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This Boy's Life: A Memoir | 
| Author: Tobias Wolff
Publisher: Grove Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $2.50
You Save: $12.45 (83%)
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Rating:  139 reviews
Sales Rank: 11673
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Grove Press Ed
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0802136680
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780802136688
ASIN: 0802136680
Publication Date: March 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy!
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Amazon.com Review
Fiction writer Tobias Wolff electrified critics with his scarifying 1989 memoir, which many deemed as notable for its artful structure and finely wrought prose as for the events it describes. The story is pretty grim: Teenaged Wolff moves with his divorced mother from Florida to Utah to Washington State to escape her violent boyfriend. When she remarries, Wolff finds himself in a bitter battle of wills with his abusive stepfather, a contest in which the two prove to be more evenly matched than might have been supposed. Deception, disguise, and illusion are the weapons the young man learns to employ as he grows up--not bad training for a writer-to-be. Somber though this tale of family strife is, it is also darkly funny and so artistically satisfying that most readers come away exhilarated rather than depressed.
Product Description
This unforgettable memoir, by one of our most gifted writers, introduces us to the young Toby Wolff, by turns tough and vulnerable, crafty and bumbling, and ultimately winning. Separated by divorce from his father and brother, Toby and his mother are constantly on the move, yet they develop an extraordinarily close, almost telepathic relationship. As Toby fights for identity and self-respect against the unrelenting hostility of a new stepfather, his experiences are at once poignant and comical, and Wolff does a masterful job of re-creating the frustrations and cruelties of adolescence. His various schemes - running away to Alaska, forging checks, and stealing cars - lead eventually to an act of outrageous self-invention that releases him into a new world of possibility.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 Obama Voter November 28, 2008
J. Stallings
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
When I encounter a dull book like this one that begs a reader's indulgence but offers nothing in exchange, that bores until the face hurts from yawning, I naturally assume the author is an Obama voter. But wait, now, wait. Let this special brand of author explain in his own words what I mean.
I quote the car-pooler, Toby, "When I see someone being rude to a waiter, or blocking the road in a Ford Expedition, or yakking loudly on a cell phone in a crowded elevator, I naturally assume they voted for George W. Bush." (Observer, Nov 16, 2008) And, in a forgeign newspaper. What a snake.
Toby's goofy comment suggests to me that the author has a mental disorder or, to quote Ford Expedition owners, "there's a screw loose."
But, if you want to be published and celebrated in the US, you have to sell your soul to the devil, which is an easy bargain when you are a self-aggrandizing, soul-poor Liberal like Toby. Or should I say, you have to let the publishing world know you are a party member. I give thanks to the devil for not permitting Toby to write a history textbook.
In begrudging defense of Tobe's syntax, maybe he was referring to Bush voters as sloppy waiters, poor people who can't afford FORD EXPEDITION cars or cell phones and, let's not forget, referring to buyers of books who live in the vast fly over land without need of elevators: 62 million voters who overwhelmingly preferred Bush to the Liberal can. Naaa!
Must read if you saw the movie September 5, 2008
J. Hoffman (Fort Myers, Fl)
I have seen the movie over and over and love it each time. It was great to read the actual events that happen and note what Hollywood produced. If you liked the movie the book is a must!
Stark portrait of life August 29, 2008
Book Clubber (Needham, MA)
Generally the type of book you'd read as a school assignment. Very period - in 50's, I think. Sad story of life as the child of a single mom who marries someone she thinks would be adequate father, even though she knew he wouldn't be a good husband. Not so! Somewhat happy ending....recommend reading if you love to read well-written stories, but definately a downer!
 Intriguing... April 6, 2008
Mr. Roger Sarkis (San Diego, CA)
The memoir is intriguing. Any male who reads this can, at some point, relate to the follies, plunders, and disappointments Wolff encounters during his adolescence. It is explicit and candid making for an interesting read.
absorbing and painful with moments of comic relief February 19, 2008
Robert W. (Santa Monica, CA)
I'm about 2/3rds through this, and I find it entirely absorbing. Wolff's writing talent is not in using fancy words or complex forms...just one sentence after another of perfectly pitched prose that feels entirely true and believable. He gains the reader's trust and empathy early on and never loses them, even though, in my case, I wasn't much interested in the details of his somewhat sordid and pathetic early years. I keep asking myself this holds my attention, while most memoirs by people I have a lot more in common with don't. (Not to sound like a snob, but guns, dogs, smoking, drinking, etc. have never been my thing.) I think the reason is that his writing seems entirely transparent, plus you care about him. postscript: I've finished it now and towards the end I was increasingly pained by how f**ked up a person Wolff is--or was. It's troubling and yet the writing is still transparent. You might say he gives us a God's eye view: if there is a force that knows everything and can look at all our failings, faults and mistakes with simultaneous compassion and dispassion, then I think such a Being would write up Wolff's early life in the way he himself wrote it. You get a feeling that there is no self-judging or constrictions and nothing to hide: just the truth, the all too human truth.
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