Rating: 
Summary: A sad book
Review: "We are each the love of someone's life." That is the first line of this book, but Max Tivoli's love is only answered very partially. This is due to the fact that he lives backwards: he has been born in a 70-year old body that becomes younger and younger, but in this body there is a human being who becomes older like any normal person. So when he is 17 years old and falls in love with his 14 year old neighbor Alice, she only sees a middle-aged man and chooses Max' friend Hughie instead. Hughie is one of the very few people who know what's the matter with Max.
When Max reaches his natural age (35) hea again runs in to Alice and they even get married. But he does not dare to tell her that he is the Max of her youth. In the end they start leading separate lives and divorce, but when Max has a physical age of 12 he wants to see his former neighbor and wife one more time and start to search for her with Hughie, who is by now middle-aged. He finds out that he has a son who is also 12, but at the end of the book he has to leave both Alice and his son Sammie behind.
A well-written book, written as the diary of a 58-year old man in the body of a 12-year old boy who looks back at his life that he had to live as a lie (his mother has always told him: "Be what they think you are.") which made me kind of sad. A beautiful book but not as exciting as "Time's arrow" by Martin Amis, which tells the life of a man who lives backwards in time body and soul.
Rating: 
Summary: Dreaming of Life
Review: "I fell into the grace of self-deception," confesses Max Tivoli, late in this hypnotic novel. Born old, he ages into youth, experiencing more intensely the self-deception of intense and abiding passion. Greer writes beautifully, attending to the play of words and conveying a strong sense of the emotional lives of his characters. You won't soon forget the man who goes backwards or the many loves of his life.
Rating:
Summary: 100 years from now....
Review: A nagging question that always occured when stuck in a literature class, endlessly dissecting whether or not a "rose is a horrible thing" and what did Fitzgerald mean by that, is "Did the people who read the book in the year of its publication know it was going to held as an example of greatness"? Okay, a little wordy, but did commuters on a streetcar know that "The Great Gatsby" was going to a book that would endure longer than their lives? Maybe not, but "The Confessions..." will be taught in classes, break people's hearts, and be an easy answer in 2025's edition of Trivial Pursuit. That's just for the first 100 years ... And it doesn't take a prophet to foresee such things; you just have to read it and weep.
Rating:
Summary: A tragedy on many levels
Review: About halfway through the book, I found myself thinking that the writing style and some elements of the plot reminded me of another book. When I looked at the other reviews on the jacket, I realized that it was Nabakov's Lolita.The same hopeless thrill of a doomed love runs through this book. Max Tivoli knows from the start of his life as an old man that his is a curse he cannot overcome - much as he might try. His relationships with Alice, first as a father figure who is unable to control his desire for her young girl self, then as a jealous husband who rapes his wife on the eve of her desertion of him, and last as her adopted son who yearns to kiss her and sleep with her, fill one with pity and despair. One of the greatest tragedies is that Max, and hence the reader, ends the book still not knowing exactly how Alice feels about the various incarnations of Max she has known. Did she learn to hate him as a girl, care for him as a husband, love him as a son? Obviously his feelings for her are always stronger than hers for him - but what are her feelings? So much of the book is devoted to Alice - but the reader is frustrated along with Max - just grasping at images of Alice instead of the whole person. The writing is lyrical at times and the premise is very intriguing, but I found myself drifting a bit as I read. As fascinating as Max should be - he took a backseat when his lifelong friend Hughie was in the scene. Max's life is unreal, to be sure, but I found his character a bit unreal as well - and found myself gravitating toward the more sympathetic Hughie. I enjoyed this book - maybe not as much as I'd hoped - but would recommend it without reservation. I am not sure, however, if it leaves me wanting to rush out and buy more of Greer's works.
Rating:
Summary: The Lovely Bones, Life of Pi, The Time Traveler's Wife...
