The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ll use any excuse (plausible or implausible) to throw props to Andrew Sean Greer’s The Confessions of Max Tivoli, one of my all-time favorite books. So you can imagine my disappointment when I saw a trailer for the movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, starring Brad Pitt as a man born in the body of an old man who ages backwards. My first thought when I saw that trailer was “So much for Max Tivoli getting a movie treatment — these guys totally ripped it off”. Then, when I learned that the Benjamin Button movie was based on a story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1922, you can imagine my shock, dismay, and utter panic when I thought that Andrew Sean Greer had bamboozled me and had ripped off Fitzgerald; I had put my credibility on the line for a book that now looked like an imposter — a derivative treatment that I had dared anyone to contest the greatness of. I felt like one of the voters who awarded the Best New Artist Grammy to Milli Vanilli.

Fortunately I didn’t completely jump to any conclusions and actually read Benjamin Button. And I am relieved to tell you that, while Benjamin Button very well may have “inspired” Greer to write Max Tivoli (and let the author who wasn’t inspired by Fitzgerald’s work cast the first stone), the similarities are very topline and extremely limited. The idea of a person born with the body of an old man who ages backwards is such a unique idea that one cannot help but lump any stories with that basic premise into the same bucket. But the similarities between these two truly stop there. In fact, probably the most important element of Max Tivoli’s story isn’t present for Benjamin Button — namely, Max Tivoli is born with the mind of an infant, and his story revolves almost entirely around the disparity between his outward appearance and his emotional, psychological, and intellectual growth; Benjamin Button, on the other hand, is born as a crotchety old man, with a crotchety old man’s mind, and his backwards growth applies not only to his body looking younger, but also to his mind devolving into the mind of a child.

Benjamin Button is a short story, and so it certainly doesn’t take a lot of time to read. But it’s also not a particularly compelling story, in the sense that none of the characters are particularly endearing. Part of that may very well be because it’s a short story and so the characters don’t have as much time to develop. I know that I probably sound defensive, but if you don’t feel like investing any time in multiple stories of guys who age backwards, your investment in Max Tivoli has a much greater payoff.

Tags: Benjamin Button, Max Tivoli

Books, Fiction, Review | Jim Dudukovich | October 8, 2008 12:23 pm

44 Comments

By Tim, October 8, 2008 @ 1:14 pm

I love that the cover says…”Author of The Great Gatsby”…
By Lee, November 1, 2008 @ 11:30 pm

I also wondered if the movie would be based on Max Tivoli, a fascinating and
sweet story with a sad ending. Too bad: Max Tivoli was essentially a love story and I’m reading that Benjamin Button is a story about human mortality.
By Steve, November 25, 2008 @ 7:36 am

I have to say, when I saw the trailer, my first thought was, “Cool, they made a “…Max Tivoli”
movie. Then I saw the title, gave out a “Wha–!?” and ran to my computer to use “the Googles”. I didn’t know F. Scott wrote a similar book (yeah, love the cover, like, really, F. Scott wrote “The Great Gatsby”? Wow, who knew?: – )
Anyway, one good thing is that I found this website in my search…and the movie still looks good.
So, Win-Win.
By Steve, November 25, 2008 @ 7:40 am

Another side note, as a 70′s child, I can’t say your website name, I end up singing it…
Remember the Player song, “Baby, Come Back”?

Well, I keep singing it in my head as
“Baby Got Books” : – )
By Tyler, November 26, 2008 @ 11:53 pm

Ha! I had the exact panic you describe after seeing the preview for Benjamin Button. I did a little Googling and wound up here. I may or may not check out the Fitzgerald book, but I definitely will not stop singing the praises of Greer’s.
By Marlene, December 4, 2008 @ 6:47 pm

I am SO glad I found your site! The other day our local paper mentioned that “Benjamin Button” was based on a Fitzgerald story, and I though, “I’d better email that columnist and tell her “NO, it’s based on one of my top 23 favorite novels of all time, “…Max Tivoli.” Good thing I didn’t contact her, for immediately I found I was wrong. But I feel redeemed that “…Max Tivoli” is one of your all time favorites, too. I can’t wait to see the movie, though, and I’ll hunt down the Fitzgerald story.
By Russell Johnson, December 6, 2008 @ 11:24 pm

Wow…I too had the exact same panic. OMG ASG totally ripped off F. Scott Fitzgerald? ARRRRR…and I loved that story!

