Book Review: Readings
Andrew Sean Greer
Reviewed by Shawn Badgley, Fri., July 16, 2004
The Confessions of Max Tivoli
by Andrew Sean Greer(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $23)
Opinions are mixed on Greer's second novel, a love story set in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. Max Tivoli, the narrator, ages normally on the inside and quite the opposite on the outside: He starts as a shriveled-up old man and ends up as a child. The white man's mysticism braided into the slowly unfolding plot might madden some, but it also puts Greer a very good storyteller, whose sentences almost stare you down, demanding to be recognized one by one in the company of American authors like Darin Strauss (Chang and Eng) and Nicholas Christopher (Veronica). This is a good thing.