Customer Reviews

Old School

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mr. Wolff's writing is superb. By far it is the best part of this book. Unfortunately, what plot there was was thin as well as the character/narrator. There were passages that made reference to narrator's supposed awakenings and new awareness of his self, but I frankly did not see much progress in him.

Parts of the book read as if essays had been patched together. There is an interesting portion of the book devoted to a dean of the school that did not move the plot forward nor give any greater understanding of the narrator. It was probably the best part of the book and the only character delved into with any depth. However, it seemed unrelated to the story line - such as it was - and did not lead to any greater understanding of the narrator.

Another portion of the book related to plagiarism. It suddenly happened, was explored very little and seemed to be passed over as a minor incident in the narrator's life. Again, it seemed like an essay patched into the book.

As can be seen by the book descriptions, much of the book centers around authors who would visit the school. Students competed to write the winning story or poem. Much of the descriptions and excerpts from these young authors were cleverly done and amusing - not in a comedic sense but in how they related to the celebrity author's works.

One aspect of the book I found to be extremely presumptuous. Three authors were came, or were to come to the school: Frost, Rand and Hemingway. Mr. Wolff gives them pages of monologue (especially Frost and Rand) in which they espouse their personal philosophies - some of which were not flattering. I find there is a slippery slope when using real figures in fiction and I thought Mr. Wolff had slid down that slope at his peril. What experience does he have with these people to paint such pictures of them and put those words in their mouths? Especially such unflattering words and pictures?

What did not disappoint, however, as noted, was the writing. Mr. Wolff writes a fine clear, concise prose that is enjoyable to read. Although I can not strongly recommend this book, I will read his other works based upon the promise of that writing.

For the handful of impatient readers out there who have barked at me for recommending 500+ page epic novels such as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (three years ago) and Middlesex (last year), this book is for you. Weighing in at just under 200 pages, this novel is just as much a heavyweight as much lengthier works of literature that I have sparred with this year. John Updike's The Early Stories, for example, a massive and brilliant collection of some of the best short fiction out there, had me up against the ropes for the better part of two months. In contrast, Old School can be read in the better part of an afternoon. And yet despite its meager size, as quality literature this book could go toe-to-toe for twelve rounds with pretty much any book out there.

First and foremost this is a book for book-lovers, for readers who treasure literature and writing as essential elements of our humanity. It is a book about writers, about famous ones like Ayn Rand and Ernest Hemingway and Robert Frost and about young, aspiring ones at an east coast boarding school in the early 1960s. At this school, students compete for an individual audience with a visiting writer - the student who submits the best short story or poem, judged by the famous writer, wins the prize.

But this book is more than just an ode to great writers and great writing. It is a novel about morals and ethics, and about the gray areas that cloud our judgment. It is a novel about the development of human character, about the differences that separate us and the ties that bond us together. It is at times humorous, at other times tragic, and still at other times triumphant. But throughout, it is undeniably honest and human.

So go ahead - open this book and smell the September leaves as they fall on this school campus. Feel the excitement in the air - the excitement of being young, the excitement of learning, the excitement of growing up and being on the verge of adulthood.

A 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, Old School is without question one of the best books of the past year.

Tobias Wolff's "Old School" is one of those books for people who love literature. Dedicated to the soul of twentieth-century literature -- the good, the bad, and the arrogant -- it's a spare, deceptively simple book with some startling twists.

It takes place at an elite prep school in the 1960s, when the world was shifting under people's feet. A working-class boy secures a scholarship, and manages to pass himself off as one of the carelessly moneyed types who populate the school, hiding his middle-class Catholic/Jewish background. He and his classmates adore the (then-modern) classics, and are thrilled when major writers are called on to judge writing competitions at their school.

But the boy doesn't make an impression on Robert Frost. And because of a nasty cold, he can't even get into a competition judged by Ayn Rand. But when he learns that Ernest Hemingway -- his literary hero -- is the next judge, he's determined to catch the great man's attention. But to create a true-to-life story, he delves into a real-life story from his own school -- with disastrous results.

