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Title: Old School by TOBIAS WOLFF ISBN: 0-375-40146-6 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.43 (37 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: One of American's finest writers
Comment: I went into my local bookstore, sat in a comfy chair, and read Old School straight through. Then I bought it, because it's a book I'll definitely read another time or two. I've read Tobias Wolff's short stories and memoirs, but this novel, his first, makes me hope he'll write more and more and more of them.
Set in the 60s in a private school, the narrator, who comes from a working-class family and is a scholarship student, longs to fit in among his more upscale and privileged classmates. The school hosts a writing contest in which the winners are granted private audiences with one of three visiting pros: Frost, Ayn Rand, and Hemingway. Of course the narrator (unnamed) determines to win a spot with his favorite, Hemingway, and the process by which he tries to achieve this goal is the territory upon which the story is built.
Written from the perspective of the adult looking back on his adolescence, Old School gives readers a lesson not only in superb writing but also in the art of character formation, and the ultimate message is, as with much great literature, that we are each of us alone in our own world - and often that world is one of our own making.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wolff is simply the best
Comment: With this novel Tobias Wolff cements his status as one of the greatest writers of our time. 'Old School' - his first full length novel - does not lose any of the impact of his short stories and proves that he is an author capable of taking on any format (including his autobiography 'This Boy's Life'). At a prestigious boarding school for boys in the early sixties we meet our narrator as he begins his senior year - a year which will bring him successs and great consequences. 'Old School' masterfully weaves a variety of themes including friendship, honor, betrayal, and the loss of innocence with a palpable love of literature. This admiration for the classics and also for the craft of writing adds a heartfelt layer to a book that was already amazing simply based on its story. And how appropriate that Wolff pays tribute to classic authors like Hemingway and Ayn Rand as 'Old School' itself is an instant classic (not to mention a joy to read). Highly recommended.
Rating: 1
Summary: Beyond boring!!
Comment: This book is one of the worst I have ever read. It is boring beyond belief and just rambles on. I simply don't understand how anybody can consider this good writing. The story is very difficult to follow primarily because there is no character development nor anybody you care about in the book. Also, why or why did this author not use quotation marks when people were talking. I think it would have helped a bit, but then again the conversation was so insipid it probably doesn't matter. Between this and the equally boring Empire Falls which our book club also read last year, I will be hard pressed to ever read anotheer book about life in New England.
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Title: This Boy's Life: A Memoir by Tobias Wolff ISBN: 0802136680 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: March, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Namesake : A Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri ISBN: 0395927218 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Back in the World : Stories by Tobias Wolff ISBN: 0679767967 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 01 October, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Amateur Marriage: A Novel by ANNE TYLER ISBN: 1400042070 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 06 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Little Children : A Novel by Tom Perrotta ISBN: 0312315716 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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