This Boy's Life: A Memoir by Tobias Wolff
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Book Reviews of This Boy's Life: A Memoir
Book Review: This Boy's life Rocks
Summary: 5 Stars
Tobias Wolff tells about his unstable childhood in his memoir, This Boys Life. He introduces and elaborates on all the different places, situations, and people that have affected him. The book has all kinds of diverse well thought out characters. The main character, Jack, is a teenage going up in the 1950's. The book is told in the way that Jack sees it. Jack is a gawky ungraceful teenager looking for belonging; he looks for it in his friends and family. Jack is a mellow character; he looks at his life as a learning experience. He does not repeat the same mistakes over again. Jack will only listen and respect one person, and that is his mother. Jack's mom, Rosemary, has done what everyone told her or wanted her to do. She has never been fully happy in her life. When she got a divorce from Jack's father, it was just her Jack. She becomes close to Jack, they develop a bond that no one can break. Then Rosemary meets Dwight, Jack's future step-dad. Dwight is a simply man, all he needs is his beer, the TV, and a gun. Dwight has a very short temper, is easily jealous, and sometimes even abusive. He never really felt appreciated from his family, job, and friends.
The book gives great insight on how an insecure abuse victim handles dilemmas in his life. He turns towards his mother, Rosemary. Rosemary dedicates her life to her son. She wants the best for her son and she tries everything to make sure that he is always happy. Then Dwight enters their life. Dwight falls in love with Rosemary, soon his love turns unhealthy. He becomes obsessive and jealous. He wants all of Rosemary's love and attention, he becomes abusive towards Jack.
Tobias Wolff captures the confusion and frustration of being a teenager. The scenes in the story are places we have all been to and can picture easily. (For example, the Jack's run down high school, and Jack's the dirty home.) Each twist and turn in this story will have the reader wanting to read more to see what will happen next.
This Boys Life takes the reader on a ride with Jack Wolff through all his struggles and triumphs, from the very beginning to the unusual end. This Boys Life will move the reader.
Book Review: Better than the Movie- a good read
Summary: 5 Stars
I was compelled to read this book after watching the movie recently on HBO. Since I liked the movie, I knew the book would even be better and would shed more light on the characters and this book did. The movie has skipped a lot of parts and have repackage the story to fit a cinematic format, but nevetheless, I thought the movie did a pretty decent job in adapting it to screen.
The book starts out with ten year Wolff and his mother stuck on the side of the road because their car has overheated again and while waiting for the engine to cool off, they witness a truck going over a cliff because it has lost its brake. The beginning is allegorical of their story as they struggled thru abusive men, poverty and self doubt. But once in a while Toby and his mother would have some happier times although brief and few. I admire how Wolff never second guess what happened between his mother and the men whom she had relationships with, including his own father. He just gave enough details that you have to come up with your own conclusion. It isn't a really a happy book and at times you feel an overwhelming pity for Toby and his mom and wished things would be better in the next chapter but it never really did. Their lives was a constatnt struggle. The only thing that seem to hold them is each other and the perpetual belief that something better is around the corner. It's funny how we tend to have this sweet, nostalgic picture of the 50's of a sturdy, working dad, mom in the kitchen getting the meal ready and strong, gorgeous, all american kids that say "awh shucks" and "gee Wally" a lot. I think "This Boy's Life" was how things really were for a lot of single,poor women and their earnest little boys. I love reading this book, I started it in the morning and finished it by the next afternoon, this is always a hallmark of a good book and a good author. I hope you read it and enjoy it as well.
