This Boy's Life: A Memoir by Tobias Wolff
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Book Reviews of This Boy's Life: A Memoir
Book Review: Unforgettable!
Summary: 5 Stars
This Boy's Life is a remarkable memoir of a boy growing up in the 1950s. Toby Wolff presents himself as tough and mean, yet he is neither of these things. The story follows the boy's personal struggles and triumphs, while a mother who is always on the move and with a different man is raising him. Not only does his mother choose men that treat her wrong, but she eventually marries a man that has absolutely no respect for Toby or her. Catching the reader's attention and staying consistently entertaining is one of the most successful traits of this book. The plot draws the reader into the story in a hypnotic way. And the author mischievously connects the reader to the story by bringing up reminiscent thoughts of every reader's own rebellious adolescent stage. The honesty and reality of the memoir is the reason why it is a success, which pleases each reader in their own personal way. It seems hard to believe that the young rebellious boy in the story has grown up to become such a profound author as Tobias Wolff. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys coming of age stories. It is truly a gem.Book Review: This Boy's Life- Tobias Wolff
Summary: 5 Stars
This Boy's Life is a captivating book filled with the personal struggles, triumphs, and experiences of Tobias, a young boy trying to find his way in a harsh, unfair world. Tobias is constantly on the run with his mother, who always seems to meet men who make Toby's life miserable. One of them is Dwight. He hates Toby, and tries to make his life unbearable. Toby struggles with peer pressure, getting in trouble for various criminal acts such as writing obscene phrases on bathroom walls.One of the only drawbacks of this book is its ending. The book comes to a conclusion a little too quickly in comparison with the rest of the book; however this is more than compensated for by the quality of writing in This Boy's Life. Tobias Wolff does an incredible job of portraying the world he grew up in, providing detailed descriptions of events in his journey from Florida to Western Washington with his mother. Tobias's journey in this book is not only a cross-country trek, but an inner struggle to straighten his life out and find himself before it is too late.
Book Review: Brilliant Sensitive Boy Survives a Nincompoop Stepfather
Summary: 5 Stars
Tobias Wolff's classic memoir has all the elements of a fairy tale: a brilliant boy has the great misfortune of having an evil, simian, philistine stepfather impose his hate and ignorance on poor, almost helpless Tobias who, living with his mother and new family, endures a torture that resembles a noble character being oppressed in an evil castle. Tobias' stepfather Dwight is so frustrated and enraged by his own incompetence that he needs a scapegoat. And who should it be? His stepson Toby of course. This memoir pits the bright young Toby against his evil stepfather in a collision that has more drama than most novels. Tobias Wolff is so sharp that he is able to put his memoir in the context of The Great Gatsby and show a young man and his mother searching for identity and the American Dream of Eternal Self-Reinvention. We see Tobias grow up and become someone of great strength and humanity in spite of his malice- and rancor-filled stepfather in what is a highly compelling story of survival, wit, and struggling into young adulthood.Book Review: This Boy's Life
Summary: 5 Stars
I was required to read this book for a literature course and really loved it. This book is so interesting and captivating considering it is about the true life of a young boy. There are so many difficult times and situations that Tobias Wolff was forced to go through throughout his life that made him the man he is today. "This Boy's Life" is such a good read and definitely worth the time. It is very interesting to read this book knowing that it is written by a successful college professor, and see how the hardships and terrible things he had to experience in his young life brought him to who he is today. It is amazing how someone can pull through as much as he did and turn his whole life around. I enjoyed reading this book and learning the experiences of Tobias Wolff as he grew up. Tobias Wolff is definitely someone that can be looked upon in life and I recommend everyone to read his book. The transformation that Wolff made, despite his childhood, is so inspiring and life changing.Book Review: A memoir
Summary: 5 Stars
The first thing that struck me as amazing about this book and its author was how sincere and truthful they both are. We all have things about our lives that we try desperately to hide, and the story of our lives just become one major event after another, (I was born, I went to school, I got a job, I got married, I had kids). We forget that what we did between all those things, the positive and the negative, is what makes our lives complete. To reveal all those ugly facts about ourselves requires great skill and courage, which this book and author demonstrates. When a friend asked Ernest Hemingway to write memoir of his life, he replied, "But my career, my career." Even the great Hemingway, whom Tobias Wolff admires, did not have the courage to reveal his life with the same truth and sincerity as Tobias Wolff. In writing this book, the authors has reached a level that not many people of the world share together.