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A review by kawai
Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories by Tobias Wolff
5.0
Trumps all other modern collected works I've read so far, including O'Connor and Hemingway.
Wolff has a gift for rendering the intense minimally, which maximizes the after effects; when coupled with his deep insight into human nature and ability to compress situations to their most important moments, the result is a near-perfect collection.
If the collection lacks one thing, it's as diverse a range of settings and characters as I'd hope for. Stories containing people of color are few and far between (if any); the socioeconomic class tends towards the lower middle class (or even lower); setting is more often than not a standard American scape; few women rise to prominent positions, with most action directed by men.
Still, none of that is to say the collection doesn't have a massive set of merits. It's a new favorite on my shelf.
Wolff has a gift for rendering the intense minimally, which maximizes the after effects; when coupled with his deep insight into human nature and ability to compress situations to their most important moments, the result is a near-perfect collection.
If the collection lacks one thing, it's as diverse a range of settings and characters as I'd hope for. Stories containing people of color are few and far between (if any); the socioeconomic class tends towards the lower middle class (or even lower); setting is more often than not a standard American scape; few women rise to prominent positions, with most action directed by men.
Still, none of that is to say the collection doesn't have a massive set of merits. It's a new favorite on my shelf.