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Summary: One Crazy Life
Review: If you ever thought your life or family was crazy, you must read This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff. It is a memoir that is written in an eventful narrative format.
Jack Wolff is a boy who has one unusual life. He smokes, drinks, vandalizes, and steals. That is, however, until he is forced to move from Seattle to Chinook, with his new step-father, Dwight. Dwight turns out to be an abusive drunk, who will change Jack's life forever.
Rosemary, Jacks mom, is constantly in and out of depression. She meets Dwight and they get married less than 5 months later. Dwight has three kids of his one, two daughters and a son, who are all the complete opposite of Jack. Jack likes to go out and cause trouble, while Dwight's kids have been brought up in a very strict environment.
Jack and his mom desperately want to get away from Dwight's abusive behavior. However, once Dwight finds out they want to leave, he threatens Rosemary with her life. He says that if she ever left him he would slit her throat.
This is where the fun begins. Jack starts to think of many different ways to get away from Dwight. He comes up with some crazy but sometimes very well thought out ideas. One of his crazy ideas was to run away to Alaska with his best friend Arthur. Once they get to Alaska and set up a "camp" he plans on sending for his mom to come and live with him. Another plan is to go to a prep school in California by himself. Once he graduates from this prep school he wants to have his mom run away from Dwight and start a new life with her first husband, Jack's dad. However, these ideas are very hard to do and he never does run away to Alaska. When he tries to get into Hill he runs into many problems that seem unsolvable.
Though Jack's life is tough, he finds ways to be happy at times. However, will he ever get away from Dwight.
This book will keep you reading. Though it is not suspenseful, it is very eventful with Jack running into new things every turn of the way.
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Summary: got it for christmas.
Review: if you give an author a piece of yarn, he will weave you a story.
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Summary: Interesting perspective on early dysfunctional families
Review: In this memoir, author Tobias Wolff tells his story of growing up in the 1950s. He begins at age 10, five years after the breakup of his parents' marriage, when he and his mother are heading West to escape from one of her boyfriends and to start a new life. From this point on, the book details their struggles, which revolve around two main (and clearly related) themes: their financial difficulties and the conflicts which arise with the various men who appear in their lives.The majority of the book centers around a period when Tobias (or Jack, as he was known then) and his mother live with Dwight, a man his mother married in an attempt to keep Jack out of trouble. To some extent, Wolff attempts to portray Dwight as all-bad, but like all people, Dwight is simply flawed. His positive efforts to help Jack are often wiped out by his subsequent negative behavior--e.g., he helps Jack get a paper route but then spends Jack's money without his knowledge, he encourages Jack to become a Boy Scout but won't complete the paperwork to allow him to become an Eagle Scout, etc. Jack's family life was dysfunctional well before the term ever existed. I read this book after seeing a reference to it in another memoir, Alice Sebold's Lucky. Like Sebold, Wolff tells his own story with a largely dispassionate voice and very simple language, both of which dilute the impact of his words somewhat. His emotions more clearly shine through when he mentions what his past brought to his current life, but unfortunately, he does not do this very often. Furthermore, Wolff gives the reader only a small glimpse of what the future holds in store for Jack, which I found to be frustrating. Overall, this was a compelling memoir, but it left me wanting more than what Wolff offered.
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Summary: I love this Story
Review: It has been about 10 years since I've read this book. First, my Freshman High School teacher read it out loud to us, and then she got it on the Sophmore reading list. I laughed out loud, and wondered at the world of boys (has it really changed all that much?) I think Mr. Wolff has a talent for writing "boys" stories and though it maybe exagerated at times, nonetheless has a great feel to it.
I really recommend it for all ages.
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Summary: Among the very best of memoirs
Review: It seems presumptuous to write a review of this book. It's capable of standing alone, selling forever, and being widely and deeply admired without anyone ever writing another review of it. Published in 1989, This Boy's Life is a memoir of Tobias Wolff's grim teenage years in which he is pitted in a battle of wills against his abusive stepfather. The intelligence and deception employed by the child prove a nearly equal match against the cruelty of the adult in this equation. In exquisite prose, Wolff leavens the grisly reality with dark humor, and readers are surprised, considering the subject matter, to find themselves not depressed overall, but uplifted.
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Summary: A Haunting Memoir
Review: My first Wolff book, Old School, was disappointing thanks in part to all I had heard about Mr. Wolff's writing. I appreciated the good writing but was disapointed in the plot line, so vowed to pick this book up and give Mr. Wolff another try. I was very pleased I did.
One's first thought after reading this book is: How could someone with such a messed up up-bringing turn out so well? It must be like the blues - you have to have a tough youth to make it in the memoir category.
This is the story of Mr. Wolff's youth where he follows his mother from one abusive man to another. Much of the book is centered on the years with his first step-father who is: a) a drunk; b) abusive to him; and, c) constantly accuses him of being a liar, a fraud and a cheat in one form or another. It turns out that the step-father is right. However, most of the time young Wolff gets away with his drinking, stealing and fraud, thanks in part to his mother's belief he can do no wrong.
