The New Confessions - Book Group discussion thread

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westmoors Aug 2016 1:22pm, 10 Aug 2016 1,012 posts	0 westmoors Finally finished TNC. Its taken me a long time as I have only had 30 minutes a day reading time during the week and none at weekends. As a consequence, I struggled to remember who some characters were. On the whole I quite enjoyed it but wouldn't rave about it so gave it a 6.
Columba Aug 2016 6:30pm, 10 Aug 2016 10,894 posts	0 Columba I had trouble with all those characters, too. Not helped by the fact that one of them changed his name (for perfectly understandable reasons).
Diogenes Aug 2016 10:13pm, 10 Aug 2016 16,517 posts	0 Diogenes The one I had a problem with was Monroe Smee. When the big reveal came I had to go make and see what part he had played in John's life, and I'd read it twice before. I'm going to revise my vote down to 8, maybe 7, which pains me a lot as I loved it so much when I first read it. I think it's s book of adolescence, John James Todd remains a lonely child seeking love and approval. He remains at the periphery of the some of the main events of the 20th century, both world wars, the development of cinema, and the McCarthyite communist witchhunt. He is always l'homme d'extrême gauche. He never receives the recognition he feels deserves for a number of firsts, although he makes sure we are aware of them. He remains petulant and prone to lashing out, acting without thinking. Despite his seemingly sophisticated life, his affairs and tribulations, he is remains a child. His regret over the loss of the bovine Hereford is prompted by self-pity, knowing it is the one relationship he can't mend. In his dotage he forms an obsession for his aging housekeeper, echoing the relationship he had with Oonagh back in Edinburgh. Written as an autobiography, Todd doesn't keep any embarrassment from us, but one can't help but feel we are reading a partial account.I am glad of that, I like JJT and I like TNC. I love that at the end he hands over the canisters containing the original Confessions so that after his death his masterpiece will be seen and his genius recognised. We leave him on the edge, on a beach, on the brink of glory.
Columba Aug 2016 10:51pm, 10 Aug 2016 10,899 posts	0 Columba Actually Dio I appreciate it much more after that analysis.
McGoohan Aug 2016 10:57pm, 10 Aug 2016 25,181 posts	0 McGoohan I think you're spot on about Smee, there. I also had to go back and locate where he played any part in the action. He's such an incidental character that it feels like a cheat to have him be the architect of all JJT's woes in the last third.That was probably the point, I suppose: sometimes it's the apparently inconsequential people and things that turn out to have the biggest effect on our lives.
Badger Aug 2016 12:01am, 11 Aug 2016 7,601 posts	0 Badger That, and how JJT behaved to apparently unimportant characters has a larger effect in the end than how he behaved to the wealthy and influential, like winding up the owner of the studio. (I'm not the only who thinks it really was Darryl Zanuck's parking space, am I?)
Diogenes Aug 2016 8:06am, 11 Aug 2016 16,523 posts	0 Diogenes I also forgot to mention the obvious parallels between JJT's life and that of Rousseau himself. John read The Confessions when he was a young man, vulnerable and and quite impressionable. It was given to him by the man who went on to be his closest friend. That book and Karl-Heinz went on to be the touchstones of his life. A novel that attempts to tell the complete story of a life must by its nature be episodic. TNC suffers through this. Also, the first section is more interesting than much that follows, not that the rest is dull, but it does suffer an extended dip in the story arc. Overall,it tells to story of an extraordinary life and an extraordinary century.
Columba Aug 2016 5:28pm, 11 Aug 2016 10,903 posts	0 Columba Ditto me, re Monroe Smee.
mulbs Aug 2016 11:23am, 25 Aug 2016 12,091 posts	0 mulbs My two-penneth worth - father and son both needed an early intervention to improve their relationship, while I understood some of the reasons for JJT's nearsighted outlook on life I found it impossible to sympathise with his character. I could see how you'd "happen" into situations, and I liked JJT more toward the end of the book but still wanted to give him a slap now and then. I've loved some Boyd and detested others, this fell into the middle ground I think, although saying that I've instructed my husband to read it just so that I can talk about it.
NoFleecingAround Aug 2016 3:53pm, 25 Aug 2016 29,681 posts	0 NoFleecingAround I drank a bottle of Riesling a few days ago, when I looked at the label it was called Karl Heinz. I thought this thread might appreciate this tiny fact