Customer Reviews

In The Garden Of The North American Martyrs

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4 star:		(1)
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The characters in Tobias Wolff's short stories are typically ordinary people in relatively ordinary circumstances yet he creates through them such vivd glimpses of humanity that we recognize our friends ,relatives,neighbors and ourselves in them.
Powerful writing that is subtle and yet somehow unforgettable.

All of his short fiction collections are equally enjoyable and I would have a hard time recommending one as opposed to any other. This particular book contains several stories that will pull you in and cause you to want to explore more. This is a book that can be opened at random to any of the selections and read with great enjoyment.

In "Liar," the last story in this collection, the main character, a boy, whose persistent, gruesome lies send his mother into exasperation, confesses his own bewilderment about why he makes up these stories. He does not know, but one suspects that at least part of the reason is because these stories are jarring enough in their tragedy and beauty to elicit the very best from the people he tells it to: compassion, pity, laughter, awe, appreciation. One also suspects that this motivation isn't far from one of Wolff's own motivations for writing these often compassionate, humorous and awe-inspiring stories.

On the other hand, it doesn't feel quite right to call Wolff a "liar" because it often feels like he's being brutally frank with us. Far from just giving us what we want, Wolff's stories feel like challenges. The stories often involve characters who seem either not to know what motivate them or live under some false illusion of what motivates them, resulting in some uncharacteristic action. That is not, of course, to say that Wolff's stories fail to adequately flesh out these characters, but rather that they suggest we all have identities less coherent than we want to believe and we are all often reflections of our environments (even if we cannot quite say how those environments affect us) and some burning insatiable longing (which we are helpless to say how to satisfy) -- and that's the challenge.

These stories often take place in strange, unfamiliar places where the characters are unsure of how to act because they are not those familar places where they feel most like themselves... a snowy field where three men go hunting, an isolated cabin the woods where the character recently moves, an academic conference where a professor meets a woman, a boarding school in New England, a road where two people talk to one another in a car. These places seem to encapsulate that certain feeling running throughout Wolff's stories -- a nostalgia or longing or compassion for a place or time, even though we are aware that it has no less faults or confusions or delusions than we have now.

I have read Tobias Wolff for about 5 years now so I was very exited to read this collection of short stories, and needless to say I was not disappointed. The first story I ever read from Wolff was "Bullet in the Brain", and these stories followed in the same amazing tradition. Wolff is able to set the reader down in the middle of a scenario or time like no other author. This voice that he uses is so unique in each story and that you have a real sense of who you are dealing with in each story, and on a smaller level, each character. Wolff is able to create interest in situations and actions that border on plain on all other accounts. He creates characters that we see next to us on the bus everyday buy showing the reader who they are in the actions that carry out, and the how they deal with the certain situations they find themselves in. A hunting trip with friends becomes a look into the deepest crevasse of friendship; a fender bender turns into a trial in patience and trusting with people in everyday settings. Wolff is a master at writing these stories in a voice that speaks to every person, and yet is so unique that we must read on. This was a wonderful collection of stories and is highly recommended for any reader of fiction.

One of my creative writing professor's recommended this book to me, and I adored it! I read This Boy's Life a few years ago, and while I enjoyed it, I wasn't blown away. But, In the Garden of North American Martyrs has given me a new and fierce admiration for Tobias Wolff. Each story is well-crafted without being overtly so. Like Raymond Carver, the style is slightly sparse and gives you the feeling that these people could be your next door neighbors. The characters have that regular joe quality, but they are never ever boring, it only makes the things happening to them more potent. From the man who wrecks his car, to the professor who has a one night stand, each tale is piercingly believable without ever being dull. If you're looking for the kind of short stories anyone could aspire to, read this book!

Tobias Wolff, in this collection, gives up short snippets of ordinary people's lives. And yet the stories, themselves, have an eerie, almost transcendent power to them. It's as though the telling of these events, with a keen eye for the hard-to-see significance lurking underneath the surface, lends them a sort of magical gravity. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the seemingly mundane things permeating everyone's everyday lives may very well have a greater meaning. Not a readily discernible moralizing kind of meaning, but glimpses of what is true. I suppose it takes as sensitive an eye as the one Wolff possesses to discover those truths. I'm glad he at least shared a few of his insights in this collection.

Wolff's short stories in this collection provide crisp narrative journey's exploring humanity in its complexities, confusions, controdictions and emotions. It is as if a heart pumps underneath all the words in each story: they are that alive and that remarkable. I read this in one sitting weeks ago, and the stories and characters are still fresh and instant in my mind. Wolff is one of the best short story writers ever.

Tobias Wolff is one of those rare writers who's managed to become an absolute master without becoming aloof. He's a writer's writer who's actually fun to read. His characters are real yet surprising - in other words, like actual human beings. These are wickedly funny, wonderful stories, one of the very best debut collections EVER published. Unforgettable. You'll read some of these stories again and again.

I've read most of Wolff's work, and this is my favorite. The collection spans the colorful spectrum of human emotion and experience, yet there remains a pleasant aftertaste of familiarity in his characters that makes us identify with that life on the page.Whether it's a tubby object of scorn, a disillusioned old man on his 50th anniversary cruise, or a young boy spinning tales for acceptance on a broken-down bus, we feel some sliver of our psyche being worked to the surface when reading these stories by Wolff. He's one of the best storytellers of our generation, and you deserve to discover him. Favorite stories in this collection: Smokers, The Liar, Maiden Voyage, Hunters in the Snow and In the Garden of North American Martyrs

i adored this book. it was my first taste of wolfe and i was hooked

These are fantastic short stories. I am only 13 years old
and loved it. Wolff provides a fascinating insight into us
and finds some startling revelations. While we may think
we're better than the people in the stories, in fact, almost
all of us are guilty of some crime similar. He manages to
keep the stories in good humor while maiking sure everyone
sees the real meaning. I throgoughly enjoyed this book. I
read the whole book in 2 days. I seriously doubt it would
take anyone else longer.