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This Boy's Life: A Memoir |  | Author: Tobias Wolff
Publisher: Grove Press
List Price: $15.95
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Rating:  146 reviews
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Grove Press Ed
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0802136680
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780802136688
ASIN: 0802136680
Publication Date: March 2000
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Amazon.com Review
Fiction writer Tobias Wolff electrified critics with his scarifying 1989 memoir, which many deemed as notable for its artful structure and finely wrought prose as for the events it describes. The story is pretty grim: Teenaged Wolff moves with his divorced mother from Florida to Utah to Washington State to escape her violent boyfriend. When she remarries, Wolff finds himself in a bitter battle of wills with his abusive stepfather, a contest in which the two prove to be more evenly matched than might have been supposed. Deception, disguise, and illusion are the weapons the young man learns to employ as he grows up--not bad training for a writer-to-be. Somber though this tale of family strife is, it is also darkly funny and so artistically satisfying that most readers come away exhilarated rather than depressed.
Product Description
This unforgettable memoir, by one of our most gifted writers, introduces us to the young Toby Wolff, by turns tough and vulnerable, crafty and bumbling, and ultimately winning. Separated by divorce from his father and brother, Toby and his mother are constantly on the move, yet they develop an extraordinarily close, almost telepathic relationship. As Toby fights for identity and self-respect against the unrelenting hostility of a new stepfather, his experiences are at once poignant and comical, and Wolff does a masterful job of re-creating the frustrations and cruelties of adolescence. His various schemes - running away to Alaska, forging checks, and stealing cars - lead eventually to an act of outrageous self-invention that releases him into a new world of possibility.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 146
 My Favorite Memoir Ever August 31, 2010
BargainBookMole (New England)
This was first book of Tobias Wolff's I read. And I immediately become a big fan. In fact, he's my favorite writer. I first read TBL out loud with my wife on our honeymoon. Since then I've reread it at least 2 or 3 times--and I rarely reread books [I've also reread TW's In Pharoh's Army]--and bought lots of copies for gifts.
This Boy's Life is a poignant, very honest, and self-deprecating look at a challenging childhood. In the long run, it seems what says Wolff is his humor and that he is on to himself. Highly recommended.
An Engaging Book About a Duplicitous Boy June 18, 2010
WillfromSF (San Francisco, CA USA)
The young Tobias Wolff is not much of a protagonist. He lies, he cheats, he steals and never has a qualm about it even when caught. He has few redeeming qualities. Occasionally he is moved by someone's behavior, but for most of this book that covers approximately 1955-1961 he goes through adolescence without a rudder or a care. Mostly he seems dazed as he observes life from the wrong side of the tracks during a period most Americans remember nostalgically. His crimes are petty but many - dishonesty with himself and others seems to be his central trait. He longs for a better life and gets a chance for one when he lies his way into consideration for a scholarship at a prep school. His main antagonist is his step-father Dwight who is a completely unsympathetic character once he gets past the courtship phase with Wolff's mother. This is a very arid book emotionally although it rings true and is beautifully detailed and manicured. The book seems as aimless as its protagonist, but it is also a page-turner due to Wolff's wonderful narrative and descriptions of people and place. The details are not particularly about the period - little mention of the music, TV, movies, events, trends, and toys of the times but it does evoke some of the period's own duplicity where "Father Knows Best" lulled those of us who lived during it (I was born the same year as the author) into hiding from the more tragic families many of us lived in. I liked the book yet it leaves me numb, uninspired and wondering who is this boy at the center of this book and what was the point of it?
Transformation December 19, 2009
Diane L. Alberts (Vermont)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Tobias Wolff's memoir is about a boy's search for his true identity by trying on a number of personae. The reader also gets some interesting insights to his divorced mother and her complex personality. Tobias starts his journey to self-discovery by demanding that he be called "Jack", not Toby, because Jack sounds more macho, more like a guy, or even a dangerous rake. His mother Rosemary seldom forbids Jack anything; and when she tries to put her foot down, she's overruled by the loser men in her life, most notably and comically pathetic: Dwight. Jack tries every role from juvenile deliquent to cigarette-smoking, gambling Boy Scout. No kidding!
The book is a page-turner without the cheap thrills, unless you count his sneaking home from school at around age 11 to "play" with the.22 one of Rosemary's boyfriends gave him. He aims at people on the street with the empty rifle. The game is no fun with an unloaded rifle, so he gets his ammo and is back to the apartment window aiming at people below.
This is my second read of the book which I selected for an American Lit student studying memoirs. I'm sure this one has very high interest for all ages.
Slow moving, but has its moments December 9, 2009
We read!
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book reflects back on the author's life as the son of a single mom. Although Wolff's childhood occurred decades ago, many of his experiences do ring true for kids in the same situation today: the struggles in a single-parent household, the complexities of blending into a new family particularly when mom has "settled" for a less-than-worthy spouse due to finanicial stress, alcoholism and abuse in the family, and teenage rebellion.
Many individual scenes in the book are compelling and drawn in vivid strokes. I'm not sure I'll ever purge the mental picture of EVERYTHING in the house being painted a stark white in order to spruce it up. Very bizarre.
However, this magnifying glass approach to writing is, for me, also one of the book's drawbacks. It moves slowly, and not all scenes are compelling.
This Boy's Life: Pure Reading Pleasure October 15, 2009
Family-Film Lover (Canada)
Tobias Wolff describes his childhood before the expression "dysfunctional" began to be used. When reading his account, which seems questionable at times, you have to wonder if this is all true. It's impressive that this juvenile delinquent turned out to be such a famous writer. I liked this book so much that I bought all his other books and read many articles about him. Once at a book-signing, his mother was interviewed and she said had she known her two sons would be such prolific writers, she might have lived her life differently (I have also read all of Geoffrey Wolff's works). When asked whether everything was true in their books, she answered 85%. So I had my answer.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 146
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