This Boy's Life: A Memoir
by Tobias Wolff
List Price:
Our Price: $6.88
You Save: $8.07 (54%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.76 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Tobias WolffEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2000-03
ISBN: 0802136680
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Grove Press
Book Reviews of This Boy's Life: A Memoir
Book Review: I really hated this book!
Summary: 1 Stars
We chose this book for my book group, so I persisted in reading it. Otherwise I would have dropped it after the first 50 pages (I always give a book at least 50 pages). I found the writing flat, the characters vile, and the plot irritating. There are so many good books in the world; why read this one?
Summary of This Boy's Life: A Memoir
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.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.
Authors Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Good Summer Reading
The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805by Richard Zacks
Hyperion; Published: 2006-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Wittgenstein's Viennaby Allan Janik, Stephen Edelson Toulmin
Ivan R. Dee, Publisher; Published: 1996-09-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.98
Price in other shops:
The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at Warby Alexander Waugh
Doubleday; Published: 2009-02-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.48
Price in other shops:
Thunder at Twilight: Vienna 1913/ 1914by Frederic Morton
Peter Smith Pub Inc; Published: 2003-01-31; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Fin-De-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Cultureby Carl E. Schorske
Vintage; Published: 1980-12-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.08
Price in other shops:
A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888-1889by Frederic Morton
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1980-10-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops:
At Swim, Two Boys: A Novelby Jamie O'Neill
Scribner; Published: 2003-02-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
This Boy's Life: A Memoirby Tobias Wolff
Grove Press; Published: 2000-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Running with Scissors: A Memoirby Augusten Burroughs
St. Martin's Paperbacks; Published: 2006-08-29; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.50
Price in other shops:
Dry: A Memoirby Augusten Burroughs
Picador; Published: 2004-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.47
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
The Night In Question: Storiesby Tobias Wolff
Vintage; Published: 1997-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.93
Price in other shops:
The Things They Carriedby Tim O'Brien
Broadway; Published: 1998-12-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.50
Price in other shops:
This Boy's LifeWarner Brothers; Release date: 2003-05-13; DVD
Best price: $7.50
Price in other shops:
Autobiography of a Faceby Lucy Grealy
Harper Perennial; Published: 2003-03-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories (Vintage Contemporaries)by Tobias Wolff
Vintage; Published: 2009-04-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.11
Price in other shops:
The Glass Castle: A Memoirby Jeannette Walls
Scribner; Published: 2006-01-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.48
Price in other shops:
In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost Warby Tobias Wolff
Vintage; Published: 1995-09-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.25
Price in other shops:
Duke of Deception: Memories of My Fatherby Geoffrey Wolff
Vintage; Published: 1990-02-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.89
Price in other shops:
Old Schoolby Tobias Wolff
Vintage; Published: 2004-08-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.75
Price in other shops:
The Liars' Club: A Memoirby Mary Karr
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2005-05-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.15
Price in other shops: