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Rating: 
Summary: i would give it a million stars
Review: For the life of me, I will never ever forget the first and last sentences of this book, the slightly-damaged hardbound edition of which I bought for only a dollar(!) in a discount section of a bookstore here in Manila in 1994! A rare, serendipitous literary find for me, indeed. Truly captivating, a biography like this of one John James Todd can only be created by one destined to be a world literary giant. Medicine, Mathematics, Philosophy, 20th Century History, Cinema -- all combined and meticulously woven in one great book of insights. It is as if every turn of a page of this book, a hologram appears and all you have to do is watch, laugh and weep as the 3-Dimensional events happen grandly, clearly, colorfully and ceaselessly before your very eyes.
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Summary: Boyds best
Review: I have read and enjoyed most of Boyds' books - but this was by far my favourite.
Rating:
Summary: Boyds best
Review: I have read and enjoyed most of Boyds' books - but this was by far my favourite. Buy it now, or borrow it to save paper.
Rating: 
Summary: An Old Man's Story
Review: I'm a sucker for books that chronicle a man's life. I found it very enjoyable as J.J. Todd's life moves in parallel to his obsession, Roussou's CONFESSIONS.This book reminded me of Mark Helprin's SOLDIER OF THE GREAT WAR.
Rating:
Summary: An Old Man's Story
Review: I'm a sucker for books that chronicle a man's life. I found it very enjoyable as J.J. Todd's life moves in parallel to his obsession, Roussou's CONFESSIONS. This book reminded me of Mark Helprin's SOLDIER OF THE GREAT WAR.
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Summary: Extremely good book....
Review: Interesting; very vividly written. Excellent character development. Highly recommend your reading this book. I was down to the last 40 pages and did not want the book to end. I also highly recommend his other book --- The Blue Afternoon.
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Summary: An Outstanding Fictional Memoir
Review: 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 t he 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 unsatisiying 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.
Rating:
Summary: Boyd knows how to make the journey worth while
Review: You know you have read a bad book when you sit through it, sneering in disgust until you reach the end, when you throw it across the room or hide it in shame. The wonderful thing with William Boyd is he is so magical with the subtlety of his messages. Reading Confessions I knew I was in the hands of a good writer, and that I would not be let down. True to form, the ending wrapped Confessions up neatly and fittingly. Reading books like Boyd's are a relief - there is so much [junk] out there and we must all thank God there are published writers who actually have true gifts of literacy (and I challenge anyone to beat Boyd at his game, he is a true master of the english lexicon). All in all, I love this book and if you, like me, feel good books are few and far between, read this for a good dose of refreshment.
Rating:
Summary: Boyd knows how to make the journey worth while
Review: You know you have read a bad book when you sit through it, sneering in disgust until you reach the end, when you throw it across the room or hide it in shame. The wonderful thing with William Boyd is he is so magical with the subtlety of his messages. Reading Confessions I knew I was in the hands of a good writer, and that I would not be let down. True to form, the ending wrapped Confessions up neatly and fittingly. Reading books like Boyd's are a relief - there is so much [junk] out there and we must all thank God there are published writers who actually have true gifts of literacy (and I challenge anyone to beat Boyd at his game, he is a true master of the english lexicon). All in all, I love this book and if you, like me, feel good books are few and far between, read this for a good dose of refreshment.
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