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    You Deserve Nothing
    You Deserve Nothing
    You Deserve Nothing
    Audiobook7 hours

    You Deserve Nothing

    Written by Alexander Maksik

    Narrated by Cassandra Campbell, Adam Verner and Dan John Miller

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    William Silver is a talented and charismatic young teacher whose
    unconventional methods raise eyebrows among his colleagues and superiors. His students, however, are devoted to him. His teaching of Camus, Faulkner, Sartre, Keats, and other kindred souls breathes life into their sense of social justice and their capacities for philosophical and ethical thought. But unbeknownst to his adoring pupils, Silver proves incapable of living up to the ideals he encourages in others. Emotionally scarred by failures in his personal life and driven to distraction by the City of Light's overpowering carnality
    and beauty, Silver succumbs to a temptation that will change the
    course of his life. His fall will render him a criminal in the eyes of some and all too human in the eyes of others. In Maksik's
    stylish prose, Paris is sensual, dazzling, and dangerously seductive. It serves as a fitting backdrop for a dramatic tale about the tension between desire and action, and about the complex relationship that exists between our public and private selves.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateDec 19, 2011
    ISBN9781452675473

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    Reviews for You Deserve Nothing

    4/5

    13 ratings12 reviews

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    • 3/5
      At 80 moving back to High School is moving. to another life. There are moments where the recall of an inspirational teacher comes roaring back, others where the memory seems false. Sometimes disjointed by the recall from three persons interrupting the flow, and loosing the depth of feeling, nevertheless the experience is real. That this is a thinly disguised memoir dtsracts from the sympathy for the author (Will).
    • 4/5
      A sordid love-affair between a girl and her charismatic English teacher. More to the point, it's about the way all our heroes are disappointing, ultimately, and therefore more heroic in a post-modern sense. The vignettes are a nice touch, jumping between three characters over the course of a school year.
    • 5/5
      You Deserve Nothing by Alexander MaksikWilliam Silver is a well-loved and exceptional teacher of literature in an international high school in Paris. I really enjoyed his class discussions. He is one of those talented teachers who knows how to get through to his students and teaches them how to think for themselves, delving into thoughtful and intriguing discussions about politics, religion, morality, etc. and pushes the students to find their own voices and their courage through their personal convictions. Unfortunately, he is human and struggles with his own failures and personal choices, some leading to unfortunate circumstances which affect many of those around him, disappointing some of his students when they realize he cannot stand up to the ideal. Although Mr. Silver's faults are obvious, the author was still able to make me forget at times Will's character flaws and let me see what charmed his students.Edited: After reading some other reviews, I see this may be a sort of memoir by the author and his alleged past transgressions. I feel a little icky about the last sentence of my review, but I'm leaving it as is. In the novel, there is a conversation between Gilad and his mother which goes, "People used to tell me when I was young that I didn't know what I was capable of, that my intelligence was limitless, that I could do anything. Which I've come to realize is true in both directions. I never imagined that I was capable of this life. It would have seemed impossible to me when I was younger, but God do we surprise ourselves. They never tell you that what we surprise ourselves with may be disappointment."
    • 3/5
      William Silver is a young teacher at the ISF, a high school for international students, in Paris. He is a well liked and dynamic literature teacher whose senior seminar is one of the highlights of many students careers at the school. The school year in which the story takes place, Silver is teaching literature, that while not exclusively existentialist, leans in that direction and is exposing most of his students to this philosophy for the first time. Yet, as he is teaching these students about the repercussions of choosing (or not choosing), about living a life to its fullest, he is engaging in a sexual affair with one of his students. As his own choices, and lack thereof, become known to his students, his stature amongst them and ultimately his teaching position fall into jeopardy. Silver's role is reminiscent of John Keating (Robin Williams character) in "Dead Poet's Society" and the story recalls "Sophie's World" by Jostein Gaarder in that it teaches philosophy in the form of a novel, albeit more focused on existentialism rather than a sweeping view of the history of philosophy. Well written, erotic, and passionate, "You Deserve Nothing" is an interesting read, slow in a few parts, but packing enough punch to keep your interest all the way to the bitter, and bittersweet, end.
    • 5/5
      Had been looking forward to this novel, and it did not disappoint. So beautifully written, and so simply, I didn't stop to underline anything. It reminded me in many ways of The Good Mother, one of my Favorite Books Ever.I would like to do something like this.
    • 4/5
      I read this novel with no background information and loved it. Intelligent, reflective, beautifully written, excellent characters. Came on over to Goodreads to write my rave review and for the first time saw other reviews that reference the fact that this is based on a true story by an author who was himself dismissed from the same international school as his main character for the same reason (a relationship with a student). Spent a bit of time mulling the matter over before deciding that this new biographical information does not change my assessment of the novel. Martin Amis once said that “fiction is the only way to redeem the formlessness of life,” and even if it is true that scenes and characters in this novel correspond closely to those remembered and reconstructed by others, this author has ultimately transformed a disparate series of events into something more, something with shape and substance. (Mr. Amis is a great example of an author I find fairly distasteful as a human being, but whom I deeply appreciate as a novelist.)