Book Review: This Boy's Life
Summary: 5 Stars
Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life is an intriguing, realistic insight inside the mind of a struggling, adolescent boy. Wolff's portrayal of the frustrations and cruelities of growing up in a dysfunctional family is excellent, causing the reader to feel the pain he went through as a child. The author illustrates his own fight for his true identity and self-respect against the unrelenting hostility of a new stepfather. This story of a struggling family is exhilirating. The novel is darkly funny, but can also leave the reader feeling depressed to learn of such a sad childhood.Ten-year-old Toby and his divorced mother, Rosemary, are constantly on the move in order to escape Rosemary's violent boyfriend. Rosemary has had numerous relationships, but none of them work out. When they make the final move to Washington State, Rosemary meets a man named Dwight whom she eventually marries. Unknown to Rosemary, Dwight is an abusive liar. He forces Toby to join the Boy Scouts, take a job as a newspaper deliverer, and to do more than his share of chores around the house. In retaliation, Toby forges checks, steals cars, and gets in fights. Once, he even ran away to Alaska. Dwight was a major part in the downfall of young Toby.
Toby is an example of a tragic hero. He has the potential for greatness, but has a huge character flaw. Toby's character flaw is his decision-making. When life is tough, he tries to avoid it by forging checks and stealing cars. If Toby had made better choices, his childhodd would have been better and even his life today could be better.
This Boy's Life is an outstanding novel that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. The majority of the book is extremely well-written. However, the ending denies the reader of any pleasure of finality. This novel was intended for an audience looking for an enjoyable, yet depressing, real-life story.
Book Review: The Emergence of a Writer
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a very serious and entertaining autobiographical account of Tobias Wolff's early years.
He was greatly attached to his mother and managed to survive (with zest and resilience!!)
despite a cruel stepfather and some bizarre experiences. He appears to have had a strange
and determined tenacity of vision and an ability to mold fantasy into reality. The only reality
he was powerless to mold was an absent father and frequent uprootings.
"I imagined being adopted by different people I saw on the street. Sometimes, seeing a man
in a suit come towards me from a distance that blurred his features, I would prepare myself
to recognize my father and to be recognized by him. Then we would pass each other and a
few minutes later I would pick someone else. I talked to anyone who would talk back. When
the need came upon me, I knocked on the door of the nearest house and asked to use the
bathroom. No one ever refused. I sat in other people's yards and played with their dogs.
The dogs got to know me - - by the end of the year they'd be waiting for me." (P. 12-13)
Due to his intelligence, Mr. Wolff gets admitted into a prep school where he feels like a
failure. "I did not do well at Hill. How could I? I knew nothing. My ignorance was so pro-
found that entire class periods would pass without my understanding anything that was
said." (P 285). Mr. Wolff starts acting out oppositionally, preparing to become a juvenile
delinquent. He is well on that road when the book ends. The book leads the reader to
speculate how the mature Tobias Wolff emerged from this punk/hoodlum. Where did the
transition come into play? Perhaps this information is provided in the sequel which I
look forward to reading.
Book Review: Excellent Book
Summary: 5 Stars
This Boy's Life is a memoir of a vulnerable childhood in the mid 1950's. Toby, the main character has had a life full of trouble and grief. His mother and father are divorced, leaving him with his mother, Rosemary, while his brother and father live in Connecticut. Toby and his mother are always on the go and through this Toby and his mother become very close. They are trying to become new people and escape Troy, Toby's abusive stepfather. "It was 1955 and we were driving from Florida to Utah, to get away from a man my mother was afraid of..."(Wolff 4). The book carries you through various troubles that Toby and his mother get involved with; Toby commits a few schemes of his own along with it. The book is a very good read for teenagers and adults can also take something away from this memoir too. The majority of the book takes place in West Seattle in a low key community. "We lived in a boarding house...At Night if my mother wasn't to tired, we took walks around the neighborhood, stopping in front of different houses to consider them as candidates...the boarding house was full of old men and men who probably seemed old" (Wolff 37). Toby finds himself with a bad crowd of friends which gets him into trouble. He breaks cafeteria windows, nails some rich people's cars with eggs, and is just a thug when he is not around his mother. He is lost between his mother and the rest of the world.
I would definitely recommend this book to teenagers especially runs that have experienced some things like Toby such as abuse and always being on the go. The book draws you into many different situations that bring you to the heart of the moment. Although this book review may not be very convincing that this is a "must read", if you ever get to pick up the book you will be drawn to it in a snap of a finger.