Rating: 
Summary: The pinnacle of the short story writer's art.
Review: "The Night in Question" is one of the best short story collections I've ever read. Tobias Wolff understands fully what F. Scott Fitzgerald meant when he said, "Action is character." Wolff takes the reader's breath away not through twists of plot, but through his extensive knowledge of the human mind and heart, and how different minds and hearts work at cross-purposes. He knows the dirty little secret behind every human existence: because we are not each other, we betray each other. He knows why, in the title story, a woman is deeply offended by a sermon while her recovering alcoholic brother finds it completely inspiring; he knows why, in "Firelight," a woman can't wait to flee an apartment she came to see about renting, while her young son wants to stay there forever. Wolff is a master at following the labyrinthine mental paths people take to justify their actions to themselves, to the point where much madness makes divinest sense. I found myself crying, "Fool! Fool!" at Wiley, the self-deluding, lovelorn protagonist of "The Life of the Body," and my jaw dropped at the superbly ironic final sentence of "The Chain," a brilliantly original variant of Patricia Highsmith's "Strangers on a Train." Above all, Wolff understands the profound isolation of being a human soul trapped in an individual body; at one time or another, everyone has felt like Joyce, the main character of "Migraine," that, "In fact, everyone was alone all the time, but when you got sick you knew it, and that was a lot of what suffering was--knowing." These stories deserve to be anthologized forever and taught in every serious school of writing in this country.
Rating:
Summary: The pinnacle of the short story writer's art.
Review: "The Night in Question" is one of the best short story collections I've ever read. Tobias Wolff understands fully what F. Scott Fitzgerald meant when he said, "Action is character." Wolff takes the reader's breath away not through twists of plot, but through his extensive knowledge of the human mind and heart, and how different minds and hearts work at cross-purposes. He knows the dirty little secret behind every human existence: because we are not each other, we betray each other. He knows why, in the title story, a woman is deeply offended by a sermon while her recovering alcoholic brother finds it completely inspiring; he knows why, in "Firelight," a woman can't wait to flee an apartment she came to see about renting, while her young son wants to stay there forever. Wolff is a master at following the labyrinthine mental paths people take to justify their actions to themselves, to the point where much madness makes divinest sense. I found myself crying, "Fool! Fool!" at Wiley, the self-deluding, lovelorn protagonist of "The Life of the Body," and my jaw dropped at the superbly ironic final sentence of "The Chain," a brilliantly original variant of Patricia Highsmith's "Strangers on a Train." Above all, Wolff understands the profound isolation of being a human soul trapped in an individual body; at one time or another, everyone has felt like Joyce, the main character of "Migraine," that, "In fact, everyone was alone all the time, but when you got sick you knew it, and that was a lot of what suffering was--knowing." These stories deserve to be anthologized forever and taught in every serious school of writing in this country.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent short literature
Review: First let me just state that the whole of The Night In Question by Tobias Wolff is really great. Each story is written in such a way that you feel like someone really familiar is just talking to you -- face to face -- and you don't want to leave.Second, if you can't read the whole book of short stories for some reason (you would really need a good one), then you need to spend some time reading the last story in the collect, Bullet in the Brain. I read this story in another collection of short stories by contemporary authors, and it's always been in the back of my head as one of the best. I just finished reading The Night in Question, and Bullet in the Brain was the ending of Wolff's collection. Having the chance to read the story again without seeking it out was great. Essentially, Bullet in the Brain is about a man who just can't shut-up during a bank robbery. But then the ending pretty much slaps you in the face because Wolff took one incident that would basically end any story and just moves it right along. I would have to tell the ending of the short story in order to explain this -- and I really don't want to -- but believe me, it's the most creative and interesting ending to a short story like itself. I was lucky enough to see a reading performed by Wolff at my university, and I will never forget the author's ease with the audience, and his smooth readings. Like he knew us all, and we knew him, and the story he wrote was meant just for us.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent short literature
Review: First let me just state that the whole of The Night In Question by Tobias Wolff is really great. Each story is written in such a way that you feel like someone really familiar is just talking to you -- face to face -- and you don't want to leave. Second, if you can't read the whole book of short stories for some reason (you would really need a good one), then you need to spend some time reading the last story in the collect, Bullet in the Brain. I read this story in another collection of short stories by contemporary authors, and it's always been in the back of my head as one of the best. I just finished reading The Night in Question, and Bullet in the Brain was the ending of Wolff's collection. Having the chance to read the story again without seeking it out was great. Essentially, Bullet in the Brain is about a man who just can't shut-up during a bank robbery. But then the ending pretty much slaps you in the face because Wolff took one incident that would basically end any story and just moves it right along. I would have to tell the ending of the short story in order to explain this -- and I really don't want to -- but believe me, it's the most creative and interesting ending to a short story like itself. I was lucky enough to see a reading performed by Wolff at my university, and I will never forget the author's ease with the audience, and his smooth readings. Like he knew us all, and we knew him, and the story he wrote was meant just for us.
