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Two men are classmates and friends at Harvard, though never all that close: Max, a brilliant student with a touch of the aesthete's affectations about him, and Charlie, some years older, having served in the Korean War. As Max sees it, Charlie excels in a single scull, soaks up martinis, and enjoys the favors of a particularly glamorous Radcliffe girl.
Twenty years later, not having seen each other since college, the two men meet unexpectedly as guests at a villa on the shore of Lake Como. Max is now a law professor, circumspect and slightly sorry for himself - a man to whom relationships do not stick. Charlie has become a celebrated architect, the most successful member of their class. Beautiful when a young man, he has ripened into a foul-mouthed, golden-tongued giant: a demigod and a bully.
In his imperious way, he proclaims that Max will henceforth be one of his chosen intimates. Charlie is right. Max's life becomes increasingly intertwined with Charlie's, and with that of Toby, Charlie's adolescent companion. When Toby is stricken by a devastating illness, Charlie performs an act of coolly calculated self-sacrifice, the only gesture he thinks will make a difference. Max bears witness, and learns a lesson that may at last complete his sentimental education.
With all the force and elegance of his earlier work, Louis Begley's masterful new novel tells a gripping story of friendship and mortality.
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As Max Saw It
April 22, 1997, Random House Value Publishing
Hardcover
in English
0517174707 9780517174708
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As Max saw it
1995, Fawcett Columbine
in English
- 1st Ballantine Books ed.
0449909476 9780449909478
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As Max saw it
1994, A.A. Knopf, Distributed by Random House, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
in English
- 1st ed.
0679433074 9780679433071
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- Created September 27, 2008
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March 8, 2023 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
August 18, 2010 | Edited by IdentifierBot | added LibraryThing ID |
April 16, 2010 | Edited by bgimpertBot | Added goodreads ID. |
December 15, 2009 | Edited by WorkBot | link works |
September 27, 2008 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from University of Toronto MARC record |