This Boy's Life: A Memoir by Tobias Wolff
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Book Reviews of This Boy's Life: A Memoir
Book Review: Best Book I've Ever Read
Summary: 5 Stars
I would love to say this book made me want to be a writer. But the chronology is all wrong. I'm nearly seventy and have just read it, and I have been writing for the past 50 years. However there is a quality her that transcends fiction, nonfiction, time and it even transcends identity. Wolff presents this memoir of his youth, not like an adult looking back or a child seeing ahead, but as an experience readers live as if it were happening to us. And it is.
I had seen the DeNiro film and it is excellent. But this is Great Expectations, Catcher in the Rye, Huckleberry Finn without straining to be any of those masterpieces. I don't know how Tobias Wolff can capture such nuances of past events in words but I want to write until I learn how. No, even if I never do, let me admit to you, I don't have to. Because Wolff's childhood is more real to me than my own.
- John Lehman, Rosebud Book Reviews.com
Book Review: An escape from poverty and mediocrity to success
Summary: 5 Stars
Tobias Wolff was stuck at Concrete High School in the sticks, living with his divorced mother and, eventually, an abusive stepfather, while his brother Geoffrey, who was raised by his father, attended an exclusive prep school and an Ivy League university. Tobias eventually became a professor, and so his tome is better written than his brother's, The Duke of Deception: Memories of My Father. Particularly unforgettable are his account of a friendship with a somewhat effeminate but pugnacious classmate and his description of the supreme act of self-invention through forged documents which won him entry into his brother's more fortunate world. His visits with an indifferent and often insolvent father are also memorable. As a writer of a published memoir, Living Among The Swiss, which is also listed on this website, I can recommend Tobias's work as an especially entertaining and readable example of the genre.Book Review: This Boy's Life
Summary: 5 Stars
I just finished the book This Boy's Life, by Tobias Wolff. I thought it was a really good book. It was my first memoir, and I think it was a great choice. Personally, I don't think many girls would like this book that much. The book is based upon a boy's life, and includes a lot of "boyish" content. This book isn't just one genre. It's like a diary, memoir,action, and adventure all in one. I enjoyed the way the author combined all of these genre and qualities, because together it made up one really great book. I liked reading a "true story," especially on based upon life in the 1950's. The way the whole book was written helps me create a clear picture in my head while reading it. I would recommend this book to people who are interested in how life was in the 1950's, and someone who likes a book full of different genres.Book Review: Excellent memoir
Summary: 5 Stars
I hate people like Tobias Wolff. He's the kind of writer you just want to be like more than anything, but you can not master his style, it's one of a kind. This is a suspensful story, full of tense moments when you don't know if Dwight is going to start beating him or if the store clerk is going to bust him for forging a check. This is just so well written that I can not possibly find one flaw, it's just impossible. His writing is superb and his memoirs are brilliant. Read this and his collections of short stories, most notably "The Night In Question" and "Back In The World." Then when you're done reading those, read them again because they deserve to be read more than once. But of course, if you read them, you'll understand what I'm talking about and you won't needmy recommendation to read them again.Book Review: Excellent memoir
Summary: 5 Stars
I hate people like Tobias Wolff. He's the kind of writer you just want to be like more than anything, but you can not master his style, it's one of a kind. This is a suspensful story, full of tense moments when you don't know if Dwight is going to start beating him or if the store clerk is going to bust him for forging a check. This is just so well written that I can not possibly find one flaw, it's just impossible. His writing is superb and his memoirs are brilliant. Read this and his collections of short stories, most notably "The Night In Question" and "Back In The World." Then when you're done reading those, read them again because they deserve to be read more than once. But of course, if you read them, you'll understand what I'm talking about and you won't need my recommendation to read them again.