Don't read "Old School" if you need a lot of thrills. Like the school itself, "Old School" is a quiet, restrained book. And without preaching or being arrogant, Wolff manages to show us how important honesty of all kinds is to good literature. And at the same time, he can give his straightforward story twists and new dimensions.

Wolff shows exceptional insight into literature -- and how a teenage boy sees it. For example, the narrator becomes enamored of Ayn Rand's books at one point. Then he meets the author herself, and her arrogance and disdain strip away his appreciation for her works -- he sees how writers like Hemingway focus on people who may be ordinary, but are magnificent in their ordinariness.

Wolff's writing is spare and quiet, and his characters are sort of the same. There's the narrator, a naive young teen boy who grows up a lot over the course of the book -- even if he is the least alive of the characters -- the quirky classmates and the imposing Dean. And he does a wonderful job of translating Frost, Rand and Hemingway into his own words: Frost is faux-humble, Rand is unabashedly hypocritical and self-absorbed, and Hemingway is endearingly rambly.

"Old School" is an ode to good literature, and the "old schools" of the mid-20th century. A quiet, nostalgia-laden and surprisingly poignant book, this is a solid and satisfying read.

If you enjoy novels that take on unusual forms (think McCrae's Bark of the Dogwood), then Tobias Wolff's Old School is for you. This is a wonderful book by one of America's finest writers. Fans of Wolff's stories and memoirs will recognize and welcome this narrator's voice, and readers new to Wolff will find this an accessible introduction to the author's work. Like all of Wolff's best writing, this book is full of sharp humor and penetrating insight.

Those of us (and I am one) who have read Tobias Woolf's wonderful memoir, THIS BOY'S LIFE, will no doubt love OLD SCHOOL, but, also like me, they will probably have a bit of a problem seeing OLD SCHOOL as fiction, rather than as a continuation of Wolff's days at Hill School, a prestigious, private boys' academy in the eastern US.

OLD SCHOOL takes place during the early 1960s, and, though the school and narrator are not named, they feel so very much like Hill School and Wolff, himself, but that's fine. THIS BOY'S LIFE was such a wonderful book, that the fact OLD SCHOOL resembles it so much didn't present any problem for me at all.

The boys featured in this book are very literary and life, for them, revolves around a yearly writing competition, the winner of which gets to spend the day with the prestigious, visiting judge who was usually a writer recognized nationally or internationally. Only sixth formers, or seniors, can compete in the writing contest, something the narrator dislikes intensely. In comic and touching scenes, the narrator watches as first Robert Frost and then Ayn Rand are visiting judges at the school. I think Woolf did a wonderful job of catching what were, supposedly, Frost's and Rand's eccentricities and integrating them into his story. Robert Frost and Ayn Rand seem like the last characters one would expect to be funny, but Woolf manages it and he manages it wonderfully.

I loved the characterization in OLD SCHOOL. Woolf manages to make the boys quite different and each one, competing feverishly for the right to spend the day with an eminent figure, writes in a different style. George Kellogg is very, very traditional, formal and proper; Jeff Purcell, who comes from a very moneyed background, loves to write about people who will never have more than a dime in their pocket; the narrator and his roommate, both of whom have Jewish fathers, do their best to copy Hemingway and put everything even remotely Jewish aside.

And, speaking of Hemingway, he is the catalyst that sets the events of the second half of the book in motion when the boys find out he will be the guest judge of the writing competition. Two very important events occur after the announcement of Hemingway's arrival: one revolves around the narrator while the other revolves around the dean of the school, Dean Arch Makepeace. To tell you what either of these events is would be cheating, but they are wonderful.

I think, with OLD SCHOOL, Tobias Wolff has proven that he is a writer of the highest order. Not only has he woven a wonderful story in fluid, flawless prose (Wolff has a very distinctive voice), he's also given that story a twist, and then, right before the book's close, he's twisted it yet again. This is difficult to impossible to do and do convincingly, yet Wolff pulls it off without so much as a misstep. The details in OLD SCHOOL are also wonderfully evocative. I really felt like I was at a private school for privileged boys.

OLD SCHOOL is one of the best books I've read in a long time. I loved it and I would recommend it highly to anyone. My only complaint might be that it wasn't longer. I definitely came away wanting more.