Review: and now, THE CONFESSIONS OF MAX TIVOLI! The formula seems deceptively simple: take a fantastical premise, add one unheralded writer with the unique skill to pull it off, and stir. Pop it in the oven, and presto--out comes a debut breakout bestseller. If only it were that easy. To say Andrew Sean Greer will equal the likes of Alice Sebold, Yann Martel, and Audrey Niffenegger will be left to the bestseller lists. But something tells me that Susie Salmon better leave some space in the hearts and imaginations of readers; the refreshing, the endearing, the incomparable Max Tivoli is coming.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite novel
Review: As a 14 year old reader, I find it hard to relate to characters in modern novels, but this book swept me away. Eloquently written, with each word necessary and precious, ASG is sure to be a name in future literature. One of two books to bring me to tears, I regard this book as my bible. I 've read through it several times and get another insight of life each time. Themes of love, age, and life's path are scribbled all over this book, with an underlying and quite revealing tone. This book is enjoyable for any lost intellect searching for a novel to relate to.
Rating:
Summary: Thankful to have stumbled upon this book
Review: As an employee of Barnes and Noble, I have lots of books to pick and choose to read. I found 'The Confession of Max Tivoli' in our New Writers section in the store, took it home and read it last night. I don't know how I didn't wake my husband up from my laughter and tears! I highly recommend this book. I'm hesitant to try and read another book, for fear that I'll still be longing for something as exceptional as this one.
Rating:
Summary: An imaginative exploration of unrequited love
Review: As I read the opening line, "We are each the love of someone's life", I expected this to be a terribly romantic story. Instead, this is a tragic story of unrequited love...we might each be the love of someone's life, but what are the chances that the love of our life is that same person? Not only is Max fated to love a woman who can never fully return his love, but each of the major characters is in love with someone who can reciprocate their feelings.
This is a wonderfully written story, with a wealth of period and setting details that bring the story to life. The unique nature of Max's life is absolutely believable, and provides a terrific vehicle to explore these ideas of love and relationships and how they change with time. Written as a memoir to his son, this book only provides Max's point-of-view of this story, but we get to know Max intimately, flaws and all, and we develop a deep understanding of what motivates him. This book drew me in and captivated me right from the beginning, but I can't help wondering what Alice's version of this story would be like. Perhaps that's part of the tragedy of this story is that we can't truly know or understand the story of others unless they are willing to share it fully with us.
Rating: 
Summary: Melodrama and poignant anti-hero
Review: Considering I disliked the narrator, I found myself riveted by the story. Greer has a talent for creating intricate character interaction, though his use of language tends to fall into melodrama at times. And while I did not like Max Tivoli, I felt the sympathy for his plight needed to continue on with the story. Overall, I'd say a good book for someone who is looking for an unusual story of obsessive love and loss.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book
Review: I am a college student who does not have much money to buy hard back books, but my room mate's mother belongs to several book clubs and is always giving me great books. She is a San Francisco history buff and has been giving me books about the city she is in love with. The last two are 1906 by James Dalessandro and Max Tivoli by Andrew Greer. No wonder people love San Francisco: its history is so rich, the images in both of these books are amazing. Both 1906 and Max Tivoli paint amazing portraits of San Francisco and America as it changes from the old to the new world, and the transformation is just startling. She calls this the city of great writers, and now I understand why. There are some passages in Max Tivoli that I found a bit cliched, and sometimes I had a difficult time buying into a story about a man who is growing younger on the outside and older on the inside, but when this book is good, it is wonderful. There are some breath taking passages, and at the end, I was just in love with all the characters and felt I had been on a fantastic journey. My friend's mother just gave me Michael Chabon's Kavalier and Clay, which I plan to read next. Actually, I snuck a look at the first chapter and was knocked out by the writing. If a city produces one great writer, they get a lot of attention. San Francisco has so many good writers it is amazing to me: I have already read Amy Tan and Barry Gifford, and now I have discovered James Dalessandro, Andrew Greer and Michael Chabon. If anyone else knows of any other great contemporary writers here, please let me know, I'd like to read them all.
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