Okay, well, if you say it isn’t true, I guess I can live with that. But I am still gonna read Benjamin Buttons to decide for myself. hehe…so funny that we all had the exact same notion when we saw that trailer. Steve, the Hall and Oats fan, your comment in number three was me exactly LOL.
By Rebecca, December 11, 2008 @ 8:40 pm

I thought I was all alone in my Max Tivoli/Benjamin Button confusion and frenzy!

I am seriously glad to have stumbled upon this. Thanks for the clear-up.
By Stacey, December 12, 2008 @ 12:45 am

Haha this page is almost like a club site for people who looked up Google after discovering the Tivoli/Button scandal.
By krolsoul, December 12, 2008 @ 1:23 pm

I too was curious to research the differences between these two stories.
After reading Tivoli three years ago, I felt that it was SUCH a unique and one of a kind story. So when I heard about ‘Benjamin Button’ I thought, “Well that sounds like ‘Tivoli’ but why on Earth would they call it that?” And then I discovered the orgins from Fitzerald. It also made me feel a little duped that ASG had used this premise – but in the end, which stories aren’t re-imagined and recycled? It’s up to the author to make it a completely different story, and I think he achieved that in Tivoli.

I felt confident that one day Tivoli would be made into a movie, and it could be a beautiful one at that. So it’s unfortunate that Button gets the claim to fame on the movie front, but it’s also the ORIGINAL source of inspiration and deservedly gets the position/title in film history. But who knows – maybe ASG’s story will get a chance one day. Remember, films are re-made all the time
By Erin, December 16, 2008 @ 7:50 pm

Lump me in the group of confused. Initially, I thought perhaps Greer didn’t like the screenplay and refused to allow the name Max Tivoli like John Irving did with Owen Meany. Then upon googling alarm that Greer ripped of Fitzgerald. Now I’m off to find the F. Scott short story.
By Irene, December 18, 2008 @ 2:24 pm

Greer could not have “ripped off” anyone if he tried, for his is the true “original.” It may be a case of “reverse writing”—in other words, “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last”—but his book is no copy. I can’t remember the last time a book affected me as much as did “Max Tivoli”. I finished the last page, closed the book, and wept. Greer has a way of turning a phrase into pure poetry. I reread passages again and again, in an effort to make sure they would stay with me. I look forward to seeing “Benjamin Button” but I can’t imagine that the screen version will be any more vivid than Greer’s book, or any more enchanting.
By Liliana Rensi, December 22, 2008 @ 7:41 pm

Thank you for the info. I was on the same page as Erin. Greer, unhappy with the script, did not allow the use of the title. I LOOOOOOVE Max Tivoli. I’ll still check out the movie. It’s Brad Pitt after all.
By Ken, December 24, 2008 @ 4:13 pm

MY max Tivoli story goes like this – I was at the Frankfurt Messer (Book Fair) for the first time and since the public is allowed to access it for two days at the end, many of the books are for sale. To prevent dealers, reps, etc, having to haul them home I guess. Anyway, I was walking by this little booth of ‘alternative’ english language titles and started browsing. I came across the max tivoli book and the guy manning the booth offered to sell it to me real cheap if I came back at the end of the day. I was intrigued by the concept (oblivous to the BB story) and took him up on the offer. Needless to say, I was hooked on the book and now here I am contemplating the movie…

P.S. Anyone who loves books MUST go to Frankfurt, Germany to the book fair – it’s so big and diverse that I couldn’t cover it in one long day but wished I could’ve. We went there on a tour bus sponsored by the local library of our village in the north of Germany – book geeks….sheesh
By Rebel Jones, December 25, 2008 @ 11:18 am