As a long-time fan of Tobias Wolff's short fiction, I opened this, his first novel, with much anticipation, and was quickly rewarded with an elegant, nostalgic tale of a prep school boy losing and then finding his literary footing. The unnamed narrator is a scholarship student in 1960 at an East Coast boarding school where privilege and connections, especially literary ones, are givens. Its Dean is rumored to have been a model for a Hemingway character, and its headmaster once studied with Frost. Boys embrace the decorum of the upper class and churn out mannered submissions to the literary magazine that sound like parodies of their idols despite their honest attempts at originality. In this serious atmosphere, senior boys compete every year for a private audience with a visiting writer. Our narrator set his sights on the prize, hoping first for Robert Frost, then Ayn Rand, and finally, most passionately, Ernest Hemingway.

Wolff's prose flows flawlessly and often with subtle, sly humor. The narrator's earnest assessment of his rivals is hilarious as he describes their work without understanding just how banal their adolescent efforts are. Wolff's literary channeling is the unabashed highlight: Frost's false humility and pretend awkwardness; Rand's self-absorbed and misinformed rant; Hemingway's heavily edited and largely incoherent interview. Rand's appearance is by far the most brilliant as her anarchist views twist and turn on themselves, staying the course but getting more and more ludicrous with every word. The novel's final chapter can be read as the narrator's literary tribute to the decorum and warmth of his former school.

The narrator's voice is likeable and sympathetic, but unfortunately this novel fails at one of its own goals: honesty. As the narrator mentally chides Rand for creating unbelievable, superficial characters instead of real "beleaguered" people, Wolff fails to get to the guts of his own characters. "Beleaguered" here is school boy stuff, and, while the narrator and his buddies grapple with real issues of integrity and diversity, the heart of their struggles are never fully confronted. It's almost as though the gloss of upper class privilege, even in a scholarship boy, prevents a good look inside. Despite this, OLD SCHOOL remains a very good novel from an exceptional writer.

This short novel is extremely accessible and a true delight for those who love literature. Its nostalgic tone serves it well, as the times are evoked as lovingly as the literary greats. OLD SCHOOL may be flawed, but it makes for an enjoyable, engrossing read.

This book is one of the worst I have ever read. It is boring beyond belief and just rambles on. I simply don't understand how anybody can consider this good writing. The story is very difficult to follow primarily because there is no character development nor anybody you care about in the book. Also, why or why did this author not use quotation marks when people were talking. I think it would have helped a bit, but then again the conversation was so insipid it probably doesn't matter. Between this and the equally boring Empire Falls which our book club also read last year, I will be hard pressed to ever read anotheer book about life in New England.

A compelling story, written well and with reverence for old schools and old friends, while managing avoidance of sentimentality. Highly recommended, particularly for Wolff's excellent send-up of Ayn Rand.

Tobias Wolff's novel, "Old School", has a lot of levels to it. It's a gentle satire of elite New England prep schools and the unacknowledged class system they represent. It's a touching coming-of-age story about how one comes to terms with human fallibility. It's a funny probing of teen-age faddishness and pretension. It's crafted in some of the most beautiful, terse prose you can find (I doubt there's a single word out of place.) The chapter on the visit of Ayn Rand to the prep school, "Ubermensch", is falling-down funny. Wolff also provides marvelous parodies of Randian sci-fi, Robert Frost and Ernest Hemingway (Frost and Rand make appearances in the story; the presence of Hemingway broods over it like a fallen god.) But fundamentally the book is about two themes: how do you use memory to make sense of your life? (And how books can aid you and fail you in this.) It's also Wolff's version of "the most beautiful story ever", Jesus' parable of the prodigal son. This novel is written in the spirit of a love letter to literature, with an intimate and sympathetic knowledge of the loved-one's failings. Don't miss this book if you love American fiction.

Tobias Wolff's Old School is a heartfelt love song to a bygone age that never becomes trite or dusty. You'll want to be a writer yourself by the time you've inhaled the bookish spirit of the unnamed narrator, who wants to be an author so badly he cuts a few corners along the way. I'd rank this up there with A Separate Peace as one of the best books on prep school ever.