      Life is messy. I can understand why the ex-students are angry. The novelist may or may not be a jerk. However, I believe that an artist should be allowed to use just about everything at his or her fingertips in order to create art. The real issue for me is whether this novel, taken on its own merits, asks interesting questions and does so in a compelling way. The answer here is yes and yes. I highly recommend it without reservations.
    • 5/5
      My wife has been after me to read You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik for some time. Finally, I gave in and started to read. The main character, William Silver, teaches at the International School Paris. His techniques in the classroom, his method of questioning, his assignments, the readings, and discussions eerily mirror what I do in the classroom.According to the author’s bio on the back cover, Maksik received teaching and writing fellowships from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Currently, he holds the Provost’s Postgraduate Writing Fellow position at the University of Iowa. You Deserve Nothingis his first novel – and what an intense and deeply psychological novel it proved to be.William teaches literature and composition. The novel centers on a Senior Seminar at the prestigious high school populated mostly by the children of American diplomats and businessmen and women. Besides William, two other characters narrate the story in separate chapters. Marie is a 24-year-old woman at the school, Gilad is a 24-year-old man, and Silver is 38. The first chapter of each character gives the age, and I was confused, because I believed this to be a high school, which I confirmed by researching the school. Other interesting characters include Arial, a stunningly beautiful young woman in Silver’s seminar, and Colin, and Irish lad with a temper.The parts of the novel -- from the viewpoint of the students -- details all the anxieties, fears, hopes, dreams, and problems expected of adolescents. Silver has a public personae, which the students adore, but his private life is another matter. He holds his students to a high standard, which he himself cannot attain.Maksik prose cleverly draws the reader into the story. In the beginning, I felt as if I were reading John Knowles’ A Separate Peace; however, it quickly shifted to Francine Prose’s Blue Angel. These three novels of teachers and students, provide stunning insights into relationships among teachers, students, and administration.The prose flows leisurely. Maksik writes, “The optimism, the sense of possibility and hope comes at the end of August. There are new pens, unmarked novels, fresh textbooks, and promises of a better year. The season of reflection is not January but June. Another year passed, the students gone, the halls silent. You’re left there alone. The quiet of a school emptied for the summer is that of a hotel closed for the winter, a library closed for the night, ghosts swirling through the room” (19). Literature thrives and revolves around connections. I have experienced nearly 30 of these Augusts, Decembers, and Junes. I have had students closely resembling Narie, Ariel, Gilad, Colin, Abdul, Hala, and others. I have had colleagues chillingly close to Mia – another English instructor at the ISF. For language and an explicit scene, this provocative adult novel forces the reader to deal with the characters and their actions and then decide who makes good decisions and who makes decisions which alter the course of several lives.I enjoy novels about teachers, professors, and students. You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik belongs the best of this sub-genre. 5 stars--Jim, 10/4/14
    • 4/5
      I did enjoy this book. The three narrators are Will a teacher at the international school in Paris, Gilad one of his students, and Marie a student with whom Will has an affair. Will is a popular but at the same time unconventional teacher who brings ideas into the classroom that will have a profound effect on the students, Gilad being one example.. The students needless to say expect Will to be able to live up to the ideals that he is expousing and it proves somewhat of a disappointment to them when he is found to be lacking. Will talks about us being able to "travel the distance between desire and action" and therefore stand up for what we believe in but it porves to be something that he himself cannot do when the situation arises. The title is an apt one to me which makes the ending somewhat predictable but there were occasional moments when you wondered if it thigs would work out. I guess I felt a bit angry at Will that he would throw everything away by his actions. He was a great teacher. But I also felt angry that all the blame was laid at his door, and that Maries was held to be blamless when I saw her as the seductress initially at least.. It was a well written book that kept me interested. Worth reading
    • 4/5
      There are three narrators in this novel, we meet Will who is a young teacher trying to instil a love of literature in his students in such a way they are all affected; then we meet Gilad who is one of his students and having led his life in Dakar and Dubai, Paris brings a sense of freedom that Gilad finds heady yet rewarding. Finally there is Marie, whom embarks on an affair with Will which has an effect on Gilad. The second two thirds of the novel move at such a remarkable pace I was carried away by the narrative, which came as such a surprise as up until this point it was slightly dull and lacked vigour. I even, in the first third, was lost as to who was speaking – if I didn’t keep my book mark at the title page of each chapter I couldn’t initially tell from the narrative who the character was. Even though you already know as the reader how the novel has to end, the journey is interesting and for a moment I actually wondered if my predictions were going to be wrong. It is well written but doesn’t get the five stars from me simply because it took so long for anything to actually happen – by this I don’t mean the affair, I simply mean for something to move on in the story. Good descriptions on Parisian life, for those who enjoy such prose, I however found they sometimes detracted from the story. The only time I found it helpful was when Gilad was trying to establish himself firmly in Will’s mind later on in the novel.A book I’d happily recommend, very easy to read and a nice one to curl up with if you haven’t got very much going on as I think it is better read in as few sittings as possible.
    • 3/5
      The book was a little contrived. Student teacher affair. So you know the basics. Only this author decided to attempt at existential philosophy and really just distracted from the story. THe author as much as he would like to be is NOT an existential philosopher. Not Shakespeare. The plot was easy to figure out though how they got there was more original.
    • 5/5
      Truly a steller novel, full of earnest, human moments.I recomend to anyone who has the chance to read it.
    • 3/5
      This promised much at the start but turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. I didn't much like the main character and the story just wasn't what I'd thought it would be...Gave it 3 stars but should have been 2 really...