Thank you so much for clearing this up, and for leading me to such a neat website. I too read and loved Max Tivoli, and have been boasting to all my friends since I saw the first trailer that I read the premise for Benjamin Buttons MONTHS ago. Guess I have some ‘splainin’ to do. Oh, and being a child of the 80′s, when I see your website name, I can’t help but sing “I like good books and I cannot lie, you other brothers can’t deny…”
By Scott, December 26, 2008 @ 12:03 am

This was a major topic of discussion at our family’s Christmas Eve dinner. In addition to those making the case for Fitzgerald (my brother-in-law) and Greer (my wife and me), there was an Audrey Niffenegger contingent (my niece and her husband) who saw the BB trailer and were sure the movie must be based on The Time Traveler’s Wife. The NY Times review of Max Tivoli on March 20, 2004 connects the dots to many of Greer’s inspirations for this plot.
By naomi, December 26, 2008 @ 9:49 am

Not having read Fitzgerald’s story but having loved Max Tivoli, I just landed here motivated by the same question/confusion. (I love internet.) Especially having heard & met Greer at a book promotion lecture in Amsterdam, in ’04, I could hardly believe he had the character or disposition to plagiarize.
Also just having come across an old review(appearing in a Dutch paper at the time, Trouw, 29 juni 2004 by HANS NAUTA), I’d like to share the following excerpt (translated from Dutch) referring to a glowing review in the New Yorker written by John Updike , before Max Tivoli was even available to the public:

In his recent review Updike places the novel in a broader context. He makes a connection, to among other things, the story ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ (1922), where author F. Scott Fitzgerald tackles a similar puzzle with time and age, “I only learned about that story after I had finished my book (said Greer N.)…”
…The concept of Max Tivoli was inspired by the words, “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now,” from Bob Dylan’s song ‘My Back Pages.’ Initially, not getting older but younger seemed just too odd to Greer as starting point for a book…
By Andi, December 27, 2008 @ 1:37 pm

So glad to know I am not alone in thinking perhaps I had lost my mind when I first saw the trailer for Benjamin Button and thought it must be Max Tivoli. Thanks for such a cool website!
By meg, December 29, 2008 @ 11:08 pm

Wow,reassuring to find I’m in the company of so many others who also were confused by the uncanny parallels between Max and Benjamin. I read Max Tivoli and love it, but haven’t yet read FSF’s short story, but another blog said the love story is actually more closely modeled on the Greer novel than on Fitzgerald’s short story. Look forward to seeing the movie, but I’m still a fan of Max Tivoli.
By Rick, January 1, 2009 @ 9:59 am

Two questions for the group: 1)Agree that Max Tivoli goes way beyond BB and haven’t seen the movie yet. So the question is, do we think the BB producers were more than “inspired” by Max Tivoli? 2) Are most Max Tivoli fans women who love it as a male/female romance? (I’m a forty something father of four; liked it as a romance, but liked it even better as a father/son story–how as much as we might like to freeze the moment of our children’s youth, we can’t. time simply marches on)
By Aglow, January 2, 2009 @ 10:35 pm

Have just seen the “Benjamin Button” and immediately went online to look for “Max Tivoli” (LOVE THAT BOOK!) – and am so glad that I am not alone to see the similarities, but also am amazed (appalled?) at the filmmakers staunch denials of connections to and even awareness of the “Max Tivoli” novel. One thing to be inspired by a classic of decades ago but quite a different story to use (plagiarize?) a contemporary novel praised by John Updike in the New Yorker in 2004 (with clear reverences to “Benjamin Button”) and deny any credit to the author! see http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/01/26/040126crbo_books)
By Sam, January 4, 2009 @ 2:44 am

I’ve just seen Benjamin Button, the movie. I’ve read Max Tivoli and Fitzgerald’s story. There is no doubt in my mind that the movie is based more on Greer’s book than on Fitzgerald’s story. There are far too many coincidences, and the differences are superficial. Maybe the movie producers didn’t want to pay Greer for the movie rights? I’m old enough to remember the Beach Boys stealing Surfin’ USA from Chuck Berry!
By Esther, January 7, 2009 @ 12:11 pm

Thanks for solving the mystery for us. My husband and I thought we were only ones going nuts over this.We loved the Tivoli book but could not remember the name so we were i the dark till we found this site.
By Irene, January 7, 2009 @ 3:51 pm

A quote from Andrew Sean Greer: “In the spirit of full disclosure, the Button studio did indeed approach me with an offer for rights to my novel in May 2004. It was not an offer to make Max into a movie; they were already going to make Button, and other than that their motivations are hidden to me. I turned them down. No one has ever made me another offer. So it goes! Luckily, I happen to like Max on the page as he is.”

