Old School

Okay, I liked the book but my curiosity about the cover photo is not satisfied since I still don't know if Wolff himself is one of the boys pictured in the photo? Since he submitted the photo, I am thinking possibly yes.... AND, could he be the boy on the spine of the book? That frustration aside, I bought this book for a couple of reasons: mainly because I really loved THIS BOY'S LIFE and hoped to be as entertained in this book, but also because I am a book-lover and always wished I had attended a prep school, so the setting appealed to me. Call it nostalgia for something I never had. This book is essentially a long short story with a couple of laugh-out-loud moments which are always greatly appreciated. But I couldn't get past the fact that I kept wondering about Wolff's life, the SALON interview notwithstanding. I am curious as to why he is so evasive about the facts of his life beyond the last page of THIS BOY'S LIFE where he seemed to be so brutally no-holds-barred honest and forthright. Did he graduate from Hill School, or did he leave just prior to graduation? The book mentions a father a few times, even rather benignly, but states that his mother was dead at the time of the writing which I believe was not true; so, what is autobiographical and what is not? I couldn't get beyond those curiousities as I read the book.I laughed out loud at Wolff's Ayn Rand diatribe. I read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged in college, too, and my father almost came undone, thought I had turned into a Commie or something, and was really very upset. To me at the age of 18 they were just books. I liked them well enough, but I also loved other authors. In this book I think Wolff introduces enough variance in the books and authors he discusses that we are left to find our own favorites.Okay, I skimmed through all 12 pages of reader reviews here, hoping to find one written by someone who went to school, Hill School, with Wolff so we could get some straight answers, but I didn't see anything.... It's been a lot of years, but maybe he'll open up all the way one of these days and satisfy a lot of curious minds by telling the rest of his story. Directly. Not fictionalized.Good book. I liked THIS BOY'S LIFE better. Not to mention his brother's book DUKE OF DECEPTION which I also loved.PS: I was thrilled to hear directly from Tobias Wolff today, February 20, 2009, and he says the photo on the cover of the book was taken at his school a couple of years prior to his arrival, so he is not in the picture. I'm still mesmerized by the boys in the photo, but now I can stop speculating on which one might be the real Tobias Wolff.

"Old School" by Tobias Wolf is a well written novel that captures the essence of the experience of a boys' boarding school in the early 1960s. It is a well told story. The characters are very believable and heart felt. While reading I did feel an emotional connection to the main character who also serves in a way as the narrator.The overall plot is that the youth is in his final year of "high school" at a private boarding school. There are guest writers that come to the school and a competition is set up where student submit works, and the winner gets a private audience with the visiting writer. The writers are Robert Frost, Ayn Rand, and Ernest Hemingway.Tobias Wolf does an admirable job of placing the visiting writers into the school setting and allowing those writers to "become real" to the reader. Robert Frost was done well, and led the plot along in an excellent manner. Ayn Rand, was perhaps the best written of the three and she comes off as truly a despicable person (which seems accurate from reading biographies of her). I did find it very humorous and well done that Ayn Rand selected a science fiction story "When the Cows Come Home" as the student winner. Also well weaved into the account was the main character's first impressions of "The Fountainhead" which he seems to gush over for a while until he realizes how unrealistic and substandard is that novel when compared to truly great literature. Ernest Hemingway only makes a brief tangential appearance, but his shadow looms over the plot.The major flaws I found in reading "Old School" were twofold. First is the stylistic form of using no quotation marks. What is with that?Here is an example:Quoting page 154 (hardcover) Without stories one would hardly know what world one was in. But I'm not saying this very well. Mr. Ramsey stared out over the garden. It has to do with self consciousness, he said. Though I'm no believer, I find it interesting that self consciousness is associated with the Fall. Nakedness and shame. Knowledge of ourselves as a thing apart, and bound to die. Exile. We speak of self consciousness as a burden or problem, and so it is- the problem being how to use it to bring ourselves out of exile. Whereas our tendency is to lose ourselves in the distance, wouldn't you say? The squirrel approached within a foot of us and reared up, obviously expecting a handout. Someone had been sneaking him scraps, probably a younger boy, homesick, missing his dog. That squirrel looks about ready to take us down, I said.unquoteTo me the style of not using quotation marks greatly hindered the flow of the story, and to me, that grammatical irregularities was a major flaw in "Old School."The second flow that prevented me from giving "Old School" five stars was the last section of the book. There is a dramatic switch from the main character to a side character, Dean Makepeace. While that is all interesting, the way the novel ended was just sort of haphazard. I had really connected to the main character, but the last section pretty much abandons him and the focus is on "Arch" previously known as Dean Makepeace.But overall, I do recommend "Old School" for the positives do outweigh the flaws. I believe you will enjoy reading this work by Tobias Wolf. It was my first time reading his work.Thanks for reading my review.

Wolff was an associate of Raymond Carver, another of my favourite authors. This is one of those books where you begin reading and quickly relax in the sense that you know you are in expert hands. The writing is so good. At the micro level each sentence seems carefully polished. At the macro level the overall entity is a gleaming masterpiece. It has unreliable narration; the delightful conceit of writing in the styles of various eminent writers (eg Hemingway and Frost); and it does a marvelous demolition job on Ayn Rand.If I have any complaint, it is that the end of the book seems a little too short and not enough time is given to exploring the world of the adult narrator. Or maybe this is because I just didn't want it to end...?Must read.

Never heard back either way - so I guess he was not very impressed with it - but who knows...

School author visits these days are something of a colourful show, with costumes, activities, participation and, lately - Zoom and other zippy technology. Not so, back in 1961, when “Old School” is set.The novel is a story about growing up, finding yourself amongst the web of white lies that are spun to impress and fit in, about writing and the truth (or otherwise) in fiction. It captures the vanished world of a US private school from the time just before the youthful revolution of the 1960s started beating.I sometimes felt as much of an outsider and pseud as the narrator while reading this novel. One of the visiting authors (Ayn Rand) I’d never heard of. Was I also an interloper in this elite intellectual environment?“Old School” has its moments - and it is well-written, with strong insight into the writer’s mind and creative process. And there is wise commentary on the passage of history and arrogance of youth: “It is very fine and pleasant to think ourselves the most put-upon folk in history - but then everyone has thought that from the beginning.” But overall, I must be honest too, and confess that I found it a bit of a hard slog

Although the writing isn't as poetic as I prefer, it effectively captures moments of beauty and displays genuine sensitivity. It is the writing of a master of the craft.It may be described as 'coming of age' but moved me coming to it as an adult. Interesting thoughts on the nature of fiction, literary criticism, tasteI read it very quickly because the story is compelling, but must admit that after the key events, the tension slackened somewhat. I found one of the later plot twists slightly unconvincing. Otherwise, a work of art I would recommend to anyone aged 13+.

Well worth a read. Very atmospheric, great characterization and a convincing plot - I was really not expecting the final twist. Also the denouement was well done, very ironic. Not a great work of literature but very craftsman-like and understated. I will read more of this author's work.