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This Boy Life A Memoir Tobias Wolff 8601300426099 Books

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This Boy Life A Memoir Tobias Wolff 8601300426099 Books

As a boy Tobias Wolff and his mother moved west to seek their fortune and to escape an abusive man. They landed first in Utah, later in Seattle. In just a matter of months Wolff's mother has met and married another abusive man and moved Tobias deep into the Cascade Mountains where Dwight, his new stepfather, lives in a company town. In this remote environment Dwight is free to abuse Jack, as Wolff is known in his youth. And abuse is a constant in Wolff's young life. His stepfather has free reign, and Wolff's mother does little to reign in her husband's tirades.

The wild and dangerous setting of the mountains serves as a fitting background for Wolff's youth. His life in many ways mimics the scenery. It is lawless, it is amazing, and it has little connection to the outside world. Wolff's life is a test of wills, an assertion of wit and strength. His writing is lyrical and engaging. I was taken with his story from beginning to end.


Tags : This Boy's Life: A Memoir [Tobias Wolff] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The author chronicles the tumultuous events of his early life, discussing his parents' divorce, the nomadic wanderings with his mother that followed,Tobias Wolff,This Boy's Life: A Memoir,Grove Press,0802136680,Reading Group Guide,1945-,20th century,American authors,American authors;Biography.,Authors, American,Authors, American - 20th century,Authors, American;20th century;Biography.,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Literary Figures,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Personal Memoirs,Biography,Biography & Autobiography,Biography Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,Childhood and youth,English,GENERAL,General Adult,Literary,Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers,Literature: History & Criticism,Non-Fiction,Novels, other prose & writers: from c 1900 -,REFERENCE General,USA,United States,WOLFF, TOBIAS - PROSE & CRITICISM,Wolff, Tobias - Childhood and youth,Wolff, Tobias,,Biography & Autobiography Literary,Biography: Literary,Biography: general,Literary studies: from c 1900 -,Literature: History & Criticism,Novels, other prose & writers: from c 1900 -

This Boy Life A Memoir Tobias Wolff 8601300426099 Books Reviews

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.
I love memoirs, but this one was kind of hard for me to get through. I didn't find Tobias to be very likable as a youth. He seemed to be a liar and a trouble maker. I do feel for him because he was definitely mistreated by his step father, and maybe he acted out because of that. But overall, I didn't find myself cheering for the writer as I normally do with memoirs. I liked the writing style but the story itself was hard for me.
This book provides a wealth of information about the early life of the author. He is open, honest and straightforward about his struggles and his achievements, as well as the actions for which he has remorse. The only reason I cave 4 instead of 5 stars, is that although he does an exemplary job of fleshing out a portrait of his younger self, he leaves the other characters in his life story lacking depth and nuance. All in all, I enjoyed this book and would say that it is well worth the read.
Wolff seemed to have so little going for him no real home life, no guidance or stability, no strong foundation for a sense of self. Yet, he ultimately gained well-earned recognition as a great writer. I suspect the act of writing -- the desire to make sense of a chaotic world through honest analysis of emotion-- served to save and sustain him in life. This is a tough, well-written memoir.
Tobias Wolff is sure that "everything was going to change when we got out West." And so the boy tags along on the peregrinations of his adventuresome mother. Her intention is to find peace within herself, and a place for herself and her son within a wider world equally intent on allowing them anything but that.

Autobiographical, gritty realism, and wonderful story-telling. Lacks the bravado, the self-importance, and the claustrophobia of the usual coming-of-age novel. Spare, naive, irreverent, haunting the devastatingly lonely, yet hopeful, journey of a boy on the road to becoming a man, even if accidentally.

This was my first book by Wolff. He now has five on my shelf.
Have you ever noticed how, in the bleakest of controversies, there is, most of the time, a great hero waiting at the light of the end of the tunnel?

This Boy's Life is exactly that a story of a "Prodigal Son" who, after causing much harm to the society around him--with much harm having been done to him--not only became a better man, but also met a better life with his changed, saved heart from above!

I'll compare the novel version of This Boy's Life to the 1993 film adaptation, starring young adult Leonardo DiCaprio as the book's author, Tobias "Toby" Wolff, a literature professor and, in addition, author of many other books and short stories. I saw the film before I read the book, which made both easier to understand, and I'll make sure I don't spoil anything for you!