I have a feeling the Button studios would have used even more of Greer’s novel if only they had gotten the rights. It looks like they may have taken a few liberties as it is.

To read the full article, which includes the above quote, see the following: http://www.andrewgreer.com/?page_id=13
By Kristin, January 8, 2009 @ 9:23 am

I was equally shocked to learn that the movie was not based on the beautiful book Max Tivoli. I also thought they changed the name of the movie to make it more Hollywood. I’ll watch the movie but already predict I will be disappointed as Max Tivoli was the sweetest story of love I have ever read. Perhaps the movie staff should have held off and incorporated more from Max Tivoli but we shall see. Thanks for clearing it up!
By Beth, January 9, 2009 @ 8:51 am

So glad I found this site! Like the rest of you, this has been buggig me since I first saw the trailer. I LOVED Max. I forgot what a great novel it was until I started reading about the differences between Button and Max. Sounds like Max will still be #1 for me. There’s no way a short story or a movie will be able to develop the depth of characters Greer achieved. By the way, Scott (#19), I also read Time Travelers Wife and I think there was a TV show recently based on that concept. It was another one of those moments where I said, “Hey, I read that book! Why aren’t they acknowledging this is based on a novel?”
By Aglow, January 10, 2009 @ 3:22 pm

Thank you, Irene, for the link to Andrew Sean Greer’s interview. It calmed down some of my indignation, since I had thought that he (Greer) got swindled, but it looks that he had had a chance to sell movie rights of his novel, so he was at least acknowledged….

I had also read and liked “The Time Traveler’s wife” and saw parallels, but that book had a different prospective. Anyway, thanks for setting me straight.
By LF, January 10, 2009 @ 9:01 pm

I just saw the movie and like many of the people above, thought the same thing – I really loved the Max Tivoli book so why did they use the name Benjamin Button? The movie actually seems to be a hybrid of Max, Ben, and of course hollywood. I like the movie, but I kept wondering why it was so different from the Max book.
By Kate, January 19, 2009 @ 9:06 am

Isn’t there a short story by T.C. Boyle with the same “story” (born as an old man, gets younger and younger)?
By Marilynn, January 24, 2009 @ 8:53 pm

The short story by Fitzgerald may portray the new born Benjamin Button as an old man complete with “old man” thoughts and feelings but the movie is more in line with Max – the baby looks like an old man but is truly a baby in thoughts, actions and feelings. I still think it was a total rip off of this great book by Greer.
By Fabio Peroni, January 31, 2009 @ 8:29 am

Wow! I’m the 35th here but maybe the first in Brazil to notice that! At least I didn’t find any comment in Portuguese when I googled the subject… Of course totaly reliefed with your comments. I’ve seen the movie, with my 84 years old father, that had an ischemia last year, and I have to confess I’ve cried a lot, because it is, exactly like Greer’s book, a profound digression about life and death. I was kind of surprised by the end of the movie, when I realized the difference you mentioned, i.e., the mind of BB also grew younger, and I thaught it was a unavoidable adaptation to a different media, but of course they could keep Greer’s concept changing speeches by thaughts… Anyway, I love both the book and the movie, and I am going to buy the Fitz short stories book today!
By Irene, February 8, 2009 @ 12:16 am

