Old School
A Novel
Book - 2003
"With the same masterful prose and emotional subtlety that distinguished his bestselling memoir This Boy's Life, Tobias Wolff's first novel, Old School, explores the deceptions and betrayals that turn a boy into a writer. The protagonist is a student at an elite prep school in 1960. He is an outsider who has learned to mimic the negligent manner of his privileged classmates. Like many of them, he wants to be a writer. But to do that he must learn to tell the truth about who he actually is. Through the agency of a school literary contest-whose winner will be recognized by the most legendary writer of his time-Wolff animates the clash between idealism and ambition, the fear of obscurity and the fear of revelation."
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Publisher:
New York : Knopf, 2003.
Edition:
1st ed.
ISBN:
9780375401466
0375401466
9780375701498
0375701494
0375401466
9780375701498
0375701494
Branch Call Number:
FICTION Wolff Tobias
Characteristics:
195 p. ;,24 cm.
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Add a CommentTobias Wolff's literary gifts are many-- he peels layer after layer off his characters' psyches. And he does so with warmth and wit.
Structurally, the novel is flawed. It starts well, builds nicely to climax and then, somehow gets weird. The writing style changes. The voice changes. Readers are tossed into an alternate universe.
In the final few pages, there is some literary triage, but the damage is already done.
Turns out this novel began as three short stories. I guess two melded seamlessly and the other did not.
well written. I got it to read the chapter on any rand's visit to his school. it rings true and gives a fascinating portrait of this woman and her egotism
Tobias Wolff is best known for his short stories. The ending of this novel is out of this world.