The New Confessions: A Novel

By William Boyd

In this extraordinary novel, William Boyd presents the autobiography of John James Todd, whose uncanny and exhilarating life as one of the most unappreciated geniuses of the twentieth century is equal parts Laurence Stern, Charles Dickens, Robertson Davies, and Saul Bellow, and a hundred percent William Boyd.  

From his birth in 1899, Todd was doomed. Emerging from his angst-filled childhood, he rushes into the throes of the twentieth century on the Western Front during the Great War, and quickly changes his role on the battlefield from cannon fodder to cameraman. When he becomes a prisoner of war, he discovers Rousseau's Confessions, and dedicates his life to bringing the memoir to the silver screen. Plagued by bad luck and blind ambition, Todd becomes a celebrated London upstart, a Weimar luminary, and finally a disgruntled director of cowboy movies and the eleventh member of the Hollywood Ten. Ambitious and entertaining, Boyd has invented a most irresistible hero.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Mar 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307787095

William Boyd

William Boyd is also the author of A Good Man in Africa, winner of the Whitbread Award and the Somerset Maugham Award; An Ice-Cream War, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys War Prize and short-listed for the Booker Prize; Brazzaville Beach, winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; Restless, winner of the Costa Novel of the Year; Ordinary Thunderstorms; and Waiting for Sunrise, among other books. He lives in London.

Reviews for The New Confessions

[bookmarque · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is my 8th Boyd novel and while good, it’s not my favorite and I’m glad I didn’t read this early on as it may have kept me from reading others. In terms of pacing it was pretty even, although the parts where JJ waxes on and on and on about his Confessions filming does get a bit much. I resorted to skimming. JJ himself isn’t such a winning character; like many of Boyd’s others he makes a lot of bad decisions, but on top of that he’s a bit too sorry for himself. He has the insight to see that he’s the common denominator of all the trouble in his life, but he is powerless to change or feels that he is. Either way he never bothers to try and that makes his whining trying to read about. He also dislikes a lot of people on sight and that doesn’t help. Each trouble and tragedy is delivered to the reader with a thud of finality. Baldly stated it hits you in your brain to good effect. Like many of Boyd’s other novels featuring male protagonists, the women in the book only serve to forward his actions, they never have lives in their own right or have stories that don’t prop up his. Doon might be an exception here, but she isn’t since JJ is so hung up on her that she becomes a source of self-pity. And as usual, sex is a common preoccupation for JJ. Right to the end he’s a lecherous old bugger.

[dbsovereign · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I like the drollness of the anti-heroic narrator in this one. "A little reflection and the so-called pattern of your life soon appears as little more than an aggregate of hazard and chance." There's an off-beat, very understated quality unique to Boyd. This is the third book of his that I have read.

[ted_newell-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Had to give up at the start of his WW1, first time around. I thought, maybe if I d read J J R's original this traipse through time would be more compelling. Then, while writing on Rousseau May 2014 the parallels offered by Boyd rang loud and clear and I could hardly put it down. Picaresque like Don Quixote. Weird end. The whole really adds up to nothing much but it seems as if that's the way Boyd wants to show life. A big collection of could have beens by a has-been. The protagonist is not attractive, but still, he is human and as confessional and apparently honest as Rousseau the original was. Life without a point, without God under the sun.

[sianpr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An epic autobiography of a fictional character - John James Todd, from his birth in Scotland, through his adventures in 2 World Wars, the silent film industry in Berlin in the 1920s, his blacklisting under McCarthy & his senior years in the Med. There is much that is good & gripping about this novel but it was hard to like the central character - everything is narrated through his eyes & there is very little character development of the long list of characters that come and go throughout the book. I would have liked some other perspectives but nonetheless Boyd does some excellent story telling - the part set in WW1 is particularly vivid.

[eyejaybee · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another winner from William Boyd!This novel follows the life of John James Todd, sometime soldier, reporter, writer and, principally, film director. Born in Edinburgh and educated in the Scottish Borders Todd runs away from his somewhat cold family life and, following a series of misunderstandings, signs up to serve in the First World War.He survives the carnage of Ypres, collecting a few minor injuries on the way, but finds himself captured behind German lines following a bizarre mishap featuring a hot air balloon. While a prisoner of war he befriends one of his guards, Karl-Heinz Kornfeld, who promises to find him an English book to read. As it happens the only English book to hand is a translation of the "Confessions" of eighteenth century philosopher and general roustabout Jean Jacques Rousseau. Todd is immediately enchanted by this work, which will determine the course of the rest of his life.After various tribulations Todd returns to Germany in the 1920s and becomes established as a film director, and manages to complete an epic film covering the first third of Rousseau's confessions, in which Kornfeld takes the leading role.As Hitler takes power, and as the horror of the Third Reich begins to manifest itself, Todd relocates to America, where he joins the Anti-Nazi League. He also manages, in farcical circumstances, to aggravate Monroe Smee, a minor agent loitering in the fringes of the film industry. Following the war Todd finds himself vilified as a Communist during the McCarthyite crusades. Blacklisted he relocates to Europe, where he starts to write his own memoirs, and begins to unravel the various misdaventures that have befallen him.There are interesting resonances with Boyd's other works, and in particular "Any Human Heart". For instance, one of the films produced by the company for whom Todd works is based upon a novel by Land Fothergill, who was an early flame of Logan Mountstuart in the latter novel. The format is similar, too, with Todd occasionally attempting a profit and loss analysis of his life to date.And, just like "Any Human Heart", this novel is entirely engrossing.I first read it back in 1988 just after its initial publication, and it has not lost any of its magic in the intervening years.

[nivramkoorb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An excellent book. It is great to read books that give you a good insight into historical events. I feel like I know more about the birth of the film industry. I thought that book dragged a bit in the beginning but I am glad that I stuck with it. Of course I also felt that Boyd rushed through the final parts of the story. I also found the ambiguous ending a bit disappointing, but the true test of a first book is will I read another by the author and I will.

[petterw_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The New Confessions is a mockumentary novel, at times so believable that you forget John James Todd never lived. Still, it is considerably shallower than Any Human Heart, Boyd's possibly best novel to date, although the two novels are strikingly similar narrative wise. Perhaps it is because the main character in The New Confessions attracts neither our disdain nor our admiration. His life journey takes us to exciting times and places, and perhaps the greatest merit of the novel is that it ties the events of the century together and shows us how our recent history has influenced us in the West to be who we are today. Any book by William Boyd is definitely worth the read in my view, but I am glad I didn't begin with The New Confessions.

[yossarianxeno · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The New Confessions preceded Any Human Heart by a couple of decades (both in authorship and setting), but there are clear parallels between the two. Both are written as the memoirs of elderly men looking back on their lives; both men have had remarkably varied lives, following a numbers of careers and living in several countries; both are transients, their lives battered by the traumatic history of the 20th Century; both men describe their lives with all their faults on display; both suffer from doomed true love, but enjoy other relationships and friendships, but ultimately, the survivors of what they live through, are left alone. The books also share one character - Land Fothergill - who is incidental in the New Confessions, but more significant in Any Human Heart. Like it's successor, the New Confessions is a modern masterpiece, sparingly written, but rich in the essential information, written in an absorbing style. With the exception of the disappointing Armadillo, Boyd must be one of the greatest British authors of recent decades, a superb storyteller as well an eloquent writer.

[ruthseeley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've read it twice. It was just as compelling the second time.

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this book when it was first published in the late 80s and found it a riveting historical novel. The adventures of the protagonist were exciting and showed me aspects of the world that were unfamiliar to me.