I finally saw Benjamin Button, but I was not moved by it the way I was by Max Tivoli. For me, it was a bit of a disappointment. My husband, who hadn’t read Max, liked this movie a lot better than I did. To be fair, books are almost always better than their movie counterpart, but something was definitely missing for me. I was also turned off by the deathbed confessional as a means to tell the story. It has become a Hollywood cliché. That said, I think Brad Pitt’s performance was amazing, as was the woman’s who played his mother, Queenie. And I agree that elements of this movie were a rip-off of Andrew Sean Greer’s infinitely superior Max Tivoli.
By lishun, February 12, 2009 @ 9:57 am

i read “max tivoli” several years ago and was completely blown away. when i heard about “benjamin button”, and that it was based on a novel of the same name, i was outraged that someone had so blatantly plagiarized greer’s work.

and then i found out that it was written by f. scott fitzgerald…and felt utterly betrayed.

i have yet to watch the movie or read the short story, but i am glad that this article has pointed out the major difference between fitzgerald’s button and greer’s tivoli.

it’d be great to compare the two books and determine for myself who comes out tops.

why didn’t anyone opt to buy the movie rights to max tivoli anyway? it is such a brilliant book!
By pilferboy, March 30, 2009 @ 3:26 am

when i first saw the theatrical trailer for Ben Butt i thought it WAS Max T. haven’t seen Ben Butt nor read the short story but regardless, the concept of aging backwards is no different than the concept of time travel and there has been tons of stories built on the premise of time travel. the creativity lies in the use of the concept.

my personal love of Max T stems from accepting the reversed aging as a tool to reverse the perspective of the idea that we fall in love with the same person over and over. being a male, for me that means flipping the sequence that starts with an initial love of my mother, ends with an elderly love of the young and every other love in between. there are many other aspects to Max T that make it one of my faves but for me, that’s what i got out of it as a central theme.

who cares about Ben Butt, even if Greer ripped the concept it does not take anything away from the emotional rollercoaster he created. Max T is the only book i’ve ever read that brought me to tears.
By @men, May 2, 2009 @ 9:07 am

I thought Max Tivoli’s mind also ages backwards and he start losing his memories when he gets younger…
By Courtknee, June 25, 2009 @ 1:24 pm

It’s been a while since I read Max Tivoli… but it is also one of my favorite books. I, too, was at first a bit jaded at the thought that Greer ripped Benjamin Button off. However, I am very pleased to hear that there are few similarities between the two. Thank you for doing the research.
BTW, The movie Benjamin Button is very good. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Maybe in the book BB’s mind begins as an old man, but in the movie, he is born with an infant’s mind and an old, shriveled up body. Just fyi =]
By Jackie, July 26, 2009 @ 8:20 pm

Like most of those submitting comments, I assumed the Benjamin Button movie was based on Max Tivoli, until my daughter saw the movie and we were discussing the story line it became immediately clear they were not the same. Today I read the original short story by Fitzgerald, and it appears to bear little or no resemblance to the Movie. The producers and screen play writer used the basic premise of being born old and progressing to youth. just as Greer did, but not nearly so captivatingly. It is a real shame the movie people picked the wrong story.
By pat degrandpre, August 16, 2011 @ 10:47 am

it is august 16 and two days after meeting max tivoli’s author at the macdowell colony’s annual
medal day awards, i have roared through his book in less than 24 hours….all the while benjamin button was haunting me. curiosity didn’t kill this cat as you can see, and instead enlivened
me to find the answers at this web site. I saw
BB but i read max tivoli and that has made all the difference for me. andrew sean greer’s book is masterful story telling with poetic intelligence….and hollywood as usual made a mockery of BB.
By Bonnie Bekken, November 18, 2011 @ 3:39 pm

I recently saw Greer’s book at the library and was astounded to read the premise. Checked the publication date, the acknowledgment, and took the book home to see if it could possibly be true that someone had stolen Fitzgerald’s short story–one that I read at age fourteen and have held close to my heart for its inventive cleverness ever since. When a friend looked terrific after not seeing him for a while, I kidded that he was doing a Benjamin Button. I was entranced when I read that it was to become “a major motion picture,” and I saw it, of course, though it did not have the impact on me that the story had. For the same reason, Greer’s fiction pales. Hard to believe no one else seemed to recognize where the idea was born, including his editors and the people (Cunningham, Chabon) who gave it glowing cover blurbs. Greer even borrowed the formality of tone, the same historical setting, the…. That’s all, folks.