One of the most impressive things about this memoir is that Wolff gives himself no quarter. Not only does he recognize the bad things he does, he recognizes his bad motives and bad thoughts - even those that do not get acted upon. He is brutally honest about himself. Also, without saying outright, he recognizes his mother's weakness in picking men.
Again, Mr. Wolff's writing is terrific. It is fittingly stark for the portrayal of the subject matter. The descriptions of the other characters in his life and Chinook and Concrete (the towns in which he lived and went to high school, respectively) draw a perfect picture.
This memoir is well worth the time. It will stay with you for long after the reading.
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Summary: This Boy's Life: A Memior by Tobias Wolff
Review: The novel This Boy's Life may sound dull since it is a memoir of a teenager which doesn't catch too many readers attention. As they say, don't judge a book by it's cover(or title). This non-fictional narrative is a true life story about a rebellious boy's vitality in his teenage years. As people continue to read the novel, they will feel as if they are an actual part of the story. Most actually feel an emotional connection with the main character in the story.
Tobias Wolff, the main character, is the insubordinate character in the story. He is a violent teenager who tries to find his own sense of self, but has trouble accomplishing this goal. His insecurities aren't helped by the environment in which he inhabits in. Even though his habits are not the right habits to have, he is persistent in trying to become an alteration of his old self so he could grow out of his un-functional environment. His many efforts and attempts to become a picture perfect person are impossible because of his abusive step father Dwight and other events that always seemed to get in his way. Despite Tobias's stepfather, he manages with his schemes to get away from the life he hated and the person he hated with it.
Jack is the name that the main character Tobias Wolff went by. Jack always wanted to be different because he was always known as the screw up and the misfit in the isolated town Chinook. His mother, Rosemary, deals with her trails after being repeatedly being threatened by her most recent husband Dwight. Rosemary often gets bored with things easily which explains her sometimes odd behavior in the story. Before settling down with Dwight, she was a person who often searched for a new adventure. Dwight was the step father and husband of Jack and his mother. He had three children already with his former wife. It would seem that since Dwight has had experience raising children that his tactics didn't seem to be very well developed. He was abusive to his son and wife and never let anything go. The children weren't a key role in the story and aren't mentioned as much as other characters.
The question is whether or not Jack will ever get away of his home and find the person that he truly is in the real world. He has chances to leave and that's to be accepted by another school away from the west coast. He receives all his forms and does all the paper work and now he just has to wait and see what happens.
The ending of the book was a little disappointing. It happened fast and didn't elaborate enough on the finishing events. It turned out well and was very realistic. The thin novel could answer questions about other people's lives that may not have it as well as others do and can relate to many situations in people's lives. Overall, it was an exceptional book and would be recommended to many.
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Summary: Pretty Good..A Bit Boring
Review: This book was pretty good but boring at times. This ISN'T one of those books where you say 'It was better than the movie!'. The movie, This Boy's Life, with Leo Dicaprio and Robert De Niro in it, is much better.
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Summary: About a Boy
Review: This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff is the true story of a boy who survived a horrible childhood. This book mixes humor with sadness and can be an inspiration for anybody with a life goal.
In this book the main character has to survive a rough childhood in the 1950's. He endures constantly moving, separation from his father and brother, an abusive stepfather, and a bad high school experience. This is about the hardships some have to endure before they're old enough to understand.
This book can put a person in the mind of the boy and gives insight on a child who wouldn't give up. His goals were to achieve social status and to some day make a name for himself. This is the story of someone who was willing to do whatever it took to come out on top.
He tries and tries to become better. Every time he moves or meets someone new, he presented himself differently than ever before. He wanted so much just to be cool, and he refused to become discouraged. He had a never ending supply of motivation he kept drawing from.
This book is so much more than a simple tale of an unhappy boy, but a glorious telling of a victorious young man trying to make something of himself in the world. This is about how someone, anyone, can make their dream come true.
There's no such thing as impossible, only the currently unattainable. Most people take a lifetime to realize that it's okay to accomplish a goal you set. They can't understand it's alright to reward themselves for the little things. But Toby found that it's alright to have a goal you want to accomplish before he was through with high school.
It's such a moving, heartbreaking book. It isn't just the story of a childhood, but an example of triumph and failure, victory and defeat, succeeding and falling short. This is the story of a man who prevailed not just because he was great, but because he managed to survive.
Anybody who has ever wanted something, but was too afraid to go after it, this book is for you.
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Summary: UNFORGETABLE
Review: This Boy's Life is a definite classic memior that finds its place next to On the Road and Huckleberry and Finn. With reguvinating prose, Tobias Wolff recounts his horrors and classic moments of youth. Forced to marry a man suitable for his mother and Tobias, Tobias finds himself stuck in a dead end situatation between his father. But trapped in a small town of Concrete, he learns the escape of happiness and genuine look at life. I rate this with 5 stars. This book is great and emotional, unforgetably, touching.
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