In This Boy's Life, we not only see most of the same scenarios presented in the film, but many "in-between" stories as well, not present for the film Tobias Wolff's Catholic upbringing, and the impact it had in eventually reforming Mr. Wolff, after he had traded in his religion (not officially, but by means of being a non-practicing Catholic) for popularity--and authority--among his classmates and "friends" some of whom remained true to the end, and others of whom didn't. We learn more detail of his mother Rosemary's relationship with her stalkerish boyfriend Roy--how the relationship began, how it ended, and the details behind the chemistry Ellen Barkin and Chris Cooper shared onscreen chemistry that was very profound on behalf of the two actors, but partially incomplete when it comes to restriction in detail that film knows, which literature doesn't. As Mr. Wolff reveals, his parents were divorced at a very young age, and his childhood was by no means easy, only getting to speak with his father and brother Geoffrey on very rare occasions (more as he became an adult) and dealing with the most mentally unstable father figures around him, including Roy and, more notably, Dwight the monster Robert De Niro recreated for us on the big screen with his "tough guy" looks and personality, previously revealed beforehand in films such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and much, much more.

And it is in the telling of young Mr. Wolff's and Rosemary's relationships with Dwight that make This Boy's Life a page-turner--hard to put down when you have work to do and impatient to get back to when you're reading a part of the book that does not at all talk about Dwight. For me, the secret to this enjoyment was thinking of the DiCaprio-De Niro chemistry as Wolff-Dwight, and remembering what they have in common they are both, next to Harvey Keitel, the most frequent moles of Martin Scorsese! Yet, their characters are completely different from one another--the former of which was not yet true of DiCaprio when the book and film were released.

I give accolades to Tobias Wolff for the simple fact that, as the author, he makes the "two sides of the story" between himself and Dwight clearly and perfectly known. Dwight was, by no means, a man who deserved the benefit of the doubt his ways of correction were very evil, as Mr. Wolff reveals in profound detail. However, Wolff himself was in need of correction, as a so-called "juvenile delinquent," and it is this so-called truth which makes the details of Wolff's relationship with Dwight so fascinating to read we know both men were wrong, yet we're on Wolff's side--we empathize with him, because we were (or are) young and know what it means to succumb to peer pressure--and we know that, underneath it all, Wolff had a truly good heart, even if it was not necessarily applied. We all know who the hero turns out to be, which another plus to the true story is, and so we can enjoy without feeling guilty we all know how it ended and, as one of my favorite Christian authors, Randy Alcorn, has said; the conflict we avoid in life is the same conflict we enjoy in story! Yes, in This Boy's Life; Tobias Wolff owns up to all his faults as a youth; and not only gives us a more honest picture of himself, but also a more honest picture of Dwight a man who had a good intention in wanting to correct a young "juvenile delinquent," but went about it the completely wrong way, using passive aggression and even physical abuse to correct. Once in my life, I was a troublemaker teen, and I saw the same kind of "correction" from my own stepparent. For those of you who have been in the same boat with me, you know how it feels, and it is that same redemption--as well as hope--that prevails in This Boy's Life.

I highly encourage you to pay close attention to the differences between how Tobias Wolff portrays his mother Rosemary, and how Ellen Barkin--at the screenwriting of Robert Getchell and direction of Michael Caton-Jones--portrayed her. I'll put in a fun fact to paint the picture I want to give you before Ms. Barkin was signed onto play Caroline, Debra Winger originally had the part! If you've ***seen*** This Boy's Life, you remember how submissive Caroline was to Dwight, which makes it incredibly hard not to laugh at the idea of an actress outspoken as Ms. Winger portraying her and to an actor outspoken as Robert De Niro! As Tobias Wolff himself presents, however, Rosemary, while submissive, was also quick to stand up for her young son Tobias (referred to as Toby), even if not all the time. Rosemary is another hero of This Boy's Life, and if you enter into the novel with the same foreknowledge I had before even entering into the film, I think you'll have fun comparing the two Caroline's we meet, one in literature and one in film.

For those of you who yearn for a better life, and those of you who have already been given a better life (past the one you previously had), This Boy's Life is a book to read and to remember.
As a boy Tobias Wolff and his mother moved west to seek their fortune and to escape an abusive man. They landed first in Utah, later in Seattle. In just a matter of months Wolff's mother has met and married another abusive man and moved Tobias deep into the Cascade Mountains where Dwight, his new stepfather, lives in a company town. In this remote environment Dwight is free to abuse Jack, as Wolff is known in his youth. And abuse is a constant in Wolff's young life. His stepfather has free reign, and Wolff's mother does little to reign in her husband's tirades.

The wild and dangerous setting of the mountains serves as a fitting background for Wolff's youth. His life in many ways mimics the scenery. It is lawless, it is amazing, and it has little connection to the outside world. Wolff's life is a test of wills, an assertion of wit and strength. His writing is lyrical and engaging. I was taken with his story from beginning to end.