Introduction

A BookPage Notable Title
A beautiful and daring feat of the imagination, "The Confessions of Max Tivoli" reveals the world through the eyes of "monster," a being who confounds the very certainties by which people live and in doing so embodies in extremis what it means to be human.

Editorial Review

No editorial review at this time.

Excerpt

I

APRIL 25, 1930

We are each the love of someone's life.

I wanted to put that down in case I am discovered and unable to complete these pages, in case you become so disturbed by the facts of my confession that you throw it into the fire before I get to tell you of great love and murder. I would not blame you. So many things stand in the way of anyone ever hearing my story. There is a dead body to explain. A woman three times loved. A friend betrayed. And a boy long sought for. So I will get to the end first and tell you we are each the love of someone's life. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

Questions from the Publisher's Reading Guide:

1. What did the novel’s epigraph and opening sentence mean to you when
you began the book, and what do they mean to you now? Are they romantic
notions, statements on the hopelessness of love, or perhaps something in between?

2. When you began this book, did you consider growing younger to be only
positive? Do you believe that now? Looking at Max’s life, what are some of
the advantages of true old age?

3. In his focus on Alice, has Max missed the one person who truly loved him
his whole life—Hughie? Is it ever easy to recognize such devoted people in
our lives?

4. What is society’s basis for determining whether a lover is an appropriate
age? In what ways does Max’s condition actually help illuminate his true
character?

5. Max loves Alice as a daughter, as a wife, and as a mother. How does this
echo the various roles a lover plays in our lives? Which of Max’s roles is he
best suited to? Do we always take on recurring roles when it comes to love?

6. Are Max’s fears of infancy—the inability to walk independently, care for
himself, and articulate his needs—very different from the traditional fears
of growing old?

7. Greer frequently allows his narrator to address the reader directly, occasionally
in a cheeky tone. How much of the plot surprised you, in spite of the
intimate, candid aura created by Max?

8. Max’s memory of his first kiss with Alice is nothing like her recollections
of that same event. What do you make of the varying perceptions offered in
the novel? Is Max a trustworthy narrator?

9. Max’s first role in Alice’s life is as her “Shabbos goy.” Does Max later continue
to be the “houseboy of her heart” in some way, an aid in her life?

10. Is Max’s reverse aging the only thing standing in the way of his happiness?
How much of his outcome is affected by his personality, fate, and other
factors?

11. Max’s condition gives him unusual opportunities—for instance, having
access to his son’s life that few fathers have ever had. Does it deepen or erase his role as a parent? Though they both appear to be boys, is there still a generation
gap between Max and his son?

12. The word confession carries connotations of wrongdoing or scandal on
the part of the speaker. To what is Max Tivoli confessing in his “memoir”?
Is first-person narration crucial to this plot?

13. Greer embeds countless historical details in the novel, such as the use of
collars for mailing notes after the earthquake and the seated poses struck by
women accustomed to wearing bustles. What does the novel teach us about
the quirks of daily life a century ago?

14. Alice is not a typical Victorian woman. She is hotheaded and freethinking;
what do you think of her as a match for Max? Is she merely self-centered
and flaky, or do you agree with Victor Ramsey’s theory that she
changed her life through the only means available to women during that
time period: marriage? What is Alice’s ultimate reason for leaving Max?

15. Max struggles to make his outward appearance both socially acceptable
and less at odds with his psyche. Describe what your external appearance
would look like if it were a picture-perfect representation of your psyche.

16. How did you feel when you read of Hughie’s death? Why do you think
he killed himself? Did the modern idea of a “gay man” exist back then?
Given that at the time even openly gay Oscar Wilde had a wife and children
(as Hughie did), what options did gay men and women have for happiness or
love?

17. What would you have done with a life like Max’s? Is he an idealist, an
artist in a world not made for him, or a brute who squandered a potentially
happy life? What are the sources of a truly happy life? In what ways have
you “grown younger” in your own life?

Weblinks

»	Publisher's Book Info
»	Excerpt
»	Publisher's Reading Guide
»	Author's Web Site
»	Today Show April 2004 Book Selection

Book Club Recommendations

Recommended to book clubs by 1 of 1 members.

Member Reviews

Rate this book