Rating:
Summary: I Wouldn't Change a Comma
Review: For fans of Raymond Carver, who wonder how his prose might have evolved had he not died in 1988, "The Night In Question" provides a possible glimpse. Wolff and Carver's close friendship is well-documented. And although Wolff is his own man and my favorite living writer, I believe that there's a tangible link between Carver's final stories, such as "Blackbird Pie" and "Errand," and Wolff's recent work. Wolff keeps Carver's legacy alive in a totally original, compelling way. I have read "The Night In Question" no less than four times. I have listened to the abridged audio version (abridged in the number of stories only) 7 times. There is a sheer mastery of the short story form here that astounds me. Bob Dylan once said of Gordon Lightfoot: "Every time I hear a Gordon Lightfoot song, I wish it would never end." I can imagine Carver saying the same thing about Wolff, for similar reasons. This book makes a great gift and is required reading for anyone serious about the art and craft of short fiction. I wished every story would never end.
Rating:
Summary: I Wouldn't Change a Comma
Review: For fans of Raymond Carver, who wonder how his prose might have evolved had he not died in 1988, "The Night In Question" provides a possible glimpse. Wolff and Carver's close friendship is well-documented. And although Wolff is his own man and my favorite living writer, I believe that there's a tangible link between Carver's final stories, such as "Blackbird Pie" and "Errand," and Wolff's recent work. Wolff keeps Carver's legacy alive in a totally original, compelling way. I have read "The Night In Question" no less than four times. I have listened to the abridged audio version (abridged in the number of stories only) 7 times. There is a sheer mastery of the short story form here that astounds me. Bob Dylan once said of Gordon Lightfoot: "Every time I hear a Gordon Lightfoot song, I wish it would never end." I can imagine Carver saying the same thing about Wolff, for similar reasons. This book makes a great gift and is required reading for anyone serious about the art and craft of short fiction. I wished every story would never end.
Rating:
Summary: I Wouldn't Change a Comma
Review: For fans of Raymond Carver, who wonder how his prose might have evolved had he not died in 1988, "The Night In Question" provides a possible glimpse. Wolff and Carver's close friendship is well-documented. And although Wolff is his own man and my favorite living writer, I believe that there's a tangible link between Carver's final stories, such as "Blackbird Pie" and "Errand," and Wolff's recent work. Wolff keeps Carver's legacy alive in a totally original, compelling way. I have read "The Night In Question" no less than four times. I have listened to the abridged audio version (abridged in the number of stories only) 7 times. There is a sheer mastery of the short story form here that astounds me. Bob Dylan once said of Gordon Lightfoot: "Every time I hear a Gordon Lightfoot song, I wish it would never end." I can imagine Carver saying the same thing about Wolff, for similar reasons. This book makes a great gift and is required reading for anyone serious about the art and craft of short fiction. I wished every story would never end.
Rating: 
Summary: My great pleasure of your appreciation.
Review: I am pleased to see the fruits of my labor being analyzed so in depth. It gives me such satisfaction in what I do,
and it urges me to continue my work. If anyone is wondering why it took me so long to complete the compilation, I have
your answer. It takes me a long time time to write a story because I refuse to use the wrong words, words that
somehow r[i]ng false. I am determined not only to make the words emotionally true but technically true as well, that is, commensurate, concise, and strong. I thought you deserved my comments, for they are my reaction to your great appreciation. Thank you. -Tobias Wolff
Rating:
Summary: Compelling, beautiful
Review: I am such an enthusiastic reader of all Tobias Wolff's books, especially "In Pharaoh's Army", that I have chosen to translate half of "The "Night in Question" as part of my exam in my Paris University, subject "Literary translation from English into French". I would appreciate to get in touch with the author, to ask him, whether I need it, precisions, or his agreement, about my translation. Can somebody help me to get in touch with him (maybe Tobias Wolff himself ?). Thanks a lot. Anne-Marie
Rating:
Summary: Durn good readin
Review: I usually find story collections more difficult to read than novels or non-fiction. It's jarring to emerge from one story, and then be expect to plunge right into the next. Learn new characters, understand the new basis of another story. So I'm usually biased against story collections from the beginning. That said, I really, really liked "The Night in Question" by Tobias Wolff. All of the stories in this collection are crisply written, highly entertaining, and oddly satisfying despite all the missed connections, shattered illusions, and the other myriad vagrancies of life presented therein. Some are bound to be classics. I think "Firelight," "Flyboy," and "Mortals" are three such stories. There are flaws in this collection. "Bullet in the Brain," for example, relies on an absurd and unbelievable set of character actions to advance the plot. Basically, a theater critic ridicules an armed bank robber for showing such bad taste and robbing in such a cliché fashion that the bank robber shoots the critic, starting off the real part of the story, the synaptic explosions that jar loose a final, poignant memory. But these flaws are minor. It's a durn good book, and if you like good readin', you'll read this.
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