty. Life is hard. We have difficult choices to make and sometimes we make the wrong ones. I appreciated his musings at the end on the importance of relationships. I agree with Karen, that the relationships in this book seemed stilted and artificial. I wonder if that had something to do with Max and his disability. It must be difficult to have honest relationships when you aren't able to be honest about who you are.

The Confessions of Max Tivoli has caused me to hug my daughter a little tighter today and ponder on my relationship with her and the rest of my family. I think honest relationships are often a goal that is easily made but not so easily achieved.

I hope this made sense! Looking forward to the next book.

I finished by the deadline!

I have to admit that I had trouble getting into this book, but with a deadline looming . . . I started skimming last night and then I got hooked. I read until midnight (even though I had school this morning) and just finished. Then I read everyone else's (is this a word?) comments before posting my own. I was excited to join the discussion, but discovered that I had forgotten my user name and password. Half and hour later, I am finally posting my commments/responses on Confessions.

First, like Katrina, I was very impressed with Greer's author's craft. There were so many powerful phrases and images. One that I underlined was, "I took the moment--snip--and coiled it in the enamel locket of my heart." Whoa! I'd love to write like that. The plot had enough of the unique and unexpected (maybe I am just a little slow), that I was intrigued. (At the end of Book II, I was genuinely surprise that Mrs. Ramsey was Mrs. Alice Ramsey. I felt like I did at the end of 6th Sense when I finally figured it out!) Also, the characters showed depth and humanity and growth. This book made me think.

The choices the characters made throughout the book, while sympathetic, were a bit frustrating to me. I wanted Max to be more insightful when interacting with Hughie, his mother and sister, Alice's mother, etc. The individuals and families all seemed to be out-of-sync with each other somehow; they never really connected in long lasting, meaningful relationships . . . with the exception of Alice and Sammie. Is this the one parent-child relationship that is going to work? One can only hope, but it doesn't seem likely.

This book was definitely worth reading. Thanks, Katie, for suggesting it. (By the way, I was sickened by the bear's death. It made me cringe!) Karen Buxton . . . you expressed the pain of the book: shattered dreams, missed opportunities and unfulfilled expectations. All of this was related so matter-of-factly, that it wasn't a downer; it was just thought-provoking. Laurenda, I am looking forward to the next selection. I loved Sarah Plain and Tall, but have not read the sequal. I bought it last week. (I can't read a book without marking it all up, so I have to own the books I read.)

Celia, I may have missed a few details (I was skimming the book), but Max' father ends up in Alaska, marries, becomes wealthy and when he dies, leaves enough money to Max that he can live comfortably. Greer doesn't spell out exactly why he walks out on his family and that is a good thing. I found that thinking about what was going on in his mind was a lot more interesting than having the author spell it all out.

Max Tivoli

Hello Ladies! I did not have time to read "...Max...". I checked the book from the library six weeks ago, then renewed three weeks ago and still have not opened it. Sorry. However, I did read the reviews and I am feeling a little intimidated by all the intellect and insightfulness! The reviews were very informative and well written. I feel as though I already know about the book from the reviews. Anyway, please be patient with me !! Love, Sandi

Sorry, couln't read it

Hi. I'm sorry I didn't get to read this one. They didn't have it in my library, and it's still on hold for me at another library but hasn't come in yet. In the meantime I got to read the new Harry Potter(loved it) and a couple others that weren't so great. Hopefully I have more luck with these next books.

Confessions...

Hello ladies!!!

Hooray for Les Liseuses! So excited to be part of the group.

That being stated, let me just say it was a pleasure to read the book and I really really enjoyed it. It was so lyrical and soooooo sad. Bittersweet, perhaps is a better word. No...sad. ANYWAY!!! I thought it was such an interesting exploration of love--or to be honest, the true lack of it.

I think Max was more obsessed than truly in love with Alice, even though he kept saying how much he loved her. Poor Howie knew this as well, as do most of our dear friend when we are involved with the wrong people ("He beats you! He yells at you! You must leave him!" "But I loves him, Roweena!"). Alice was Max's drug of choice and he had to face the consequences of that addiction--for good and ill. And Alice, as we all discovered, was never in love with him. Such a life lesson! And poor Howie! tsk.

I loved the insight into California during the turn of the century. Doesn't it make you wonder what things people will be amazed at when they look back at our era, a hundred years from now?

As I was coming off of my Harry Potter, Book 6 obsession, this was indeed a welcome change. It was easy to read and I really dug the fact there were no traditional chapters. I could read bits of it and put the book down if I needed to, though I would often read later at night than I should have. :)

Enjoyed it alot. :) I'm going to post this now and read what YOU all thought.

:) Laurenda

Max Tivoli

I read to page 72 and have a few comments on what I read. The idea of being born old and aging to babyhood is very creative and unique. Except, while I was reading this book, I kept saying to myself, “This would never happen in real life.” I kept wanting the book to be written about something that does happen in real life. Maybe about a very smart person in a crippled body. Everyone thinks he is mentally handicapped, but he really isn’t. A story about his struggles, and a good woman falling in love with him.

I am disappointed in Max’s father. He left them without a note of explanation, or anything. They couldn’t even trace him. They couldn’t get his life insurance reimbursement. Did he commit suicide in the ocean because Max said his footprints literally ran into the water and never showed up anywhere else? Did he leave because of his debts, or because his wife was pregnant? [Please actually reply and answer these questions for me!] He was very weak to do this. I hate putting men into the stereotype of deadbeat dads. The whole first part of the book portrayed him as a strong, good Father who was always there. Him leaving came as a complete surprise to us readers, and to Max.

In the beginning of the book, I was offended by the description of his Mother‘s and Dad’s love scene. Although, I concede it is a lot cleaner compared to other books. Later in the book, I was also offended that Max makes love on a regular basis with Mrs. Levy, when he is really in love with her daughter, Alice. His situation is more vulnerable because to Mrs. Levy he is a 50-year-old-man, and his coming there to meet her meant he knew he was coming for “love.” Also, he thought he was going to meet Alice, and therefore, wasn’t prepared to meet Mrs. Levy’s advances. But, in our religion we are taught to be prepared for these situations and have the strength to avoid them. We follow our morals no matter what. His actions were unacceptable to me, he became weak in my eyes. He was not an interesting or strong Hero to me anymore. Hence, I stopped reading the book. But please, do not take offense! As you will find out, I like the “squeaky clean” books. You will see this by my choice of book when it’s my turn.

-Celia