''The New Confessions'' is the fourth novel by the Scottish writer
William Boyd published in 1987. The theme and narrative structure of the novel is modelled on
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
's ''
Les Confessions'', the reading of which has a huge impact on the protagonist's life.
Plot
The book follows the life of John James Todd from his birth in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
up to his final exile on a Mediterranean island. Todd fights in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and also films it as a cameraman, he then works for a film studio and ends up in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
where he starts his filming of ''The Confessions''. After the financial collapse of his backer, he moves to
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
along with many German exiles. He becomes a war correspondent during the Second World War and then returns to America where he becomes caught up in the
anti-communist witch hunts.
Reception
*
Kirkus Reviews
''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...
praises the novel: "A superbly entertaining, riveting work of major rank...Full of wild swings and ironic inversions, Boyd's latest nonetheless holds together by the intensity and sheer drive of his modern-day Rousseau. Rich, thoroughly absorbing work."
*Ronald Gottesman writing in the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' concludes that "Boyd has created an important and complex character in a vividly evoked series of settings. He has told a tale that we cannot not believe in (in spite of its many astonishing turns). He has written a subtle and provocative history of our time. Boyd is no longer a young writer of promise; with this book, he takes his place as a major novelist."
*
Michiko Kakutani
Michiko Kakutani (born January 9, 1955) is an American writer and retired literary critic, best known for reviewing books for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 to 2017. In that role, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998.
Early life ...
from ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' is also positive: "While using Rousseau's life and work as a framework for his story, Mr. Boyd never makes the mistake of trying to turn Todd into a heavyweight philosopher, never belabors his role as a representative man. As a result, he has produced an entertaining and darkly comic novel, a novel given weight and ballast by the pressure of recent history."
*
Joseph O'Neill of the ''
Literary Review
''Literary Review'' is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at the University of Edinburgh. Its offices are on Lexington Street in Soho. The magazine was edited for fourteen years by v ...
'' writes that "To reveal any of the story would be a shame, because the great pleasure of this book is provided by its thrilling momentum and unexpected twists. Suffice to say that J J Todd experiences everything - Berlin in the Twenties, World War Two and, perhaps best of all the McCarthy witch-hunts. As Todd puts it, I have hunkered down in the mulch of the phenomenal world.' This is just about the only conclusion he comes up with. As Rousseau put it describing himself, he is a man who feels everything but sees nothing.
*Martha Duffy from ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' has some reservations: "some of the gusto is missing. As his hero ages, the author's energy flags. Promising situations are brought up only to be dropped, and the tour of the century ends rather limply. Still, Boyd, a skilled and productive novelist (A Good Man in Africa, Stars and Bars), has succeeded in no small feat: writing a portrait of an artist that is both entertaining and intellectually engaging."
Rousseau Redux
Retrieved 22/9/2022.
References
External links
* The Independent
20 April 2002
{{DEFAULTSORT:New Confessions
1987 British novels
Scottish novels
Hollywood novels
Novels by William Boyd (writer)
Hamish Hamilton books