Comments on: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

By: Bonnie Bekken

Bonnie Bekken — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:39:27 +0000

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.

By: pat degrandpre

pat degrandpre — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:47:17 +0000

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: Jackie

Jackie — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:20:46 +0000

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: Courtknee

Courtknee — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:24:39 +0000

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: Baby Got Books » The Classics: Of Mice and Men

Baby Got Books » The Classics: Of Mice and Men — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:37:57 +0000

[...] my recent first-time forays into Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Updike, why not check out some Steinbeck? Particularly what I believe [...]

By: @men

@men — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:07:30 +0000

I thought Max Tivoli’s mind also ages backwards and he start losing his memories when he gets younger…

By: pilferboy

pilferboy — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:26:51 +0000

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: lishun

lishun — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:57:51 +0000

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: Irene

Irene — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 05:16:52 +0000

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: Fabio Peroni

Fabio Peroni — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:29:25 +0000

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!