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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
I really enjoyed this book. Wolff is a fantastic writer!
dark
tense
medium-paced
I’m a big fan of coming-of-age works. This one was interesting, as it was the actual telling of a man’s childhood, as well as all the wonderful, terrible, and coincidentally-good things that seemed to happen throughout the course of it. Wolff’s upbringing was less than ideal regarding the stability of the family and communities he grew up in, yet that is the reality of life. He learned to play with the cards he was dealt, although sometimes that meant cheating every once and a while to get where he thought he needed to be. But, I suppose he was just trying to get by.
I don’t think I came away with many new insights - not that I wanted to or needed to. This story didn’t change me. I’m appreciative of it for what it was - a memoir.
The following quote from the end did catch my interest: “When we are green, still half-created, we believe that our dreams are rights, that the world is disposed to act in our best interests, and that falling and dying are for quitters. We live on the innocent and monstrous assurance that we alone, of all the people ever born, have a special arrangement where we will be allowed to stay green forever.”
I don’t think I came away with many new insights - not that I wanted to or needed to. This story didn’t change me. I’m appreciative of it for what it was - a memoir.
The following quote from the end did catch my interest: “When we are green, still half-created, we believe that our dreams are rights, that the world is disposed to act in our best interests, and that falling and dying are for quitters. We live on the innocent and monstrous assurance that we alone, of all the people ever born, have a special arrangement where we will be allowed to stay green forever.”
It's not very often that you find a memoir so morally ambiguous. I loved the moral complexities in such simple prose.
This is an entertaining window into a childhood at once extraordinary and, somehow, so very ordinary. It reminds me of the stories my father told me about his own youth.
This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff was really good. A memoir that gives an intimate look of a painful, strange, and wickedly funny childhood. The prose is short and sweet which makes it a very accessible read. Recommended.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Memoir as literary achievement. Real literature. I couldn’t put it down.
Reminds me of my students! Fantastic writer. Also wrote Bullet to the Brain.