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Title: Duke of Deception by GEOFFREY WOLFF ISBN: 0-679-72752-3 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 19 February, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.29 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A man of his time and place
Comment: I've read this book two or three times, and enjoy it more and more. I know why it appeals to me: Duke Wolff was like a lot of old men I've known, mostly the fathers and uncles of friends, who grew up in the 20s and 30s. A type of his place and time--a snob who bragged about old school ties when those things meant a lot, a glad-handing hustler and outrageous self-promoter during a time when self-delusive salesmanship and resume-padding were widely accepted as a virtuous means of self-advancement.
As the years go by I reflect less on the character of Duke and more on that of the author. What a sniffy, snobbish, spoiled young man he was duirng his Choate and Princeton years, and how much of that is still clinging to him in his forties as he struggles to come to terms with the fact that his father was a lifelong liar, thief, psychopath and at last a jailbird.
His brother Tobias's memories of Duke (in the memoir, In Pharoah's Army) give a much better picture of their father in his last years, because they describe just a few dinners and conversations, and hence aren't weighted down by the overwhelming sadness and shame that Geoffrey feels. Superficially, Toby may be said to be the better writer-as-craftsman. Geoffrey is far and away the better thinker.
Rating: 5
Summary: There Must Be a Gene for Literary Talent
Comment: How else can we explain the phenomenon of Tobias and Geoffrey Wolff, two of our most accomplished writers, brothers raised apart in separate and uniquely bizarre circumstances? Devotees of THIS BOY'S LIFE should also enjoy THE DUKE OF DECEPTION, though the latter has a retrospective, adult tone absent in the former. The opening passage, where the author, now an adult with sons of his own, learns of the death of his dissolute but charming father, is a masterpiece. If I taught writing, I would tell my students, "If you can acheive what Geoffrey Wolff does in that small scene, you have done it all."
Rating: 4
Summary: Renaissance man or con man?
Comment: Geoffrey Wolfe's father was the type who could persuade an automobile dealer whom he had just met to accept a personal check for a new car after the bank was closed, and who could launch a successful career as an aeronautical engineer without relevant education, experience, or knowledge. His sons similarly reinvented themselves, one going so far as to submit forged credentials to win acceptance in an exclusive prep school. After the parents split up, Geoffrey lived an interesting if peripatetic life with his father, while his brother Tobias stayed with his mother, suffering poverty and abusive stepfathers. Since the father had the more interesting and eccentric personality, Geoffrey's book is perhaps the more adventurous, although less well written, than his brother's, This Boy's Life: A Memoir, but both make fascinating reading.
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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: Old School by TOBIAS WOLFF ISBN: 0375401466 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: In Pharaoh's Army : Memories of the Lost War by TOBIAS WOLFF ISBN: 0679760237 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 26 September, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Black Sun by Geoffrey Wolff ISBN: 1590170660 Publisher: New York Review of Books Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Night In Question : Stories by TOBIAS WOLFF ISBN: 0679781552 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 30 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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